Forbes published its 2018 Global 2000 list, where it ranks the largest firms based on a composite score, and Anheuser-Busch, the Belgian-Brazilian brewer, took the top spot among food and beverage companies, with a global rank of 41. They overtook Nestle, now ranked as the second largest F&B firm after dropping 14 ranks to number 48, followed by Pepsico at number 102. Coca Cola was the third largest F&B firm although it dropped from number 56 in the global rank last year to 209 this year.
Pepsi said it closed its distribution centre in Guerrero, Mexico, about three months after Coca-Cola Femsa did the same. The company cited violence, extortion and unsafe environment for its employees as the reasons behind the closure. In Japan, meanwhile, Coca-Cola introduced a zero calorie lemon drink, called Coca-Cola Clear, which was developed in Japan and contains sucralose and acesulfame K as sweeteners.
A Cargill executive said during a Washington conference that global trade was being disregarded and villainized, which could plunge the world into a period of isolationism. She highlighted that Cargill generates 10% of its global revenues through NAFTA. And in case you missed it, the CEO of Cargill explains his vision on how to survive the disruptions brought about by the digital age and consumers demand for product differentiation in this in-depth Bloomberg article. He says he recognises that the era of making large profits by being the middleman between producer and consumer is over, as he outlines a plan to become an integrated food company, starting with beef and aquaculture.
The speech come as China temporarily imposed hefty deposits of 18.8%-38.4% on Brazilian chicken imports from June 9, after an investigation revealed that Brazil accounted for nearly 50% of China’s chicken meat imports in 2013/16. The announcement coincides with the US pressuring China to allow US poultry imports. In 2017, 9% of Brazil’s chicken exports went to China, according to Brazilian industry group ABPA.
French farmers plan to block the refineries and fuel depots of Total SA to protest against the company’s decision to import palm oil for its biorefinery in La Mede. The union FNSEA said the move was also directed at the government over trade agreements recently signed which permit imports from countries that do not maintain the same standards as France. The beet grower’s union CGB expressed its support.
The state-owned Gecamines from the Democratic Republic of Congo will be getting a USD 150 million settlement from Glencore, after it agreed to end proceedings which seeked to dismantle Kamoto, a joint venture between the two firms. Analysts noted this was a small price to pay and that the conversation had remained rational and commercial, while it should also remove some uncertainty in the cobalt markets where prices are hovering around historical highs.
In South Africa, Glencore and the local investor group Public Investment Corp are the lone joint bidders to purchase a 75% stake in Chevron’s assets in the region for USD 1 billion. The assets on sale include a refinery in Cape Town producing 100,000 bbl/day and 800 fuel stations in South Africa and Botswana.
A team at Oceana has devised an interactive mapping tool called Global Fishing Watch, in partnership with Google and SkyTruth, to catch illegal fishing operations. The tool uses satellite data and monitors over 70,000 fishing vessels via an Automatic Identification System installed in most large vessels. Anyone can now help monitor the activities of commercial fishing vessels in real-time.
The Dutch laser technology firm Eosta thinks it has found a solution to avoid plastic packaging for organic food products: a laser mark imprinted directly on fruits and vegetables which has no impact on taste, look or durability. However, it can only be done on products with hard shells.
And do you remember the discredited 2013 scientific paper which argued that a Mediterranean diet high in fruits vegetables, nuts and olive oil, significantly reduced the risk of heart diseases? The authors of the paper, originally published in the New England Journal of Medicine, decided to retract the article and re-analyse their data. The core criticism against the paper concerned the lack of randomness in the trials, and the authors re-adjusted the data for 1,044 people, out of the 7,447 participants. After a year, they submitted their paper again, but with the same result: the Mediterranean diet is good for the heart. Nonetheless, many experts maintained their scepticism and highlighted how difficult it is to accurately and scientifically keep track of people’s diets.
This summary was produced by ECRUU
