NEWS
New digital publication offers nut processors valuable advice The loan will extend additional resources to Kenya as the country takes steps to contain the spread of the pandemic and deal with its unprecedented impact
T
he Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) today approved an €188 million loan to support the Government of Kenya’s efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate the related economic, health and social impacts. The loan will extend additional resources to Kenya as the country takes steps to contain the spread of the pandemic and deal with its unprecedented impact. It follows a request by the Government of Kenya, as part of its COVID-19 Emergency Response intervention, to help contain the scourge. The Bank’s support will strengthen the national health system to effectively respond to the pandemic, build economic resilience and ensure quick recovery. The Bank’s intervention will also
be used to support the poor and vulnerable people who have been negatively affected by the pandemic. “We are very pleased to join other development partners in supporting the Government of Kenya’s efforts in mitigating the financial impact of the pandemic, especially in terms of the country’s expenditure in the health, social and economic sectors. The next step will focus on helping build resilience for post COVID-19,” the Bank’s Acting Director General for East Africa, Nnenna Nwabufo, noted. Since Kenya’s first COVID-19 infection was confirmed on 12 March 2020, cases have risen to over 1,000, while the number of recoveries and deaths are 375 and 50, respectively, as of 22 May 2020. The pandemic is placing significant
TOMRA FOOD PUBLISHES E-BOOK FOR NUT PROCESSORS New digital publication offers nut processors valuable advice
T
OMRA Food has published an eBook to help nut processors tackle underlying operational challenges, which are now intensifying because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new 15-page publication, downloadable free-of-charge from TOMRA Food’s website, spotlights how some nut processing challenges are longstanding but others are new and unprecedented. Not least, market trends and climate change threaten to shake-up the industry. The eBook explains why the global demand for nuts is booming and how this is putting processors under pressure to achieve higher throughputs. The eBook also looks at how processors, in apparent contradiction to their need for speed, are also expected to raise product quality because
of the heightened expectations of consumers and retailers. This shift towards higher quality specifications is at the heart of another conflict of objectives: processors are simultaneously expected to contain costs, particularly now that global economies are affected by the pandemic. And in yet another conflict, labor, water and energy are all becoming more expensive. Labor and water are also becoming increasingly scarce. As workers in developing nations find themselves with more options, many become unreliable or opt out of manual labor jobs. And as climate change alters rainfall patterns and water availability, growing and harvesting seasons are disrupted in ways which require processors to operate with more agility.
pressure on an already stretched healthcare system. It has disrupted supply chains and caused job losses in the tourism, hospitality, horticulture and airline industries, among others. In addition, informal and self-employed workers have also lost their livelihoods due to the impact of the pandemic. The government’s response to the pandemic has been swift and multi-faceted, covering a range of measures including health-related containment measures, protection of the poor and vulnerable, provision of support to local businesses and to sustaining jobs. The Bank’s intervention, through the COVID-19 Emergency Response Support Program, is designed to support these measures. As a result of demand and supply shocks, Kenya’s real GDP growth is projected to fall to between 0.6 and 1.4 percent from the initial 2020 projection of 6 percent. In April, the Bank extended an emergency grant to help countries in the East and Horn of Africa, including Kenya, that are contending with swarms of locusts that are threatening food security. Kenya is facing its worst swarms in 70 years. In Ethiopia and Somalia, the outbreak is the worst in 25 years.
A further challenge is food safety standards. Always vital, these are now under even greater scrutiny because consumers are increasingly aware of allergens, pathogen, and aflatoxins – and of their power, through social media platforms, to broadcast any dissatisfaction with product standards. These challenges are remarkable for their breadth, but so too are the capabilities of sorting machines. As the eBook observes in its concluding section, state-of-the-art sorting technologies can now do more than detect and remove unwanted materials from processing lines. Sorting machines also reduce labor dependency, reduce water usage, minimize food waste to maximize yields, enable traceability, and help processors optimize productivity and profits. Many of the challenges faced by nut processors can be answered with technology, and those processors who invest in state-of-the-art solutions can gain a competitive advantage.
May - June 2020 | 7
