Adani calls off share sales following plunge in value

India’s Adani Enterprises has called off its share sale after the group’s companies saw US$108bn wiped off their market value in the wake of fraud allegations by a US investment firm, the BBC reported on 1 February.

The flagship company of the Indian multinational conglomerate Adani Group confirmed that the US$2.5bn raised from the sale on 25 January would be returned to investors following a 26% drop in share value, the report said.

The Adani Group was founded by Gautam Adani in 1988 as a commodity trading business and its companies include Adani Wilmar, a joint venture with Singapore agribusiness Wilmar International and a major edible oils producer in India.

Until calling off the sale, Mr Adani was listed as the world’s third richest man, the BBC wrote.

A day before shares of Adani Enterprises were due to go on sale, US investment firm Hindenburg Research accused the group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud in a report.

The BBC said Hindenburg specialised in ‘short-selling’ (betting against a company's share price in the expectation that it will fall) and the Adani group described Hindenberg’s report as "a malicious combination of selective misinformation" but that was not enough to stem investor fears. The group said on 1 February that it would return the share sale proceeds due to “the unprecedented situation and the current market volatility”.

The decision to return the money raised from its sale would not have any impact on existing operations and future plans, Gautam Adani said.

EU approves house crickets in food products

17 January. In addition, on 6 January, the European Commission (EC) also approved the introduction of the frozen, paste, dried and powdered forms of Alphitobius diaperinus larvae – also known as the lesser mealworm – for use in several food products.

A newly approved European Union (EU) regulation will allow food producers to use the partially defatted powder of Acheta Domesticus, commonly known as the house cricket (pictured above), in a range of food products including pizza and pasta products, nuts and oilseeds, snacks and sauces, multigrain bread and rolls, crackers and breadsticks, cereal bars, dry pre-mixes for baked products, biscuits and chocolate confectionery, Olive Oil Times reported on

The two insect ingredients joined the list of EU-approved insect foods including dried Tenebrio Molitor mealworm and the dried powder of the migratory locust, Olive Oil Times wrote. Eight other applications for insect foods are also being evaluated by the EU.

The EC said on its website that insects “are a highly nutritious and healthy food source with high fat, protein, vitamin, fibre and mineral content".

EU court ends emergency use of neonicotinoids

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has put an end to the emergency use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which are widely linked to the decline of bees, Euractiv reported on 19 January.

Member states would no longer be allowed to grant derogations temporarily permitting the use of seeds treated with ‘expressly banned’ plant protection product by the EU, the report said.

The ruling came in the wake of a request by campaign groups Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe and Nature & Progrès Belgium to annul the derogation given by Belgium for the use of neonicotinoids on sugar beets.

Neonicotinoids are used to protect crops such as cereals, oilseed rape and sugar beet from damaging pests. They have been blamed for contributing to the decline of bees by disrupting their sense of orientation, memory and mode of reproduction. A recent report by PAN Europe said EU countries had granted more than 236 derogations on banned pesticides in the last four years, with neonicotinoids accounting for 47.5% of those.

WORLD: Biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) producers face feedstock supply shortages from 2022-2027 if current trends continue, according to a December report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Demand for vegetable oil, waste and residue oils and fats was expected to increase by 56% to 79M tonnes during the forecast period, with wastes and residues expected to be used for 13% of biofuel production in 2027, up from 9% in 2021. In the EU, the use of used cooking oil and animal fats would exhaust nearly 100% of estimated supplies over the forecast period.

Consumption of vegetable oil for biofuel production was projected to increase by 46% to 54M tonnes during 2022-27, increasing its share of biofuel demand from 17% to 23%.

USA: The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced renewable fuel obligations (RVOs) for 2023, 2024 and 2025 under the country’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), according to Biodiesel magazine.

The agency said that proposing volume targets for more than one year would provide the market with certainty of demand needed for longer-term business and investment plans.

Published on 1 December, the proposed rule set the 2023, 2024 and 2025 RVOs at 78.8bn litres, 82.79bn litres and 85.85bn litres, respectively.

A 946M litre supplemental obligation would also be imposed for 2023, the 1 December report said, as it had been this year.

The 2023 blend target included 2.72bn litres of cellulosic fuel, 10.67bn litres of biomass-based diesel and 22.03bn litres of advanced biofuel.