CGA Strategy releases that cork wine has shown an average CNY46.7 higher in price than screw-top products
CGA Strategy releases that cork wine has shown an average CNY46.7 higher in price than screw-top products.
From 2015 to this year, the market has seen 11% price increase in cork wine while only 6% price increase in wine with artificial top. For the consumption, cork wine grows 48% while screw-top increases in 10%. Moreover, market value of cork wine is much higher than screw-top products.
Source: Tangjiu news, 13 October, 2017
Shennong group import 1,000 head GGP from America nucleus pig farm
Shennong group import 1,000 head GGP from America nucleus pig farm, this is the second time of its GGP import in 2017, and Shennong import 1,080 head GGP last time on June, 2017. It is predicated Shennong probably is the top 1 company that import genetic pigs this year, since the total import volume of Shennong so far account approximately 30% of China’s total import volume last year.
source: City news 2017-10-13
China lowers forecast for corn output, consumption to rise
BEIJING, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday lowered forecasts for corn output to 210 million tonnes in the 2017/18 crop year, down 2.37 million tonnes from the predictions last month.
A committee from the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) also raised forecasts on industrial consumption of corn by 1.05 million tonnes to 61.3 million tonnes as a recent government plan to encourage the use of bioethanol gasoline will increase demand.
Years of support for corn farmers have left China with a substantial stockpile. The country's corn output stood at around 220 million tonnes last year, while stocks amounted to 230 million tonnes.
To help make use of the excess stock, China announced last month a plan for nationwide use of bioethanol gasoline by 2020.
The country launched corn-to-ethanol pilot programs in 2004 as part of the efforts to cut emissions and advance new energy. The country is the world's third-largest bioethanol producer, using nearly 2.6 million tonnes a year.
According to government estimates, the latest plan will help China's corn market to gradually restore to a supply-demand balance in three to five years.
Meanwhile, the MOA raised forecasts on China's soybean production to 14.94 million tonnes in the 2017/18 crop year and cotton output to 5.35 million tonnes.
Scotch whisky producer Diageo will reopen two legend whisky wineries
Scotch whisky producer Diageo has announced a 35 million Pound investment in restarting Port Ellen and Brora, two legend whisky wineries that were closed since 1983. Port Ellen and Brora will become the smallest wineries of Diageo, with an annual production volume of 0.8 million liter. New facilities are expected to be operating in 2020.
Source: Jiemian News, 10 October, 2017
Grown-to-order fruit, veg a hit with young Chinese urbanites
Cameras on farms allow customers to monitor crops on cellphones and computers
In spring, Li Mingtong, a university student in Changchun, Jilin province paid 500 yuan ($75) to have a pomegranate tree organically cultivated.
In the fall, she received boxes of fruit from her tree, located thousands of kilometers away in Yunnan province.
"Though the pomegranates were very expensive, they were safe and tasted good," she said.
Li arranged the service through an online shop. She now plans to buy customized vegetables grown in the suburbs of Changchun.
As Chinese pay more attention to food safety, customized farm produce, grown without using pesticides or fertilizers, is attracting interest from well-off urban consumers, especially the younger generation.
The internet is assisting supply-side reform in agriculture. Customers can rent a piece of land online and choose which varieties of vegetables they want to have grown there. Many farms have cameras so that customers can monitor the growth of their produce on their mobile phones or computers.
"Our fruits and vegetables are all organic. We adopted a membership model for the sale and delivery of produce to our clients," Chen Zhao, general manager of Chunjiangyan farm in Nongan county, Changchun, said at the 16th China Changchun International Agriculture and Food Fair, which closed on Sunday.
The farm has 47 vegetable and fruit greenhouses, and 1,000 members. Each day, more than 100 residents receive vegetables delivered from the farm, according to Chen.
"Our capacity is insufficient. For example, when our cantaloupes were ready for sale, we could only meet half the demand from our customers," he said.
The government has required deepening of supplyside reform in agriculture, improvement of the sector's structure, promotion of green production and innovation, and extension of the industrial and value chain.
According to a report released last year by Ali Research Institute, which is affiliated to e-commerce giant Alibaba, China had 65 million "online green consumers" in 2015, 15 times as many as in 2011.
Green products include organic and additive-free food and environmentally friendly household commodities such as furniture and clothes. Green consumption has spread most rapidly among people aged 23 to 28, according to the research.
"Our pigs have serial numbers. We have cameras in their pens so that our customers can check their condition at any time on their mobile phones," Pei Feng, from an agricultural cooperative in Siping, said at the Changchun agriculture fair.
The pigs are fed corn and bean pulp. The cooperative does not use any antibiotics or hormones, according to Pei, who added their services are expanding.
The green model for customized agriproducts has been piloted in many other places, such as Beijing and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
China has more than 10,000 accredited green food companies producing more than 26,000 types of products, according to statistics from the China Green Food Development Center, which oversees the country's organic food standards.
Despite the huge potential for customized produce, there are some concerns about whether the products are organic.
Technology such as cameras can record the cultivation methods to some extent, but the certification of organic products requires a large investment, said a farmworker in Jilin.
Some green farm produce does not have organic certification.
"Consumers pay high prices for customized produce to ensure safety. But the industry is still in the early stages. There are both good and bad producers," said Zhao Yumin, secretary-general of Jilin Specialty Products Processing Association.
It is difficult for consumers to confirm if their products are organic or not, therefore certification by professional agencies is necessary to boost reliability, Zhao said.
Liu Yuansheng, of Jilin University of Finance and Economics, said the key to selling customized agriproducts lucratively lies in the application of a trackable system, which is currently a weak link.
Source: China Daily. Date: 2017-08-25
FAO pledges continuous support for Vietnam
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) will continue accompanying Vietnam and supporting the country to implement underway programmes and projects, Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific Kundhavi Kadiresan has said.
She made the affirmation at a meeting with Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on August 24 on the sidelines of the 2017 APEC Food Security Week and a High-Level Policy Dialogue on enhancing food security and sustainable agriculture in response to climate change.
Kadiresan said the FAO will help Vietnam carry out a programme on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and forest loss and degradation along with integrated nutrition and food security strategies for children and vulnerable groups.
The UN organisation also pledged to assist Vietnam in promoting the intensive rice cultivation system in the Mekong River’s lower part in addition to enhancing monitoring and management capacity of information on diseases, building solutions to the sustainable provision of food for tra fish, and supporting the research of hi-tech agricultural models that are adaptive to climate change, she affirmed.
Deputy Minister Doanh said Vietnam’s agricultural sector is focusing on two major targets, which are increasing the competitiveness for deeper global integration, and coping with climate change.
Vietnam hopes to cooperate with international organisations and partners, especially the FAO, in experience sharing, technology transfer, and trade and investment promotion.
The Southeast Asian country proposed the FAO provide technical assistance and help to access international funds to tackle climate change, reduce natural disaster risks for the domestic agriculture, and implement a national programme on agricultural restructuring and rural development.
As the country’s northern mountainous region is bearing brunt of floods and extreme weather patterns, Vietnam hopes the FAO will support her to implement the “Zero Hunger” programme, build the Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP), and realise the comprehensive strategies on green growth and poverty reduction in the 2018-2019 fiscal year to help locals apply effective cultivation methods to deal with climate change and ensure food security, Doanh said.
Vietnam called on the FAO to join her in a scheme to mobilise non-refundable capital from the Green Climate Fund to implement the action strategy of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD ) in the Central Highlands and shift the cultivation of rice in the Mekong Delta to other crops that are resistant to climate change, he added.
The country also needs FAO technical assistance in preventing crop and livestock diseases and ensuring food safety, he noted.
Source: VNA. Date: 2017-08-25
HCM City looks to beef up agriculture cooperation with Australia
Ho Chi Minh City and Australia have high potential for cooperation in agriculture, especially high technology farming and cattle breeding, said Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee.
At a meeting with Anne Ruston, Australian Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources in the city on August 23, Phong said that Ho Chi Minh City wants to develop hi-tech agriculture, adding that the city has built a high-tech agriculture park and a centre for biotechnology application.
However, he also mentioned various difficulties facing the city’s agricultural sector, asking for experience sharing and technology transfer from Australia. Phong also expressed interest in cooperation with Australia in cattle breeding.
Currently, the city has 92,000 dairy cows developed from a cow herd imported from Australia, he noted, adding that the city has also imported many cows from Australia for beef.
The Ho Chi Minh City leader also expressed hope that Australia will create favourable conditions for the import of farm produce from the city.
For her part, Anne Rustone said that Australia is keen on beefing up affiliation with Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City – an economic, financial and trade centre of Vietnam.
She said that Australia is willing to share information and support the city in accessing modern technologies that are used in Australia, including those in cattle breeding.
Australia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources will continue assisting Ho Chi Minh City and other Vietnamese localities in enhancing the productivity and quality of cattle herds, towards becoming self-reliant in beef supply, she said.
She also pointed to Vietnam’s strength in producing tropical fruits that Australian consumers enjoy.
She suggested Vietnam and Australia build and synchronise standards in quality and food safety to ensure the interests of consumers in both countries.
Australia has 176 projects in Ho Chi Minh City with total investment of more than 183 million USD. Two-way trade between the city and Australia in the first seven months of 2017 reached 600 million USD.
Source: VNA. Date: 2017-08-25
US objects to EU-China quality food labelling pact
US meddling and counterfeit Chinese trademarks are threatening to unpick the bilateral agreement between Beijing and Brussels on geographical indications of food products.
According to documents from the Greek ministry of agriculture, the negotiations between the European Union and China for mutual recognition of 200 food products protected by geographical indications (GIs) – 100 from each side – will have to reconcile the EU’s quality schemes with 25 homonymous trademarks already registered in the People’s Republic of China.
Beijing wants to keep its trademarks, despite the protection accorded to products labelled under the GI quality scheme in the EU. GIs offer consumers certainty about the authenticity of the food products they buy, certifying their geographic origin and the techniques used to make them.
To defend their quality labels, Greece, Italy and the six other countries with the largest number of GI products in Europe (France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Hungary, Romania) are willing to support a large-scale legal action of European consortiums in China, seeking the elimination of the counterfeit trademarks.
Eight member states of the European Union will take legal action against China over 25 counterfeit trademarks on the Chinese market that mislead consumers on the origin of products protected by the EU’s geographical indications.
The European Commission, which leads negotiations with Beijing, simply stated that its “objective is to achieve the best possible result, even for producers who are facing competition from products already registered as trademarks in China and not originating in the EU”.
US enters the mix
The matter has been further complicated by interference from across the Atlantic. The Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN), the US dairy industry’s arm to counter the spread in the world of European GI labelling system, filed a formal objection in Beijing to the “generic names threatened by the EU-China agreement”.
Examples of trademarks already in use in China include Feta, Asiago, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, Cheddar and the adjective “Romano” for Pecorino.
The CCFN has used a procedure that is “common practice in the recognition of geographical indications”, explained Massimo Vittori, director of the organisation OriGIn, which protects consortiums around the world.
“It allows third parties to file objections to the request for protection by submitting a statement, provided that it is duly motivated. In this case, the complaint was envisaged in the context of a bilateral negotiation and it is very likely that its assessment will take place in the finalisation of the agreement, scheduled for the end of the year.
“We are convinced that these assessments will be made on the basis of exclusively legal reasons, and are therefore optimistic about the full recognition in China of all the European geographical indications on the list.”
The European Commission will not block member states’ attempts to sue China over its use of counterfeit trademarks and has insisted a future bilateral deal with the Asian superpower will bring “significant benefits” for Europe’s quality food producers.
The European Commission confirmed the timing and the general approach. EU executive officials recall how generic objections should be “justified on the basis of objective evidence” (supported by consumer surveys, dictionary entries and other forms of proof).
The burden of proof is initially in the hands of those who submit the objection and “the principle of territoriality applies”: the demand for generic names “applies exclusively to the territory covered by the agreement, in this case the EU and China”.
In short, American claims of generic denomination of products will not stand up so easily in the People’s Republic.
Source: Euractiv. Date: 2017-08-24
Chinese high-yielding hybrid rice to be launched in Pakistan
China is all set to commercially launch a hybrid rice variety in Pakistan which has 18 tons per hectare yield or more than 150 maunds per acre.
The revolutionary rice seed was recently developed by the Chinese researchers under the guidance of world’s leading agriculture scientist Professor Yuan Longping, who is commonly known as father of hybrid rice in the world.
The new rice variety would help Pakistani farmers to significantly increase per acre yield and hence the country would be able to export more rice to other countries, including China, in future.
“We will be happy to share the seed variety with Pakistan which is our great friend,” said the octogenarian Professor Yuan in a rare conversation with a group of journalists. The sitting with him was jointly arranged by the Guard Agriculture Research and Services (Pvt) Limited, pioneer in introducing hybrid rice in the country, and China’s top agriculture research company, Yuan Longping Hi-Tech Industries.
Shah Rukh Malik and Rizwan Yousaf, Guard Group’s executives, said, “Currently, China imports 30 per cent to 40 per cent of rice from Pakistan. The new rice variety will help country to enhance rice exports to the neighbouring country in the years to come.”
Hybrid rice variety is being cultivated in some parts of Sindh and Balochistan as the fields in tropical districts of Pakistan are highly friendly for paddy farming. The Guard Group in collaboration with Chinese researchers is making efforts to develop the hybrid variety for Punjab’s regions and at the same time it has launched awareness programs for Sindh and Balochistan farmers to increase the area under hybrid rice.
The average production of presently sown hybrid rice in China and Pakistan is around 7-8 tons per hectares, almost 15 per cent high than the conventional rice’s yield. Terming new variety his lifelong dream, Professor Yuan said the seed was the toughest ever in commercial large scale trials in terms of yield.
The father of hybrid rice is highly regarded in China as well as in the world for his contribution in ending the food crisis in the globe. The United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the UN World Intellectual Property Organization, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) honoured him with different titles and awards during past four decades. He received the 2004 World Food Prize for his breakthrough achievement in developing the genetic materials and technologies essential for breeding high-yielding hybrid rice varieties. He continues his innovative scientific work as Director-General of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. He is widely acknowledged as the first person to discover how to achieve fast growth with greater yield and stress resistance. In 1964, he happened to find a natural hybrid rice plant that had obvious advantages over others and in 1973, he successfully cultivated a type of hybrid rice species having 15 per cent 20 per cent more yield than the conventional ones.
As area of hybrid rice in the country is about 200,000 hectares ( around 450,000 acres), Professor Yuan believed it could be significantly increased. He encouraged young Pakistani researchers and agriculture scientists to take benefits from the Chinese expertise in the field of agriculture science. He believed Pakistan was good country and had great potential of growth and development.
The Guard Group also organised the visit of ISKY chemicals company which is one of the world’s largest exporters of agri chemicals. Founded in 1994, ISKY is a major supplier of sulphur and related chemicals to Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe and Oceania. The company management offered its full cooperation to Pakistan in the field of agriculture science.
Source: The Nation. Date: 2017-08-24
Farmers turn to artificial intelligence to grow better crops
Your grocery store's tomatoes may have a new friend aiding their development: artificial intelligence.
NatureSweet, which grows tomatoes on six farms in the United States and Mexico, is usingartificial intelligence to better control pests and diseases in its greenhouses.
The technology, developed by the Israeli digital farming company Prospera, has already improved harvests and reduced labor costs. NatureSweet began testing the technology almost a year ago at one of its farms in Arizona. It plans to roll the tech out to all of its locations soon.
Adrian Almeida, chief innovation officer at NatureSweet, believes artificial intelligence will eventually improve his greenhouses tomato yields by 20%.
"It'll be better for the environment and for the customer," Almeida said.
Farms are increasingly using technology to grow crops, from task-tracking systems that monitor watering and seeding to drones that capture aerial images.
So far, NatureSweet's weekly harvests have grown 2% to 4%. This may seem modest, but the results makes a big difference when growing millions of pounds of tomatoes a year.
To use the method, NatureSweet installed 10 cameras in greenhouse ceilings. The cameras continuously take photos of the crops below. Prospera's software has been trained to recognize trouble, such as insect infestations or dying plants.
Previously, some of NatureSweet's 8,000 employees were tasked with walking through the greenhouses to identify struggling plants. But the process was slow and expensive. NatureSweet did this only once a week.
The cameras from Prospera monitor the plants 24/7 and provide instant feedback.
Prospera's founder Daniel Koppel previously researched how to predict crop yields from satellite photos -- insights that can be used to trade commodities on Wall Street. Instead, he built his own business, figuring it would have a greater global impact.
NatureSweet has also experimented with using the cameras to forecast when plants are ready to be harvested.
Although Almeida said that aspect of the technology is still a work in progress, improved efficiency is apparent. He estimated NatureSweet's headcount would have to grow by 4% without it.
The company announced this week it raised $15 million from investors such as Qualcomm Ventures and Cisco Investments to fund expansion. Prospera plans to track more crops, including peppers and potatoes, as well as monitor plants outside greenhouses.
Source: CNN. Date: 2017-08-24