12 minute read
Malaysia to lift foreign labour ban at plantations
IN BRIEF
WORLD: US alternative meat start-up Impossible Foods announced on 23 September that it is launching its plant-based pork in Hong Kong, Singapore and the USA.
Impossible Pork would be available first in the USA, and then in Hong Kong at more than 100 restaurants followed by a November launch in Singapore.
Soya protein and coconut and sunflower oils are among the ingredients of the new plant-based pork.
The main ingredient responsible for mimicking the taste and texture of Impossible Foods’ meat substitutes is soya leghaemoglobin, a source of heme, a key protein responsible for meat’s colour and savoury flavour.
Malaysia to lift foreign labour ban at plantations
The Malaysian government’s decision to lift the foreign labour ban on oil palm plantations has the potential to ease pressure on the sector, The Edge reported on 6 October.
However, there was still some way to go before the industry would see any meaningful impact from the move, according to the report.
The city of Putrajaya’s special grant to bring in 32,000 foreign workers for the plantation sector was the only exemption given to any sector with regards to foreign labour, with other industries such as manufacturing having to wait until at least 31 December.
While the government’s green light for foreign labour would help to restore productivity and allow for better cost efficiency, plantation companies needed at least one to two months to recruit foreign workers, according to Ivy Ng Lee Fang, head of Malaysia Research and regional head of Agribusiness Research at CGS-CIMB Securities Sdn Bhd.
“Bear in mind that the recruitment process must follow environmental, social and governance criteria, followed by a quarantine period,” Ng told The Edge.
Kenanga Research analyst Adrian Kok noted on 20 September that since the implementation of the foreign labour freeze last March, the situation in plantations had deteriorated to a labour shortage of about 75,000 harvesters, from 40,000 previously, and a yield loss of 20%, The Edge reported.
“We estimate an additional worker shortage of an average of 2,000 with each passing month. Efforts to recruit locals are ongoing, but the attrition rate is high, with about 60% leaving within a year,” Kok was reported as saying.
Sime Darby Plantation told The Edge that its Malaysian operations had seen a decline in fresh fruit bunch (FFB) production in the last two years partly as a result of the labour shortage, falling 3% in full-year 2020 compared with 2019.
Nestlé launching plant-based egg and shrimp
Swiss food and drink giant Nestlé is expanding its plantbased portfolio with two new additions – egg and shrimp alternatives, the company announced on 7 October.
Launched as Garden Gourmet vEGGie, the plant-based egg product is vegan, contains soya protein and omega-3 fatty acids and can be scrambled, used as an ingredient in pancakes and used in baking in the same way as real eggs, according to the company.
The Garden Gourmet vEGGie’s ingredients also include
Nestlé's plant-based egg contains soya protein and omega-3 fatty acids é Nestl Photo:
rapeseed oil, natural flavouring and carrot concentrate (carrots, sugar, sunflower oil and citrus juice concentrate).
Nestlé’s plant-based seafood Vrimp offering is also vegan and is made from seaweed, peas and konjac root.
The two new products would be introduced as a testand-learn range in a limited number of stores in Switzerland and Germany.
The Vrimp’s debut follows the launch of Garden Gourmet Vuna, now available in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Vuna contains water, pea protein, wheat protein, rapeseed oil, salt and natural flavourings.
Chinese crush plants shut due to energy consumption curbs
A number of soyabean crushing plants in China were ordered to shut down due to government curbs on energy consumption to meet stringent emission targets, AgriCensus reported on 23 September.
The Chinese provinces of Jiangsu and Tianjin were particularly hit as provincial governments curbed electricity supplies.
Beijing introduced the curbs to meet the central government’s energy saving plan – formally called “Dual Control System of Total Energy Consumption and Energy Intensity” – to reach President Xi Jinping’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, the report said. As part of the plan, each provincial government was required to set an energy intensity target and build lists of high energy consumption and energy-intensive industries.
Some provinces had been warned that they were falling behind their targets and were urged to increase efforts to meet their environmental goals this year – leading some to enforce shutdowns at critical manufacturing sites, AgriCensus wrote.
Dozens of factories in industrial centres, such as Jiangsu, Tianjin and Zhejiang, had been ordered to cut or halt their operations, including some major soyabean crushing plants, according to industry sources and local media.
Local media reports said crushing plants operated by LDC, Beijing Grain Group and Jiusan had issued urgent notices on 22 September to halt operations due to power rationing, AgriCensus said.
NEWS Canadian drought to impact canola imports
Canada’s smallest canola harvest in 13 years due to severe drought is leading importers to either pay more or look for other suppliers, Reuters reported on 4 October.
The lack of Canadian canola is also forcing some importers to turn to alternative vegetable oils, such as palm and soyabean.
In the first seven weeks of the new crop year starting 1 August, Canada exported 388,000 tonnes of canola – a 71% drop from the previous year, according to the Canadian Grain Commission.
Up to the crop year ending 31 July 2022, Canadian canola exports are likely to fall 38% to 6.5M tonnes, while crushing volumes are forecast to drop to 7.5M tonnes from last year’s record 10.4M tonnes, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Canadian crushing companies, including Bunge and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), processed 661,968 tonnes of canola in August – the lowest monthly volume in more than two years, the report said.
Australia and Ukraine, which had bigger harvests this year, were likely to benefit from Canada’s small crop, according to Stephen Nicholson, senior analyst of grains and oilseeds for investment bank Rabobank.
Typically those countries exported far less than Canada’s volumes, he said.
“It’s not like there’s this big reservoir of canola out there looking for a home,” Nicholson was quoted as saying.
“The importers are the ones that are going to be left out in the cold.”
Canada’s biggest export markets are usually China, Japan, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates, according to Reuters.
A new study claims that dairy fat can be beneficial to heart health, Shape magazine wrote on 6 October.
In the study, a research team analysed the blood samples of 4,150 people with a median age of about 60 years in Sweden, a country with high dairy consumption, the report said.
This was followed up 17 years later by seeing how many of the participants had experienced heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, and other heart health issues.
After adjusting the findings for factors such as age, activity levels and diet, the team found that those who had higher levels of dairy fat in their blood had a lower risk of heart
Photo: Adobe Stock
A new study has found that people with higher levels of dairy fat in their blood had a lower risk of heart disease
disease compared to those who had lower levels of dairy fat, Shape reported.
The study was then followed up with 18 similar studies involving nearly 43,000 people in Denmark, the UK, and the USA, and the results were comparable, Shape said.
However, the researchers were careful not to draw too many conclusions about their results, which were published in PLOS Medicine.
“The findings from our study using fatty acid biomarkers suggest that a higher intake of dairy fat was associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk in diverse populations including Sweden… though more trials are needed to understand if and how dairy foods protect cardiovascular health,” the researchers wrote.
The American Heart Association currently recommends that people eat two to three servings of fat-free or low-fat dairy products per day, such as fat-free milk, fat-free or low-fat yogurt, and low-fat cheeses.
IN BRIEF
CHINA/EUROPE: Speciality oils and fats supplier Bunge Loders Croklaan (BLC) said on 5 September that it had launched a certified organic oleic-palmitic-oleic (OPO) ingredient, for infant milk formula in China and Europe.
OPO is a uniquely structured lipid naturally present in breast milk.
BLC said demand for organic infant milk formula was growing and its Betapol Organic ingredient mimicked the lipid structure of human breast milk.
Big boost in Indian vegetable oil imports
India’s total vegetable oil imports in September increased by 72% compared to the previous year to a record 1.8M tonnes, including more than 400,000 tonnes of refined palm oil, Reuters reported on 1 October.
Palm oil imports also reached a record 1.4M tonnes in September, double the rate compared to September 2020, due to increased sales ahead of key festivals and buyers taking advantage of lower duties effective until 30 September, the report said.
The Indian government lowered the import duty for palm oil (CPO) and refined palm oil (RBD) on 30 June in a bid to control record price rises. It also cut the import tax on soyabean and sunflower oils on 20 August by 8.25%.
Edible oil consumption in India traditionally rises in the December quarter due to the start of the wedding season along with festivals such as Dhanteras and Diwali, according to Reuters.
Top palm oil producer Indonesia had supplied a large percentage of India’s palm oil imports in September as it was offering refined palm oil at a discount to rival producer Malaysia, a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm was quoted as saying. • On 9 August, the Indian government announced a US$1.48bn National Mission on Edible Oil-Oil Palm to boost domestic production and reduce the country’s dependence on imports, The Times of India wrote.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the mission would ensure that farmers could get support – from quality seeds to technology – to promote the cultivation of oil palm and oilseeds.
India imports about 60% of its annual edible oil demand of about 25M tonnes, the report said.
IN BRIEF
WORLD: Global agribusiness giant Louis Dreyfus Company Holdings (LDC) announced on 10 September that it had completed the sale of an indirect 45% equity stake in the company to Abu Dhabi-based holding company ADQ for an undisclosed sum.
The deal, announced last November, marks the first time in the private company’s 170 year history that it will operate with ownership outside the family, according to World Grain.
LDC is active in over 100 countries and its business covers grains and oilseeds, coffee, cotton, juice, rice, sugar and freight. ADQ’s portfolio covers multiple sectors, including food and agriculture.
ARGENTINA: The oilseed crushing rate in Argentina could drop to 56% by the end of the 2021/22 season, one of the lowest rates in a decade and down from 62% in 2020/21, AgriCensus reported on 8 October from a new study by oilseed crushing and exporters chamber Ciara-CEC.
The Ciara-CEC report also noted that in the last 10 years, domestic soyabean production fell 9% to 44M tonnes while Brazil's production had risen from 75M tonnes to 144M tonnes, and US soya production had increased by 28M tonnes, from 91M tonnes to 119M tonnes.
Most EU soya from low deforestation risk areas
More than 80% of soyabeans processed in the EU was sourced from low deforestation risk areas, according to a new report by the EU seed crushers and oil processors’ federation (FEDIOL) published on 6 October.
FEDIOL assessed the geographical sourcing of soyabeans among its member companies in 2020. Soya associated with a low risk of deforestation – even if not all supplies had been verified or certified – covered those of Argentine origin outside the Gran Chaco area; Brazilian soyabeans under the Amazon moratorium or under valid sustainability/no deforestation certification; Canada; EU; Ukraine; and the USA.
The assessment concluded that 87% of the soyabeans processed in the EU in 2020 was sourced from regions with a low risk of deforestation, a 20% points’ increase compared to 2016.
FEDIOL also assessed the volumes of soyabeans bought and sold as meal or oil in the EU compliant with the soya sourcing guidelines (SSG) set by the EU Feed Manufacturers’ Federation (FEFAC). It found that 43% of the soya processed last year was compliant FEFAC SSGs. This was a 79% increase compared to 2016.
The amount of FEFAC SSG compliant soya product that FEDIOL companies were able to sell as verified or certified in 2020 reached 14%, a 3% increase compared to the previous year.
However, there was still a 30% points gap between what FEDIOL companies bought and processed and what they sold as verified or certified, due to customers’ limited uptake of soya meeting sustainability criteria, the association said.
High fat diet may increase hair thinning
Obesity may lead to depletion of hair follicle stems, a study has shown Photo: Adobe Stock
A research team at Tokyo Medical and Dental University has discovered a molecular mechanism to explain why obesity can lead to hair loss, Science Daily reported on 21 September. The researchers used mouse model experiments to examine how a high-fat diet (HFD) or genetically-induced obesity could affect hair thinning and loss, the report said.
Published in Nature, the results showed that obesity could lead to depletion of hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs), which blocked hair follicle regeneration and ultimately resulted in hair loss.
The team compared the gene expression in HFSCs between HFD-fed mice and standard diet-fed mice and traced the reaction.
“High-fat diet (HFD) feeding accelerates hair thinning by depleting HFSCs that replenish mature cells that grow hair, especially in old mice,” said study lead author Hironobu Morinaga. HFD-fed obese mice also showed faster hair loss and smaller hair follicles along with depletion of HFSCs.
African, Asian firms trail in certified palm oil purchases
A new report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has indicated that African and Asian companies were the least likely to buy sustainable palm oil.
The 2021 edition of the WWF’s Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard assessed the progress made on sustainability metrics made by 227 major retailers, manufacturers and hospitality companies in Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the USA, Canada and Europe.
“While some companies have made commendable efforts to eliminate deforestation, land conversion and human rights abuse from their palm oil supply chains, palm oil buyers should do much more to deliver impact at scale and at pace,” the report said.
Top performers included retailer Coop Switzerland, chocolatier Ferrero, furniture retailer IKEA, British department store John Lewis and confectionery giant Mars.
More than a third (85) of the 227 companies WWF approached failed to provide any information on their palm oil usage.
The report said half of respondents were still not sourcing 100% Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO).
African and Asian respondents had the lowest uptake of RSPO-certified palm oil volumes, with only 23% of their reported volumes being certified. This compared to a global RSPO CSPO average uptake of 67%.
