The sugar industry got together this week to launch the Dubai Blockchain Declaration. The initiative, led by the head of the Dubai-based refinery Al Khaleej Sugar and a number of industry stakeholders, is designed to streamline efforts to develop technological solutions that will make trading and shipping more transparent and more efficient. This follows last October’s announcement that the world’s four major trading houses (ADM, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus and Cargill followed shortly by COFCO) were getting together to implement blockchain technology in agricultural trading.
Times are tough for sweetener producers. Louis Dreyfus’ Brazil-based Biosev reported a loss of USD 240 million in 2018/19 up to December, an 8% increase on year. Nonetheless, the CEO noted that Biosev was not looking at divesting assets further. The head of COFCO, on the other hand, said the firm was looking at purchasing more sugar assets in Brazil. In Europe, meanwhile, major producer Cristal Union says one fifth of the producing capacity was uncompetitive, which means some 10-20 factories are expected to close doors within the next 5 years.
Tate & Lyle reported that it was facing declining demand for sweeteners in North America, mostly because of lower sales to large soft drink manufacturers. Ingredion also reported a smaller income for its sweetener segment in North America. The stevia-maker mentioned that it was looking at acquisitions, while some suggested that Tate & Lyle could be a potential target for a takeover. Stevia has been going through some bad press, however, including allegations that the plant was causing deforestation and water pollution in Peru and China. This has pushed Tate & Lyle and producer Sweet Green Fields to tie up with NGO Earthwatch to assess the sustainability of their supply chain.
Coca Cola has maintained a strong growth in the US despite a falling demand for soft drinks. The success comes mostly from its pricing power and the launch of new beverages, along with a focus on higher margin operations. Technology is also helping Coca Cola cut down on a lengthy and costly process: market research. The group was able to assess whether it should introduce its premium water brand Valser in the US through the crowdfunding website Indiegogo. Only a month after the campaign started, some restaurants already started selling Valser. The move was part of the new CEO’s strategy to experiment and “make mistakes”.
Last year was a good one for Unilever who reported a 51% increase in net profit at USD 11.1 billion, although it noticed a rise in costs because of higher commodity prices. The firm reduced its advertising expenditure by 29% in the UK in 2018 as part of efforts to reduce marketing costs. It lost a rank in the list of biggest advertisers to number four, while McDonalds took the third place after increasing ad spending by 28% to USD 158 million. Otherwise, Unilever joined Yorkshire Tea, Twinings, Tetley and Clipper, and published its full tea suppliers’ list.
Transparency is also one of Olam’s priorities, according to a spokesperson, who noted that sustainably in the cocoa chain was particularly important to ensure the survival of the industry. The firm hopes to achieve a 100% sustainable and transparent supply by 2020. Olam, one of the largest players in the cocoa market, took the opportunity to encourage people to eat chocolate on Valentines Day as a way to help farmers.
During an audit of the dairy supply chain, the Brazilian government found that Danone and Dairy Partners Americas Brasil (DPA) – a joint venture between Nestle and New-Zealand’s Fonterra – could be complicit in using slave labour. Auditors found that Danone and DPA failed to properly monitor one of the businessman they worked with, who was found to rely on indentured workers.
Alarmed by the sharp fall in insect population, another group of scientists joined a global call to drastically change the way we make our food. A new meta study published in the journal Biological Conservation found that 40% of the world’s insects were in decline and that insects could be completely gone within a century, leading to a collapse of most ecosystems. They point to intensive industrial agriculture and pesticides as the main culprits.
Protecting the environment was the main objective of a flurry of studies that came out with diet recommendations recently, such as the Lancet “Planetary Health Diet”. After trying it out himself, this journalist argued that the diet could never be realistically adopted in most of the developed world as it called for people to avoid all processed food, along with all food additives. His main criticism, however, was that the report forgot to include spices and that everything tasted bland!
This summary was produced by ECRUU
