Beleggen in voeding

[nobody]

Prijs olijfolie piekt

De prijs van olijfolie is gestegen naar het hoogste niveau sinds minstens 2010. De grote droogte in Spanje is een ramp voor de olijventeelt.

Spanje staat in voor meer dan 40 procent van de wereldwijde productie van olijfolie. Maar door de droogte dreigt dit jaar een halvering van de opbrengsten, zo vreest de Spaanse landbouwindustrie.

Spanje en Portugal kreunen onder extreme droogte. Sinds januari heeft het er amper geregend.

https://www.msn.com/nl-be/financien/nie ... 602b&ei=48

[nobody]

Pilgrim UK earmarks Ashton pork facility for closure

UK – World’s largest pork processor, Pilgrim Pride Corp, has announced the closure proposal of its pork abattoir in Ashton, Manchester, risking over 500 jobs for its staff.

According to Rachel Baldwin, Pilgrim’s UK’s vice president of human resources, the decision to propose the site’s closure has not been taken lightly, and the company has made every effort to explore alternative options.

“The proposal is unfortunately essential to ensure a sustainable future for our team members across the UK by creating the best structure for its long-term growth and development, while ‘mitigating the current unfavorable market conditions in the UK,” she said.

However, the closure of the 70-year-old site would put all 542 Ashton staff, at all levels, at risk of redundancy, despite creating 90 additional roles split between Westerleigh, Spalding, and Bromborough.

A report from the company assured that full support and guidance will be provided to anyone at risk of redundancy, including support in seeking alternative roles both inside and outside of the Pilgrim’s UK organization.

It also pledged to work closely with the site team and customers to ensure we maintain quality and service levels throughout the process.

On the other hand, National Pig Association chief executive Lizzie Wilson said that with the breeding herd down 25% in two years and slaughter numbers dropping 20% year on year, this news was disappointing for everyone involved, although not a surprise.

“We need to ensure that the UK maintains sufficient slaughter capacity so that as the sector recovers, it can expand and thrive into the future,” Lizzie added.

The initial phase of Pilgrim’s UK’s footprint review included the closure of its Coalville site and the imminent closure of the Bury St Edmunds site, as well as the introduction of a four-day week at Ashton in September 2022

The Ashton site lost its China export license in 2021, while the pig processing sector had to address capacity as the size of the UK pig herd and, therefore, weekly pig throughputs decline.

Pilgrim’s said the UK pork sector continues to face the most significant challenges in its history, with the UK sow herd having contracted by around 15% and loss-making farmers leaving the industry due to a sustained period of high production costs and lower pig prices.

At the same time, an increasing and ongoing reliance in the UK on cheaper, lower welfare imports from the EU and post-pandemic recovery challenges within certain markets has negatively impacted UK production.

Pilgrim’s UK has also recently restructured its management team, following the departures of agricultural director Barney Kay and pig supply chain director Mark Haighton.

https://www.foodbusinessafrica.com/pilg ... r-closure/

[nobody]

ADM partners Air Proteins in expanding future possibilities of protein development

GLOBAL – Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) has partnered with Air Protein, a pioneer in air-based nutritional protein that requires no agriculture or farmland, in R&D to advance new and novel proteins for nutrition.

According to ADM, the partnership will combine ADM’s broad nutrition, formulation, and research expertise with Air Protein’s unique landless agriculture platform to identify ways to scale cost-effective ingredients that enable meat substitutes to deliver on their cost, nutrition, flavor, and texture targets.

“Our expanded partnership with Air Protein represents one of the many ways we’re making important strides toward bringing new protein options to the marketplace, further expanding the future possibilities of protein development,” ADM said.

“Expanding the protein ecosystem, including choices from plant-based, animal-based, and novel sources, will be needed to feed people worldwide while keeping what’s best for our planet in mind.”

Therefore, ADM added that the partnership will provide mutually exclusive rights for collaboration with Air Protein to build and operate the world’s first Air Protein commercial-scale plant.

Partnering with Air Protein and collaborating on this novel protein solution’s research, development and scalability represents another way ADM is meeting the increasing demand for nutrition and an elevated sensory experience, ADM reported.

“With this agreement, we’re expanding our partnership to bring ADM’s expertise in flavors and complete nutrition solutions to help expand the universe of applications in which Air Protein’s technology can be used.”

Growing proteins depends on highly unpredictable factors, including weather, geography, politics, global agriculture supply chain costs, limited natural resources, and manufacturing disruptions.

According to the founder and CEO of Air Proteins, Dr. Lisa Dyson, the company’s farms are self-contained systems requiring only air, water, and energy to grow our protein and hence creating virtually no disruptions and predictable costs

“Air Protein Farms decouple protein production from the supply chain and can be built virtually anywhere, in any climate. Our process is carbon negative and can help achieve Scope 3 emission goals faster,” she stated.

Dyson noted that by applying a range of culinary techniques to Air proteins the company has produced a range of flavors, tastes, textures, and nutritional attributes that allows us to craft meats and other protein-rich foods.

“What we are creating is a new way of making food that is both sustainable and nutritious using only air, water, and energy,” she added.

“Air Protein is rich in vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, contains 20 amino acids, including all nine essential amino acids, and has twice the amino acids of soybeans.”

https://www.foodbusinessafrica.com/adm- ... velopment/

[nobody]

Nederlanders kweken varkensvlees nu 30 keer sneller dan echt varken

Het Nederlandse kweekvleesbedrijf Meatable heeft zijn productieproces verbeterd, waardoor het nu nog acht dagen duurt voordat het bedrijf van een enkele dierlijke cel varkensvlees heeft gemaakt. Eerder had het bedrijf uit Delft daar drie weken voor nodig.

Een echt varken voor vlees fokken duurt acht maanden, wat dus dertig keer langer is dan de tijd die Meatable nodig heeft.

Van een enkele cel maakt Meatable - door daar voedingsstoffen aan toe te voegen- spierweefsel en vetweefsel. Daarmee maakte het bedrijf voorlopig worstjes van varkensvlees en vlees voor in dumplings. Die gaan in Singapore op de markt komen, waar de toelating voor kweekvlees voorloopt.

Met het verbeterde productieproces kunnen door de snelheid flinke hoeveelheden vlees worden geproduceerd. Meatable zegt bovendien dat de techniek goed schaalbaar is, wat betekent dat de productie makkelijk en goedkoop op te voeren is als er meer vraag komt. "Met deze resultaten hebben we aangetoond dat ons productieproces het efficiëntste is ter wereld", zegt medeoprichter en topman Krijn de Nood van Meatable. "Een essentiële stap waarmee we ervoor zorgen dat onze producten kunnen concurreren met de lage prijzen van conventionele vleesproducten."

De techniek van Meatable kan nog verder verbeteren, denkt techniekdirecteur en medeoprichter Daan Luining. "We verwachten dat we het in de toekomst zelfs nog sneller zullen kunnen."

Meatable wil zijn kweekvlees volgend jaar in Singapore op de markt brengen. Het bedrijf hoopt daarna ook andere markten te kunnen betreden als de toezichthouders daar goedkeuring voor geven.

https://www.msn.com/nl-be/financien/nie ... 8eea&ei=43

[nobody]

Food from air and electricity makes global debut in Singapore

(May 25): It doesn’t look particularly appetizing — a mustard yellow-hued powder with the texture of starch — but the ingredient that made its global debut in Singapore on Thursday is being touted as the latest breakthrough in food technology.

Produced from air, water, electricity and microbes by Finnish startup Solar Foods, the substance can be used to make anything from bread to pasta. It had its first official tasting after the city-state approved the sale of products containing the ingredient last October.

The powder itself resembles turmeric and tastes like a light, nutty mix of cashews and almonds. It’s 65% to 70% protein, 5% to 8% fat and has a composition similar to that of dried soy or algae.

Solein, as it’s called, builds on a growing microbial fermentation trend.

It’s made in a similar way as brewing beer. Instead of sugar, microbes feed on nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and begin to grow. Excess water is removed and then it’s dried, forming a powder.

The technology’s gaining attention, even as investors stay cool on the broader alternative protein sector, given it has the potential to produce edible calories without farmland. Crop giant Archer-Daniels-Midland Co is lending its heft, announcing a strategic partnership this month with California company Air Protein to build and operate a commercial-scale plant.

It will take “a couple of decades” for food-from-air production volumes to have a real impact on the world, Solar Foods Chief Executive Officer Pasi Vainikka said in an interview. “There’s a lot of interest and pull from the
consumer, and that’s a positive.”

Solein won’t be widely available until 2024 at least when a small-scale proof-of-concept plant is fully operational. The glacial pace of approvals is one factor that’s slowing its rollout. Singapore is the only jurisdiction that’s given Solein the green light. Approval in the European Union isn’t expected before 2025, Vainikka said.

For now, the Finnish firm is working with food companies and restaurants to incorporate the product in dishes, or as an alternative dairy ingredient.

It’s also on a marketing blitz, releasing videos demonstrating the practical uses of Solein, including in ice cream and ravioli.

Solar Foods was a project spun out of a Finnish state-owned research institute in 2017. The company has raised about €105 million (US$113 million) in funding from firms including Agronomics Ltd and CPT Capital. It wants to raise more cash for a larger-scale commercial factory over the next three years.

https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/668606

[joni]

[nobody]

Dutch meat processor Vion Food Group plans to close its plant in Germany

NETHERLANDS – Vion Food Group, an international producer of meat, meat products, and plant-based alternatives based in the Netherlands, has announced its plans to close its beef plant in Bad Bramstedt, Germany.

According to Vion, the plant closure is due to the declining cattle population in northern Germany, the overcapacity of the slaughterhouse market, and the general pressure that the German protein market is under, partly because of the social trend towards less meat consumption.

Ronald Lotgerink, Vion Food Group CEO said that the planned closure is part of the group’s adjustment to the German sites to rebalance supply and demand in the market which is under pressure.

“In the face of inflation and price increases, societal developments and regulations that the farming and meat industry is currently facing, we are taking measures to keep meat production in Germany healthy and to offer farmers future perspectives,” he added.

The group has however planned to look at the possible transfer of about 250 employees who are at risk of losing their jobs to other Vion locations in the country.

Since 2012, Vion has adjusted capacities at the Bad Bramstedt site to consider the progressive decline in cattle numbers in northern Germany.

“In the interest of our farmers to keep the transport routes for the slaughter cattle short in the future and, in the interest of animal welfare, we will explore the offer of the still sufficiently available slaughter capacities in the north,” it said in a statement.

Previously, Vion announced the closure of its slaughterhouse in Zeven, in the Lower Saxony region of Germany.

According to the group, the slaughterhouse was in a loss-making situation and had no possibility to operate profitably in the future.

Instead, Vion said its future activities in Lower Saxony would focus and invest in its Emstek facility, around 100km west of Zeven because this site was best suited to provide the necessary access to the global markets.

“The market for pork meat has changed in past years; while they were primarily regional (and national) in the past, it is now necessary to also capture global market opportunities,” Vion said.

The company is an international meat producer with 25 production sites across the Netherlands and Germany.

https://www.foodbusinessafrica.com/dutc ... n-germany/

[nobody]

Indonesia aims to raise 2023 white sugar output 8.3% y-o-y

JAKARTA (June 5): Indonesia wants to raise its white sugar output to 2.6 million tonnes this year, the country's National Food Agency (Bapanas) said in a statement late on Sunday (June 4).

The Southeast Asian country produced 2.4 million tonnes in 2022, and consumes 3.4 million tonnes annually, the agency said.

"Overseas procurement for this year is planned to be under one million tonnes, while in 2022 it was more than one million tonnes," Bapanas Secretary Sarwo Edhy said in the statement.

Indonesian plans to import 991,000 tonnes of white sugar for household consumption and 3.6 million tonnes of raw sugar for industrial use this year, its trade minister said previously.

https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/669903

[nobody]

China May soybean imports hit record 12m tonnes

BEIJING (June 7): China imported a record 12.02 million tonnes of soybeans in May, up 24% from a year ago, customs data showed, as cargoes delayed during recent strict inspections were finally unloaded at ports.

The imports by the world's top soybean buyer were up from April's 7.26 million tonnes, which were far short of expected arrivals.

Harvesting of the largest ever crop in China's top supplier Brazil was delayed this year, pushing back arrivals of soybean cargoes, while stricter customs procedures at Chinese ports significantly slowed imports in April.

The delays led to low stocks of soybeans, driving up the price of soymeal, a protein-rich ingredient used in animal feed.

Last month's large arrivals of beans have, however, brought down prices, with spot soymeal sold in crushing hub Rizhao down almost 20% during May to 3,670 yuan (RM2,368) a tonne.

The previous record for a month was 11.2 million tonnes in June 2020.

Arrivals in June could be even larger at about 13 million tonnes, said a Beijing-based soybean trader, based on the large shipments in April.

Chinese crushers snapped up cheap Brazilian soybeans earlier in the year, as the large crop weighed down futures prices.

Low hog prices in China in recent months are, however, hurting demand for soymeal, as are large volumes of cheap wheat that are increasingly available for feedmakers.

Swapping wheat for corn in animal feed can lower demand for soymeal because it has a higher protein content than corn.

Total soy arrivals in the first five months of the year reached 42.31 million tonnes, up 11.2% year-on-year, the General Administration of Customs data showed.

https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/670197

[nobody]

CGTN

People gathered in front of the Tokyo Electric Power Company headquarters in Japan to protest against the plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Consumer concerns have driven down the price of seafood in Fukushima.