The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has put out a public alert for Trader Joe’s chicken pilaf over claims it may contain rocks. USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) issued the nationwide warning on possible contamination of the popular snack on February 7, 2024. A consumer who ate the frozen ready-to-eat food complained of teeth injury...
Chinese consumers are taking a lukewarm approach to commodity prices, which have dropped to their lowest in 14 years. At the same time, buyers know that the government could enforce counter-deflationary measures that might raise food prices. China’s consumer price index (CPI) dipped 0.8% January 2024, year-on-year. This in spite of 0.2% and 0.3% consecutive monthly CPI upticks...
The European Commission has backed down on a previous requirement to cut non-carbon dioxide gases on farms by 30% before 2040. Instead of farmer-targeting measures, the European Union (EU) on February 6 decided to cut industrial greenhouse gases by 90% by 2040. The decision is a goodwill gesture to European farmers who have been protesting in...
Ivory Coast’s mid-crop cocoa harvest might shed yields by 25% to between 400,000 and 450,000 tonnes, according to regulators. This is happening just 21/2 months after rainfall during the dry season in November 2023 fanned hopes of a major harvest. On February 6, 2024, insiders at Ivory Coast’s Cocoa-Coffee Council (CCC) disclosed to Reuters of the looming drop...
Agricultural output in quarter 4 (Q4) 2023 helped slow general inflation in the Philippines to 2.8% by January 2024. Crop production from September to December 2023 was the key driver of easing inflation, which fell from the 3.9% of Q4 2022. In general, agriculture grew by 0.7%, year-on-year, in Q4, according to the government’s preliminary data of...
At a time when delayed monsoon rains have hampered the planting of sufficient pulses, India is expecting a bumper 2023-24 lentil crop. While the planting area of other pulses diminished, red lentils’ acreage rose to 1.95 million hectares (ha) by January 19, 2024. This represents a 5.4% increase over the January, 2023 equivalent. Therefore, India’s red lentils...
President Joe Biden has cautioned grocery stores to lower grocery prices in the United States, in line with falling production costs. His call echoes the UN food agency’s statement in May 2023 of the world price index being at a 2-year low. Groceries in the U.S. proved costly in 2023, only seeing a little reprieve in November’s Black...
Global agriculture could benefit from a massive weed database that maps nearly 1000 weeds throughout history, over a wide geographical span. The Oxford University Research Archive is the product of a 30-year scientific research between Sheffield and Oxford Universities in the UK. The study provides insights on how weeds influenced global agriculture in Europe, the Middle East...
In a goodwill gesture, the World Bank (WB) on February 1, 2024 in Washington D.C., approved emergency loans to nations still processing loans. From now on, member states hit by a natural disaster will directly tap 10% of emergency funds from their non-disbursed credit. The decision also targets reducing the time of non-emergency loan approval,...
UK’s pig exporters are keen to cash in on California’s Prop 12 law, which came into effect on January 1, 2024. This is even as hogs turn into pet animals, with the launch of exclusive pig cafés elsewhere in Japan. These disparate developments come just before another controversial U.S. clause that allows speed production of pork ends...