The Expo is endorsed by Dubai Municipality, Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority and International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM), Germany to run at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre from November 27-29 2012

Dubai: The 10^th edition of annual organic and natural products expo, MENOPE 2012 (Middle East Natural and Organic Products Expo) 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.

In a statement, the organizers of MENOPE 2012, Global Links Dubai LLC, today said the Middle East’s one and only exhibition for natural, organic and halal products will run from 27-29 November this year at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre in the UAE.

“Even at this early stage of the preparations for MENOPE 2012, we have strong and enthusiastic response from both regional and global players endorsing the fact that the annual exhibition has a very strong reputation as a show which caters to the trade with a view to foster growth of this sector,” said Eng. Nadim Al Fuqaha, Managing Director, Global Links.

He said MENOPE 2012 is also looking at attracting a number of regional organic players from both the private and public sector in line with the growth the sector has witnessed over the last few years.

“There are more regional players in the organic market now as businesses realize the growth potential of the sector. We believe that the market has expanded in size as well as quality of offerings with local organic players sensing the need to cater to a sophisticated and aware consumer base with a large share of young people,” Eng. Nadim said.

The Middle East market has maintained the pace of growth of over 15 per cent CAGR in the organic products market though the base is still small and niche with potential to expand further.

“Our partners say that there is strong retail growth trend in the organic and natural products sector. Higher prices have always been a hurdle for increased uptake of products in this sector, but as the volume increases, the price line is also expected to come down. We believe that some amount of rationalization of  prices is already taking place in the market, encouraging more consumers to buy organic products as they  become more affordable,” said  Mr. Joby Mathew, Head, Exhibitions, Global Links.

MENOPE is Middle East’s only exhibition for natural and organic products and this year over 150 exhibitors from 25 countries will take part in the niche show. The three-day expo includes the third MEVEG Conference and a  conference on  Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicines.

MENOPE 2012 is endorsed by the Dubai Municipality. It is supported by International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), Germany, Ministry of Agriculture Lebanon, Department of Agriculture Philippines, Agrar Marketing Austria, and National Chamber of Sri Lanka etc.

Last year there was significant country pavilion participation from Austria, India, Korea, Philippines, USA, Romania, Srilanka, Lebanon, and Taiwan. The participating countries in MENOPE 2011 included the UAE, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, China, Thailand, Malaysia and Slovenia, Canada, among others.

MENOPE 2012 will showcase a variety of products spanning across Herbals and Spices, Food & Beverages, Cereal Products, Supplements, Health Care products, Natural Living, Natural and Organic Cosmetics, Healing Products, Natural Remedies, Traditional Medicines, Spas, Relaxation facilities, and Fabrics. More information on the event is available at www.naturalproductme.com. The organizers can also be reached at info@naturalproductme.com.

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by Alliance for Natural Health

More and more countries are banning imports of American food products for safety reasons.

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. The disease is fatal to cows and can cause a deadly brain disease in people who eat tainted beef.

“We will lift the ban as soon as the US can assure us its dairy cows are free of mad cow disease,” said Rusman Heriawan, Indonesia’s vice agriculture minister. “It could be one month or one year. It depends on how long it takes to resolve this case.”

One would think the US government would immediately test beef to make sure it’s safe. But the USDA, which regulates the test, administers it to less than 1% of slaughtered cows. Worse, until 2007 it was illegal for private beef producers to test their own cows for the disease! Larger meat companies feared that if smaller producers tested their meat and advertised it as safe from mad cow disease, they too might be forced to test all their cows—so they persuaded USDA to block individual producers from doing the test. In 2007 a federal judge said this practice could no longer stand.

The highest risk occurs if animals or humans eat infected brain or nerve tissue. Meat unconnected to bone, milk, and hooves are supposed to be safe, but who knows for sure? The ultimate source of mad cow, of course, is the filthy and disease-ridden (not to mention inhumane) conditions in CAFOs, or concentrated animal feedlot operations.

In February, Taiwan began refusing meat products from the US because they contain ractopamine, a leanness- and growth-promoting drug used widely in pork and beef production in the United States. Taiwan has a zero-tolerance policy for the drug.

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Indonesia has become the first country to suspend US beef imports, following the discovery in California this week of a dairy cow infected with mad cow disease.

Indonesia has become the first country to suspend US beef imports, following the discovery in California this week of a dairy cow infected with mad cow disease.

According to Agence France-Presse, imports of boned US meat and innards would be banned, however the import of boneless meat remained unaffected.

“We will lift the ban as soon as the U.S. can assure us its dairy cows are free of mad cow disease,” the Associated Press quotedIndonesia’s Vice Agriculture Minister Rusman Heriawan as saying.

“It could be one month or one year. It depends on how long it takes to resolve this case.”

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.

Major buyers of US beef have said they will continue with American beef imports, meaning Indonesia’s partial ban will have little impact, according to Reuters.

There were no immediate signs that some of the biggest consumers, South Korea and Japan, would follow suit.

The EU has said that it has no plans to impose restrictions on imports of US beef products, according to AFP.

In 2011, the United States exported nearly 18,000 tones of beef products to Indonesia, valued at $28.2 million, according to AFP, citing figures from the US Meat Export Federation.

Indonesia imports most of its meat from Australia and New Zealand.

The US trade representative Ron Kirk said Thursday that there was “no reason to fear” that a Californian mad cow case had tainted food markets.

“There’s been no evidence (in) this one reported instance that any contaminated product has entered our food chain or any international food chain,” Kirk said.

“There is no reason, from my understanding of the analysis… for any consumer to be concerned about the consumption of US beef.

“Thus we would expect that Indonesia would quickly reopen its market for its consumers for US beef products.”

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KUALA LUMPUR: The Halal Industry Development Corp (HDC) is in discussion with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to set up a Halal investment fund.

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By Arielle Golden

Ninety million tons of food is wasted each year in the European Union, and food waste is expected to grow by 40 percent by 2020.

A mound of food waste. (Photo credit: EcoWatch)

The European Union has declared 2014 the European year against food waste and in the lead up, is examining the effects on food waste from food packaging. Within the industry, using fewer and more efficient materials for packaging has a positive impact on the costs of getting food packaged and into the grocery store. In the EU, new innovations in packaging are being developed to ensure that foods reach the store shelf long before the expiration date, which will prevent food being thrown away before consumers have a chance to purchase it. Organic material, including vegetables, fruit, and other foods naturally emit ethylene gas, which helps them mature but also facilitates the decomposition process.  A special coating for corrugated cardboard can protect food from gases that trigger decomposition, minimizing losses when food is packaged, transported to grocery stores, and purchased by consumers. Another set of innovations includes smart packaging materials, such as a type of foil that can test the microbiology of what is contained in a package. This would indicate the freshness of the contents to the consumer more clearly by displaying important information about how ripe or fresh a product really is.

But 42 percent of food waste occurs in households, according to a 2011 study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Consumers typically consider food waste as a supply chain problem – they tend to think that the majority of food waste occurs between the time it is grown until it reaches the shelves of the grocery store. But packaging can be part of the solution for minimizing household food waste. Packaging sizes for single or fewer portions, for example, or re-sealable and compartmentalized packages, can limit unnecessary waste by allowing consumers to keep the products for longer as they use only the portions that are necessary, and seal away the rest for later. To increase public understanding of the various best-before date labels, there must be an increase in education and marketing to make them easier to follow.

The European Parliament passed a January 2012 resolution, “How to avoid food wastage: strategies for a more efficient food chain in the EU” which in addition to measures to improve packaging, discussed a way to utilize products that go to waste at the retail level. The resolution proposed taking foods that are damaged or close to their expiration dates and selling them at discounted prices, to make them more accessible to people in need. They also discussed incentives for hospitality and catering businesses to buy local produce and donate leftover food to food banks free-of-charge.

The United Kingdom is already taking steps to decrease food waste, with a successful food waste initiative boasting a three-pronged integrated approach: communication with consumers, working with the food industry, and working with the packaging industry. The U.K.-based Waste and Resources Action Program (WRAP) is working with major food packaging companies to develop new pack technologies that increase shelf life, and packages that bring the consumer’s attention to a product once its expiration date is near.  They introduced produce bags for the grocery store that have printed labels describing how to best store different items.  As the EU and other regions begin to tackle the challenge, we can put more of our food on our tables instead of into the landfill.

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Manila The Emir of Qatar Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani has pledged an investment fund in the Philippines at the start of his two-day state visit yesterday, sources said.

Image Credit: AP - Philippine President Benigno Aquino with the Emir of Qatar Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani in Manila yesterday.

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, a source from the Board of Investment (BOI) told Gulf News.

Of the $1 billion joint Qatar-Philippines investment fund, Qatar will invest $850 million or 85 per cent, and the Philippines the remainder, the source said.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino personally invited Shaikh Hamad to visit Manila, said Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, adding it was the first time that an emir of Qatar has visited the Philippines.

His visit “affirms the advancement of political and economic ties between the Philippines and Qatar,” said del Rosario, adding that the two countries have maintained a 31-year business partnership.

Both leaders will also discuss “increasing opportunities for our Filipino workers [in Qatar],” del Rosario said. Currently 180,000 Filipinos are working Qatar and they comprise 12 per cent of the state’s 1.5 million population.

Third-largest

Qatar is the third-largest destination for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), the Labour Department said.

The BOI also scheduled an investment mission to Qatar from April 20 to 23, to generate business interest in the investment fund.

The signing of memoranda of agreements for prospective joint venture partnerships with businessmen from the Philippines and Qatar was also scheduled at this time. A Qatari investment mission that came to the Philippines in January began identifying these projects.

Qatar has been an influential force in the Philippines’ peace efforts with former Filipino-Muslim secessionist groups.

In 1996, Qatar, a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was one of the countries that brokered the political agreement between the Philippines government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

When Qatar was OIC chairman in 2001, it supported the Philippines’ bid for observer status at the OIC. Meanwhile, the Mindanao (southern Philippine)-based Philippine-Qatar Business Council has been established to strengthen the Philippines’ trade links with the Middle East.

By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief

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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, with an area of two million acres, indicating that the area will be close to Port Sudan, to transport products easily across the Red Sea.
Kamel said that the Saudi- Sudanese meeting, in the presence of the Presidential Adviser, Mustafa Osman, raised the issue of cultivating two million acres Sudan lands by Saudi investors,  without any conditions to be a free zone.

He stressed that the cultivation of two million acres will cover Saudi Arabia with its need of grain and vegetables, and there will be a surplus for export, noting that the near distance, across the sea, which takes eight hours, will reduce the cost, according to the Saudi newspaper, “Al-Sharq”.
Kamel said that he will discuss with the Ministers of Agriculture and Finance this golden opportunity, as it has excellent returns, explaining that the exploitation of this opportunity will dispense with imports from Argentina, American countries and Australia, stressing that the farms will be owned by Saudi Arabia in a free zone and will not be hindered by any obstacles of Sudanese laws, and without payment of fees or taxes, explaining that the deal will has large positive returns to Saudi Arabia and Sudan, through the employment of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese workers.

He stressed that they had asked for a free zone in order not domestic laws in Sudan to be obstacles in the way of the implementation of this huge project, noting that when they return to the

Kamel stressed that the success of the said investment is certain, and will  provide the food security to the Kingdom by 100%, confirming that this step of the strategy of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz  for Arab food investment that will achieve food security for the Saudi Arabia.
He said that the returns of agriculture in Sudan will reach to 15% of the capital in the first year, stressing that they have now the formal approval of the Sudanese government and they are awaiting official approval from the Saudi government to sign the agreement and start the investment.

He said that agricultural investment in the Kingdom is not successful, especially since there are severe water shortages, pointing out that the farming of grains and vegetables in the Kingdom will not going to satisfy their food need, stressing that the economy has no passion, so it is useful to cultivate in Sudan for water availability, effort, achievement of food security and creating a positive investment for Saudi investor.

On the obstacles facing Saudi investors outside the said Agreement, Kamel said that he had discussed with the Sudanese side three major obstacles facing the Saudi investor, which is the difference between the laws of states of Sudan and the federal laws, the issue of exchange, and the third thing is to facilitate the visas to bring in expertise not in Sudan, stressing that the Sudanese pledged to solve the said obstacles, stressing that there is a large response by the Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, and the Presidential Advisor, Mustafa Osman.
He denied existence of accurate statistics on the percentage of Saudi investment in Sudan, noting that most of the statistics are inaccurate.
By Al-Arabia

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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. “When I ask myself, what are the threats for out security today, foreign aggression doesn’t make top five,” Brown told attendees of the Affordable World Security Conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

Grain yields are beginning to hit a “glass ceiling” in many countries, Brown said, where farmers have already taken advantage of what science has to offer for improving yield. As more and more countries hit an upper limit on productivity, the world grain harvest will begin to plateau, even as demand for food continues to rise, causing a rise in prices. More worrisome, the global food market is vulnerable to external shocks such as prolonged drought. “We don’t have idle land, we’re flat out,” says Brown. “We don’t have [food] stocks. We’re living harvest to harvest. The question becomes, what if we have a major shortfall in the world?”

An extreme weather event could tip the scales, he says. For instance, the heat wave and drought in Russia in 2010 reduced the country’s grain harvest by 40 percent, which tightened world supplies. If such a heat wave in the American Midwest were to have a similar impact on the much larger U.S. harvest, “we would have chaos on world grain markets,” says Brown. “That would affect financial markets, and financial stability in the world, which rests on confidence.”

Water shortages are also increasing pressure on agriculture. Half the world’s people live in countries that rely in part on over-pumping aquifers to expand production. That’s true of the U.S. China and India, says Brown. Once these aquifers are depleted and rate of pumping is reduced to rate at which they are replenished by rain, the drop in food production will be dramatic. That scenario is already playing out in Saudi Arabia. Biofuels adds another stress on food markets.

The good news is that in the U.S. is making some small headway on the path to sustainability. Carbon emissions, which peaked in 2007 due to the economic recession, have continued to decline since then. Brown attributes the trend to a closing of more than 100 coal plants in recent years. Car use is also down—young people apparently drive less than their parents, and baby boomers are beginning to retire, which means they drive less. New cars are also more efficient—between 2010 and 2025, average gas mileage for cars will double, says Brown.

Image credit: Public Domain Photos

About the Author: Fred Guterl is the executive editor of Scientific American. Follow on Twitter @fredguterl.

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Paris – Is it investment? Or a land grab?

Within a few years, acquisition of foreign farmland has become an issue with plenty of explosive potential for the environment and security.

Priming it is a rush by China, India, South Korea and Gulf petro-economies to snap up land abroad to secure their food supplies. Western countries are following suit in a bid to meet their targets for biofuels.

According to a respected monitor called the Land Matrix Project, 203 million ha of land were transferred to foreign control from 2000 to 2010, either through purchase or long-term lease.

To put this figure into perspective: that is eight times the size of Britain.

Africa, led by Ethiopia, Liberia, Mozambique and Sudan, accounted for 66% of the transfers, and Asia 14%.

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.

Paul Mathieu, an expert with the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), said the craze peaked in 2008 or 2009 on the back of the world food crisis and has probably drifted down a little since then.

But over the long term, demand will remain high, buoyed by the world’s surging population, higher prices for fossil fuels and spiralling demand for food, he said.

Time bomb

“I saw the land issue emerge before I came to the FAO 15 years ago. It is a bomb that can explode if it is not addressed,” Mathieu said.

Land has always inspired sentiment and attachment, although economists tend to argue it should be treated like any asset – a truck, an airliner or a factory, for example – that exists to make money.

And, in theory, land deals offer a poor country with lots of space and a low-density population a great chance to acquire new skills, technology and capital.

But a flurry of published investigations, while incomplete, suggests relatively little of this investment is actually happening.

And from corruption to environmental abuse, there are plenty of other things to worry about too.

In a 2010 report, the World Bank looked at 14 countries and discovered that actual farming had begun on only 21% of the land in the deals.

Intertwined with the emotional question of land tenure is how water is used for these big deals.

The UN’s Fourth World Water Development Report, published two weeks ago, describes this as a very big unknown.

It especially sounds the alarm for the dry regions of West Africa, saying biofuels could be “particularly devastating” there. To make just one litre of ethanol from sugar cane takes 18.4 litres of water, and 1.5m².

Countries exploited

The risk from poorly supervised land acquisitions is that a wealthy economy simply exports its water “footprint” elsewhere, said Anders Jaegerskog of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).

If there are inadequate safeguards and poor governance in the host country, the richer nation gets its rice, corn and biocrops on the cheap – but at the cost of adding to local water stress, he said.

“This is the great danger, that the weaknesses in the systems of these countries are being exploited,” he said.

In an interview with AFP last December on the sidelines of the UN climate talks in Durban, Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson blasted land acquisition as “a new form of colonisation”.

She cited the new country of South Sudan, where she said 40% of the farmland had been sold to foreign interests.

“They bring in their own labour, they bring in their own equipment, soil, seeds, they use the soil of the host country and then they move off. They leave very little behind or they may leave depleted land.”

Some say growing crops for foreigners can dangerously inflame tensions if deals are corrupt, local interests ignored and pressure on resources escalates.

“Controversial land acquisitions were a key factor triggering the civil wars in Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and there is every reason to be concerned that conditions are ripe for new conflicts to occur in many other places,” said Jeffrey Hatcher of the Rights and Resources Initiative, a Washington-based coalition of NGOs.

Seeking to address such issues, the FAO’s Committee on World Food Security (CFS) last month agreed on guidelines for land acquisition.

It is a benchmark designed to involve and protect local people but also reassure investors, said Mathieu, who helped craft the recommendations over three arduous years.

But the guidelines are voluntary.

And African countries will need time and resources to beef up their administration of land, moving from rights that often are customary, informal or even undocumented to formalised rights that can be enforced in a fair judicial system.

“These are transitions that took a century in western Europe. In some African countries, it will have to be done in 20, 25 years, with all these risks in attendance,” he said.

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Leading the way is Saudi Arabia, which is currently investing $23.1 billion in food security initiatives such as allocation of $12.3 billion to food processing sector development and provision of $6 billion in financial and oil aid to Pakistan in return for agricultural land.

UAE recently acquired or leased more than 1.4 million hectares of arable land in Pakistan, Sudan and Morocco, while investing $1.4 billion in the country’s value-added food manufacturing sector, resulting in 150 food processing plants. Figures were collated by research analysts Alpen Capital in build up to AGRA Middle East from April 2-4 at Dubai International Conference and Exhibition Centre. Region’s largest agriculture business trade event, AGRA Middle East will host over 180 international manufacturers, suppliers of agribusiness equipment and technology from 30 countries including Pakistan to showcase their products to importers, buyers and officials from across Middle East.

As part of plans to be completely self-sufficient by 2023, Qatar invested $5.1 billion in food security initiatives, including leasing 400,000 hectares of land in Kenya against $3.5 billion loan to Kenyan government, and setting up $1 billion joint venture with Vietnam to provide 90 percent funds for investment in various sectors, including agriculture. Ensuring food security remains one of most important issues for all GCC countries; according to Economist Intelligence Unit, six GCC states currently import 90 percent of all food products. High reliance on imports means the region is particularly vulnerable to price increases when supplies are interrupted. ppi

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