The food sector has the potential to benefit greatly in the new ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). However, because food products attract higher levels of regulation, which often varies between member countries, a significant number of non-tariff measures (NTMs) remain. Such regulatory heterogeneity creates challenges for increasing food trade, harmonising standards and ultimately creating an integrated ASEAN single market.
A structural change is underway in global dairy markets. A perfect storm has emerged through a coincidence of events, technology and policy changes across the major dairy producing nations, including Australia, which will result in a long-term significant reset of dairy economics across the globe.
If the UK government’s ability to deliver its childhood obesity strategy reflected the significance of the issue, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was not a big deal. Quite the opposite. As a health select committee report reminds us:
Treating obesity and its consequences is currently estimated to cost the NHS £5.1 billion every year. It is one of the risk factors for type 2 diabetes, which accounts for spending of £8.8 billion a year, almost 9% of the NHS budget.
Global sugar prices have risen to a one-year high after a fire broke out at several warehouses in the southern Brazilian port of Santos last Friday, destroying some 180,000 tons of sugar in the process.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the fire damaged six warehouses belonging to Brazilian sugar giant Copersucar, threatening to put the terminal out of action for at least six months while repairs are made.
Pirate vessels pose a severe threat to poor coastal fishing communities around the world, threatening ecosystems and committing human rights abuses. But elements of the global fishing industry are finding the means to fight back with the support of charitable organisations.
The western addiction to meat products is spreading to Asia with unsustainable consequences for the world’s water supply. With the population booming, we have to reduce our consumption of water-intensive livestock, or billions of mouths will go hungry by 2050.
A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council has found that Americans throw away nearly half of their food each year with the waste worth approximately $165 billion annually – equivalent the size of Ukraine’s GDP.
In the report, the NRDC estimates that Americans squander 40 percent of the food supply every year, and the average American family of four ends up throwing away an equivalent of up to $2,275 annually in food.
Collectively, the Council says it is equivalent to throwing out $165 billion each year.
Fast food chains in Chile will no longer be allowed to sell children meals that come packaged with toys and other goodies, reported the Associated Press on Wednesday, after Chilean health authorities introduced a new law on June 7, which targeted companies that marketed unhealthy food to kids.
The World Bank is ready to help governments cope with global food price volatility, said its President Jim Yong Kim on Monday, after grain prices had rose dramatically in June following adverse weather conditions around the globe.
According to the bank, global wheat prices were now 50 percent higher than they were in mid-June, while the price of corn and soybeans had also increased by 45 percent and 30 percent respectively.
Acting on a ban by the European Commission, the United Kingdom has issued a moratorium against the technique of stripping meat from animal bones, raising concerns over the future of cheap patties and burgers.
The banned process, typically known as the ‘Desinewed Meat’ removal technique, involves stripping scraps of cow and sheep meat from bones under low pressure, with the reconstituted product closely resembling minced meat.
