MENOPE 2012 (Middle East Natural and Organic Products Expo), 27-29 November 2012, is expected to attract more regional participation this year, apart from a host of global companies who have elicited enthusiasm to be part of the show.
Last week, Indonesia became the first country to halt imports of US beef following the discovery of an American dairy cow infected with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
US Health authorities have said the diseased animal was never a threat to the nation’s food supply, in the first case of mad cow disease in the US since 2006.
HDC CEO Datuk Seri Jamil Bidin said, “We can use the fund as a mechanism and propose it to the wealthy countries like in the Middle East and Brunei to inject funds and then, channel it to IDB member countries that have the ability to produce food supply.”
Ninety million tons of food is wasted each year in the European Union. The UK-based Waste and Resources Action Program (WRAP) is working with major food packaging companies to develop new pack technologies that increase shelf life.
The proposed Philippines-Qatar Joint Investment Fund includes projects in agriculture, energy, halal food, labour, mining, petrochemicals, real estate, steel, tourism, trade and infrastructure development.
Chairman of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce, Sheikh Saleh Kamel revealed that the Sudanese government agreed to establish a free zone to be given to Saudi Arabia for cultivation. The area will be close to Port Sudan, to transport products easily across the Red Sea.
Even as Iran’s nuclear program raises the likelihood of yet another conflict in the Middle East, the bigger threat is a potential food crisis in the making, says Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute.
Priming it is a rush by China, India, South Korea and Gulf petro-economies to snap up land abroad to secure their food supplies. But who is buying land where – and what they are doing with it – may never be fully answered, for many transactions are never publicly announced.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) governments are investing heavily in outside farmland acquisitions and leases, along with injecting money in domestic food production industry, to secure food supplies to the region and safeguard against market fluctuations.
Dept. of Agriculture and Agrifood’s goal is the establishment a Food Development Centre (FDC). The department has thus appointed Agriteam Canada Consulting Ltd to implement the establishment of the Food Development Centre project, which is one of the projects falling under the Agrifood Development and Agriculture Biotechnology Programme of the National Development Plan 2007-2012. Statistics from 2011 showed that the agrifood industry had achieved B$57.13 million – exceeding the targeted $56.5 million.
The UAE on Sunday decided to allow GCC companies to open their branches in the country with the same rights as those enjoyed by national companies in a move aimed at bolstering economic integration among the six-nation group.
Arab countries need to invest $144 billion in agriculture between now and 2030 to meet the demand for food for their growing populations, said an Arab official.
Pakistan and Thailand will extend their co operation in livestock and poultry industry sectors in the form of Halal meat preparation and exchange of faculty, students and skilled manpower.
A major element of its business plan is to process kosher and halal beef, which requires having religious personnel on site to ensure cows are slaughtered in a way prescribed by Jewish and Muslim dietary laws.
Food safety tops the list of an annual survey asking Americans to choose the most significant food story of 2011. Even in a year when global food prices hit record highs.
The British Deputy High Commissioner in Pakistan, spoke at a reception for a UK trade delegation visiting the 6th Expo Pakistan 2011.
UK-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Syed Qamar Raza also said huge potential existed for increasing bilateral trade as there was immense demand of quality halal food products in the UK which Pakistan could export.
Consumer awareness of Fair Trade in the U.S. is around 34%–not as high as awareness of organic products, but it’s a large number considering that Fair Trade has been around in this country for less than two decades. Organic certification in the U.S. has existed since the early 1970s.
Islamic Finance news – IFN Today, Wednesday, 23rd May 2012
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