Search Results for: Australia

It is maybe surprising that maternity support garments (MSGs) are still a niche segment, even though women of childbearing age constitute approximately one-quarter of the populations of developed countries. Indeed, tubular bands made out of cotton and elastane are still commonly used instead of MSGs across the world. …

INTRODUCTION

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a reassessment of the model of relying on one or two outsourcing locations. It has demonstrated that when there is a major disruption caused by an emergency as serious as a pandemic, shipping and industrial processing can be disrupted.…

Higher education institutions are being warned they could be a target for money laundering, with fees being financed by the proceeds of crime, including corruption, which might also buy property, cars and other items for students.

The problem has been highlighted in a series of reports.…

The second-largest garment exporting country in the world, Bangladesh has grown its position as a key outsourcing hub since the 1980s.  

With a global market share of 6.26%, according to the World Trade Statistical Review 2021 (1), “The industry has come a long way,” said Md. …

Accountants in the European Union (EU) are facing the launch of a more intrusive and proactive legal system fighting money laundering (ML) and terrorist finance (TF), designed to stem the flow of dirty money across borders.

These are huge. Impossible to count accurately, but the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has estimated that USD2 trillion is laundered annually worldwide from all types of crime, from tax evasion to sanctions busting and drug trafficking to white collar fraud.…

Indonesia’s drive to require pharmaceutical products to be halal-certified is gathering pace, but the country’s pharma industry’s reliance on imported raw materials for medicines is impeding progress, officials and industry players say.  

In October, Indonesia issued a government regulation requiring pharmaceutical products to be certified halal by 2029 for over-the-counter drugs and 2034 for prescription medicines.…

The halal food market and industry in Kenya, east Africa’s economic hub, is growing, say experts, although reforms in regulation and certification are needed to underpin the sustainability of this growth.

As elsewhere, said Eugene Jernigan, director of International Trade Policy and Development at the Action Green for Trade and Sustainable Development (AGTSD) organisation, that serves small businesses in Kenya, Covid-19 hit food service sales in Kenya, and that included halal outlets.…

BRITAIN’S halal food market maybe growing, but the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU) in January 2020 has been impeding the sale, production and export of such products, and the regulatory headaches may get worse in future.

Speaking to Salaam Gateway, Rizvan Khalid, managing director, of Euro Quality Lambs, a major England-based producer and exporter of halal sheepmeat, said trade red tape imposed since the UK quit the EU has imposed GBP500,000 of annual regulatory costs on his business.…

The Bangladesh food industry is increasing its efforts to export halal foods to Muslim majority population countries. A senior government delegation is planning to visit Turkey and Indonesia this year to gather facts and advice on improving Bangladesh sales in these countries of halal food.…

Australia’s development of biofuel and bioenergy production and consumption has been hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic and some diversion of effort into researching and manufacturing renewable hydrogen in the past few years. However, this is about to change with the Australian government working on a Bioenergy Roadmap, which, as Petroleum Review went to press, was about to be released.…

Are people with specific personality traits more prone to commit frauds than others? Psychological researchers and experienced anti-fraud professionals agree that this is indeed the case.

A study into the motivation of cyber-fraudster, written by a researcher at Perdue University, Indiana, USA, last year (2020) concluded that individuals with higher levels of narcissism had “higher capabilities to commit online fraud”.…

The Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated a revision of the island’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Law, partly to help paint and coatings manufacturers maintain access to the European Union (EU) market. The reform will take account of the EU’s planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which may levy duties on products the EU deems have been made with excess carbon emissions.…

INTRODUCTION

Think of finishing and some consumers may conclude that integrating chemicals with or within fibres will always be the most effective way to create a performance or protective textile. But the reality is that applying coatings to textiles and yarns is anything but superficial as a finishing technique.…

A comprehensive study of 3,650 students from 55 counties worldwide has indicated that the expansion of online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has not reduced the attraction of moving countries to undertake in-person higher education in foreign universities and colleges.

Indeed, the study, by IDP Connect, part of Australia-based international student recruitment leader IDP Education, showed that 79% of students questioned were only considering overseas on-campus options.…

Argentina has potential to develop a lucrative business for exporting guanaco fibre, one of the finest in the world, but it will take investment, government support and marketing to make it happen, experts say.
“The medium and long-term market is very promising since these products go to a sector that values social, environmental and cultural sustainability, something that is increasingly rooted in middle- and high-income sectors,” Luciano Galfione, CEO of Textil de los Andes (TexAndes), a maker of guanaco and other natural fibres and yarns in San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca in north-western Argentina, told Twist International.…

With its complex supply and distribution chain, the international knitwear sector fosters innovation, with commercial partners cross-fertilising technical and design ideas that span digitisation and mechanical smarts, as well as consumer-focused creativity.

One key area of innovation in the past year has been warp knitting – for instance by leading northern Italian warp seamless knitwear manufacturer Cifra (1), which last December (2020) launched an innovative and sustainable garment concept for women, spanning beachwear, athleisure bodywear and lingerie.…

The Bangladesh innerwear industry has been witnessing robust growth in the past decade and this outsourcing hub is now competing effectively with its major rival China. The production value of the country’s intimate wear jumped from US216 million in 2012 to US1.078 billion in 2021, according to a report from data service Statista (1).…

The new chair of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has said the body will consider reviewing its standard on intangibles, IAS 38. Following feedback from advisory groups and consultative bodies, Andreas Barckow said that IAS 38 is “more than 20 years old and has never been revisited other than for consequential changes resulting from other projects”.…

INTRODUCTION

The concept of bespoke tailoring and couture has long been regarded as the apex of clothing and textile making, given that it matches a garment closely to its wearer and intended use. Until now, such personal apparel has inevitably been expensive, given runs are individualised – indeed, bespoke has been the antithesis of mass-produced fast fashion.…

INTRODUCTION

While debates continue over whether Aristotle actually said ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, the concept that a system can deliver more impact than each element of its technology acting alone is well established in the textile sector.…

THE NEED for a proactive effort to improve the teaching and researching of physics in sub-Saharan Africa, as a foundation for critically important scientific work, has been highlighted in a new report from the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the UK-based Institute of Physics (IOP).…

INTRODUCTION

Financial crime is a minefield for the international textile and clothing industry. With extended international supply chains extending into jurisdictions where the rule of law and a reliable independent judiciary may have a weak hold, if they exist at all, textile and clothing brands and manufacturers must take care.…

European and US interest in carbon capture and storage/sequestration (CCS) and carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) is continuing to surge as governments make ever more ambitious climate change commitments.

In tandem with improvements in technology mean capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted from industrial processes, power generation or directly from the air, and either storing or using it, CCS/CCUS is no longer viewed as a marginal solution with limited applications. …

Japanese paint companies have felt the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their bottom lines over the last 18 months, although their fortunes appear to have diverged in the first half of this calendar year. Firms that have a strong presence in China, where the economy has already bounced back strongly, are faring better than those that are primarily focused on domestic sales or export markets still struggling to shake off the lingering effects of the global health crisis.…

The leader of Bangladesh’s clothing and textile industry has promised to keep encouraging this important outsourcing hub towards more innovative circular and sustainable operations, as major brands promise to deliver 100% sustainable and eco-friendly products. “In order to maintain our competitive position in the market, we must radically shift to more sustainable consumption and production, upcycling and recycling of pre- and post-consumer wastes,” said Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Faruque Hasan.…

The value of fines issued globally for money laundering offences last year (2020) was five times higher than 2019, new figures reveal.

International financial analysts Kroll’s Global Enforcement Review 2021 [1] have identified a constant number of fines issued worldwide for ML– 45 in both 2019 and 2020, but said their combined value soared from USD444 million to USD2.2 billion, influenced, Kroll concluded, by “numerous substantial fines by Nordic regulators”.…

INTRODUCTION

In a highly technical textile sector segment such as the manufacture of compressed garments, the use of detailed standards to guide production is not just useful in guaranteeing quality output, it can help manufacturers and brands’ marketing. Where products are associated with international, regional, national and private standards, this builds confidence in consumers, promoting sales.…

The illegal wildlife trade is one of the world’s biggest money earners for criminals and is now coming under serious attention from the international anti-money laundering community.

Advocates for curbing the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) by ‘going after the money’ have been pushing for years for the trade to be included in anti-money laundering (AML) measures.…

A trade war over airplane manufacturing subsidies between the USA and UK, which has led to 25% additional duties being levied on British knitwear exports to America, appears to have been resolved. The EU and the USA have suspended for five years retaliatory duties that both sides have imposed on each other’s exports in the long-running ‘Airbus’ subsidy dispute.…

Alternative meat items are gaining a stronger foothold in Japan on the back of product development by mainstream meat producers, growing demand for healthy products and government support for the fledgling industry.

Although soy-based meat is not new to the Japanese market, with items such as tofu hamburgers and soy meat crumbles long holding an established place on supermarket shelves, the market is rapidly expanding and diversifying in response to changing needs.…

THE COVID-19 pandemic’s boom in web usage has created opportunities for hackers and fraudsters to attack the unwary through electronic networks, however, on the plus side the scope for open-source intelligence (OSINT) inquiries online to reveal useful information about these criminals is growing.…

INTRODUCTION

THE MANUFACTURE of protective masks has been maybe the largest growth area in the international textile and non-wovens industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. Billions of people have donned masks as they seek to avoid catching a disease that by June 11 (2021) had killed 3.7 million people and infected 175 million [1].…

Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced amendments to the island’s Registration Procedures for New Chemical Substances and Existing Chemical Substances. In addition to delaying a registration period for the standard registration of existing chemical substances in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has added a number of simplified administrative and convenient measures to optimise registration applications, review and reporting requirements.…

INTRODUCTION

Graphene has been hailed as a wonder material by its promoters – and for once in the tarnished history of scientific hyperbole – these claims seem to have significant merit. The reality is that graphene does not only offer textile manufacturers the ability to improve the functionality of their products, it helps them achieve this in an environmentally sustainable way.…

INTRODUCTION

The textile industry is one of the world’s oldest manufacturing sector, yet it is also one of the most dynamic, constantly reinventing itself. Today, the development of micro-factories might herald root-and-branch change in how the textile and clothing industry operates, a transformation driven by advances in digital textile printing.…

INNOVATIVE confectionery and sweet bakery companies will be able from next month (July) to explore applying for research funding from the European Union’s (EU) Horizon Europe programme, which has a budget of around EUR95.5 billion. This spending will last until 2027, with companies needing to form international consortia focused on food, ingredients and packaging projects to have the best chance of securing funding.…

CUSTOMS forces can benefit from new sensor kit, enabling them to scan containers to ensure contents are as declared on docket – but to use these techniques to fight trade-based money laundering, they need to be integrated with accurate financial intelligence.…

PEACE appears to be breaking out between the European Union (EU) and the UK on one side the USA over an aircraft subsidy-prompted trade war that had led to billions of dollars of duties being levied on food and drink exported between these countries.…

COVID-19 has unleashed a significant boom in demand for apparel and other wearables that are anti-viral, cleansing consumers’ bodies of viruses, as well as bacteria.

Companies making fibres and yarns have been quick to tout anti-viral technologies. Examples include HeiQ Materials AG – a Switzerland based textile innovation specialist, which has been selling a new anti-virus textile treatment HeiQ Viroblock NPJ03, added to textile products during final processing and utilising anti-microbial silver, whose charge attracts viruses to spherical liposomes which deplete the virus membrane of cholesterol, allowing the silver to kill them.…

Vietnam’s textile-garment sector has been known for low labour productivity relative to China, but this has been changing as foreign-invested factories across the country bring in innovative processes and equipment. A key goal is taking advantage of Vietnam’s privileged access to major markets, especially the European Union (EU), with whom it has a free trade agreement.…

SINGLE use plastics bans being brought in across the world may not cover all nonwovens products, but they certainly are having an impact on the industry as it parses often complex rules coming into force.

A key piece of legislation is the European Union’s (EU) so-called ‘single use plastics directive’ (1) which has deadlines passing in 2021.…

A MAJOR gambling complex in Sydney, costing Australian dollars AUD2.2 billion (USD1.7 billion) to build, should not be operated by its owner Crown Resorts because of AML weaknesses, a New South Wales (NSW) regulator has concluded.

A major inquiry by the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority has concluded that neither Crown nor any close associate is currently “a suitable person to continue to give effect to the Barangaroo restricted gaming licence”, covering the new casino, which is ready to open.…

In 2021, when the UK has thrown away its most precious diplomatic asset, its membership of the European Union, for dubious democratic gains, burning major European civil rights enjoyed by Britons and causing likely economic long-term damage, it is maybe time to recall when Britain followed more enlightened international policies.…

In 2021, when the UK has thrown away its most precious diplomatic asset, its membership of the European Union, for dubious democratic gains, burning major European civil rights enjoyed by Britons and causing likely economic long-term damage, it is maybe time to recall when Britain followed more enlightened international policies.…

Brief:

This article provides an analysis of why the world’s largest regional trade deal (in population terms) – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – was signed last November (2020). It assesses China’s role in this important political and economic event, and how it reflects its relations with other signatory countries.…

COVID-19 has unleashed a significant boom in demand for apparel and other wearables that are anti-viral, cleansing consumers’ bodies of viruses, as well as bacteria.

Companies making fibres and yarns have been quick to tout anti-viral technologies. Examples include HeiQ Materials AG – a Switzerland based textile innovation specialist, which has been selling a new anti-virus textile treatment HeiQ Viroblock NPJ03, added to textile products during final processing and utilising anti-microbial silver, whose charge attracts viruses to spherical liposomes which deplete the virus membrane of cholesterol, allowing the silver to kill them.…

The president of the United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) has warned that the military takeover in Myanmar could spark a significant shift in sourcing away from this south-east Asian country if democracy is not restored promptly. Julia Hughes told just-style: “If there is not a quick resolution, then yes we would expect a major shift to other Asian suppliers.”…

WHILE New Zealand’s digital textile printing sector may be of moderate size, serving apparel, accessories and interior design markets, the country still manages to be an innovator with a taste for experimental work such as printing on merino wool. This of course reflects how NZ remains a global wool powerhouse and the country’s textile sector is always striving for competitive advantages.…

WITH market researchers such as Polaris predicting that the global vegetable-based meat product market will generate USD35.4 billion in sales by 2027, major and small food tech companies are working hard to tap this growing niche. Polaris predicts that the segment will expand with a compound annual growth rate of 15.8% between 2020 to 2027, so there is space now for innovative products to attract market share.…

Nestlé’s senior vice president at Nestle Professional for Greater China region has said the target of the company’s new Harvest Gourmet plant-based meat product line (released in Beijing December 9) would be consumers with ethical and personal health concerns.

“Harvest Gourmet targets the consumers who seeks a balanced diet with enough nutrition intake, and who want to contribute to food sustainability,” Altug Guven, told just-food.…

The Peruvian alpaca-based fabric industry is targeting a robust post-Covid 19 recovery by strengthening its international relationships through strategic alliances. Also, by focusing on innovation, this speciality wool segment is also trying to reverse declines in production and exports worsened by claims of cruelty by alpaca farmers made by USA-based campaign group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).…

IN Australia, the process of bringing the nation’s AML/CFT laws and regulations up to international standards has stalled, senior AML/CFT specialists have told MLB. And a widening banking scandal currently highlights the need for reform, they say, with Australian financial institutions struggling to detect and report money laundering and other criminal transactions.…

DESPITE Australia’s uninterrupted economic growth since 1991 ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, lax rules on bribery and money laundering have dented its government’s reputation. Reforms to the country’s foreign bribery and commercial crime laws are on the horizon and there is talk about lawyers, accountants and real estate agents having to report on suspicious transactions, but progress has been painstakingly slow.…

COVID-19 and the expansion of home-based working it has forged has posed significant challenges to AML/CFT training and mentoring. As a result, vendors, AML bodies and experts have been developing new services and strategies to ensure that AML officers keep their skills honed during the pandemic.…

AUSTRALIA has chosen an unorthodox path in transitioning to a low carbon economy. Its centre-right government has advised the country’s clean energy agencies to decrease investment in renewables such as solar and wind and instead increase investment in hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, microgrids and energy efficiency.…

The Covid-19 pandemic is set to drive a near threefold surge in the antiviral coatings market as researchers and developers say they now realise how little they know about effective materials combatting such threats.

The search for more universal antiviral materials “should be continued with even higher intensity”, said Professors Ken Ostrikov and Ziqi Sun from Queensland University of Technology, in Australia, in their September (2020) report, ‘Future antiviral surfaces: Lessons from COVID-19 pandemic’, featured in the publication ‘Sustainable Materials and Technologies’.…

AUSTRALIA’S digital textile finishing market is small and therefore challenging compared to markets in Asia, Europe or the US. Australian fashion and fabric manufacturers usually outsource finishing to partners in Asia, notably in China or India, but use local digital print companies for smaller runs and sampling, said Romeo Sanuri, general manager Next Printing, which offers digital printing services to textile customers from Sydney.…

Mavi, the Turkish denim giant, sold 9.7 million pairs of jeans worldwide in 2019, and, its chief executive has told just-style, has rebounded from the shuttering of the garment sector earlier this year with e-commerce sales doubling in its major markets.…

International efforts are stepping up to scope and map what it will take to wean chemical manufacturing off its high dependence on oil and gas feedstock for chemicals that are then used to make plastics, fertilisers and other important products.

Options include using building-block raw materials from biomass instead of fossil-fuel feedstock; boosting the yield of chemicals for a given quantity of feedstock; and, applying advanced recovery and recycling technologies in circular economy approaches.…

REGULATING money laundering within the gaming sector needs to be tough because of the potential to move large sums of money through regulated casinos, sports and online betting services. While placing an accurate number on the amount of money laundered through the sector is impossible, the scope for doing so is illustrated by the sector’s huge size – according to international market researchers Research & Markets, the industry’s worldwide turnover should reach USD525 billion by 2023 (1).…

Textile industry innovators are seeking to create and improve naturally coloured cotton, that can reduce or even remove the need for manufacturers to add dyes that can be expensive and generate significant levels of pollution.

Natural coloured cotton is not new, with Liv Severino, head of Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, a state-owned research corporation affiliated with Brazil’s ministry of agriculture, livestock and food supply, noting evidence that human clothes were made from such fibres in the Andes 5,000 years ago.…

BOTH the Australian as well as the New Zealand cosmetics and personal care market have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, trends towards increasing purchases of health conscious and natural products have continued, with local brands gaining momentum, indicating how the Australasian personal care product market will develop once the coronavirus has lost its bite.…

The takeover of troubled Greek cold cuts producer Creta Farms has been approved by a court, with Dutch-Bulgarian investment trust Impala Invest Group, which already runs food manufacturers in Bulgaria, to gain ownership.

A court of first instance in the Cretan city of Rethymno has formally approved a restructuring plan filed at the court by the new owner, which had been previously approved by the Greek banks and includes debt haircut of 64.12%.…

The cutting edge IT field of quantum computing is developing across Africa, with South Africa considered the hub, in part through an IBM centre in Johannesburg that enables academics throughout the continent to freely access its quantum computer network, based in the USA, through the cloud.…

The China National Coatings Industry Association (NCIA) on July 31 informed members that it has been told by the ministry of ecology and environment to investigate the production, treatment and disposal of hazardous waste in the coating industry and compile a management guide based on the investigation’s findings.…

The executive director of International Sugar Organisation (ISO) wants his body “to work more with the confectionery sector”, as it strives to debunk junk science that derides the nutritional value of sugar. José Orive told Confectionery Production that ISO wanted to succeed in presenting “scientific evidence-based information” about sugar’s health impact so the reputation of confectionery products is not “blackened with funky fake data”. …

INTRODUCTION

Quantum computers were once the stuff of science fiction, the technology that was always 10 years away from fruition. But now they are real and operating. Google last October announced it had developed a device of 53-qubits (quantum computers’ ability to express a signal), nicknamed Sycamore, which it claimed in a Nature article [1] took 200 seconds to sample one instance of a quantum circuit a million times, which the IT major claimed would take 10,000 years for a state-of-the-art digital supercomputer to achieve.…

AS governments worldwide loosen lockdowns imposed to impede the spread of Covid-19, energy companies are assessing their health and safety policies to ensure workplaces are not new infection hotspots, protecting workers and hence production.

These changes come as energy industries downscale workloads to reflect a collapse in demand for their output.…

THE NEED to actively recharge electric vehicles makes them less attractive to consumers, especially when batteries can take eight hours to charge. So, the development of ambient technologies that enable EVs to charge themselves as they operate has been a key focus of automotive R&D.…

HONG Kong textile industry leaders have tried to reassure clothing traders and manufacturers operating from the territory they will not face serious harm by any change of diplomatic recognition prompted by the passage of a new HK security law. Speaking to just-style, Louis Chan, assistant principal economist (global research), for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), claimed that sourcing offices in HK would continue to operate smoothly: “As long as the subject merchandise is not made in Hong Kong, the possible revocation of the special trading relationship or any suspension of HKCO (Hong Kong country of origin) recognition should have little or even no direct impacts on HK’s re-exports (of those items),” he argued.…

Representatives of international food brands and analysts have told just-food that China’s State Council’s approval of 46 new pilot zones for companies conducting cross-border e-commerce, a move designed to help the country’s economy withstand the blows landed by the Covid-19 epidemic, also present opportunities to foreign food brands selling to Chinese consumers. …

MAJOR European food and drink industry associations have asked the European Union (EU) and Britain to consider agreeing a temporary holding Brexit deal, preserving EU/UK free trade, once the current transitional period involving the UK follows EU rules, expires on December 31.…

Supermarkets and convenience stores in Taiwan are making room for an expanding and dizzying array of fresh milk products and with some of the highest consumer milk prices in the world and local dairy farmers struggling to meet demand, especially in the peak summer months, this is good news for exporting overseas producers.…

AUSTRALIA’S existing regulatory framework for importing and manufacturing industrial chemicals, the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) will be replaced by a new system called the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS), starting July 1. The AICIS covers a broad range of chemicals and polymers used in adhesives, paints and solvents among many others. …

USE of the so-called ‘wonder material’ graphene in the energy sector is growing fast, with its thin sheets of carbon atoms in a honeycomb shape, stronger than diamond yet flexible, offering excellent thermal and electronic conductive properties. Given it also offers an extremely high surface to material ratio, graphene energy storage and capture uses are being developed to make batteries, supercapacitors, and solar panels.…

AUSTRALIAN wool producers are stockpiling wool and avoiding auction sales with Covid-19 hitting their key market, China. The Australian wool industry is important. It delivered exports worth Australian dollars AUD4.15 billion (USD2.6 billion) in 2018-19, according to Australian government figures – https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-commodities/agricultural-commodities-trade-data#2019.…

QUANTUM computers are now being developed that may offer accounting practices computing power to strengthen audits, but which also pose some serious cybersecurity concerns.

After decades of theorising, quantum computing is here. Google last October (2019) announced it had developed a device which it claimed took 200 seconds to sample data showing how a quantum computer works one million times (1), a task it claimed would take a standard digital super-computer 10,000 years.…

While medical teams worldwide seek to free up hospital beds to care for Covid-19 victims, attention is turning to effective wound care for patients to hasten healing following surgery, avoid cross contamination in a hospital and enable proper care at home following direct clinical supervision.…

ANTI-money laundering maybe a career that financial and legal professionals increasingly follow, but the training and qualification structure for AML/CFT is still emerging and solidifying, and there are doubts whether it will ever coalesce into a formal global structure, akin to FATF recommendations.…

Nicotine consumption is declining worldwide, with smokers are consuming less, as well as e-cigarette and heated tobacco users, according to market research provider Euromonitor International’s ‘Nicotine Survey, Exploring the Modern Nicotine Landscape’.

“Overall [the study] shows nicotine prevalence is declining not growing, and it is clear to see there isn’t much evidence that greater availability of nicotine formats is increasing smoking prevalence among adults,” said Shane MacGuill, head of tobacco research at Euromonitor International, in a webinar attended by TJI.…

INTERNATIONAL export centres for the wool industry have been considering how they will help fill gaps in supplies to the knitwear sector because of the damage caused to Australia’s wool sector by January’s devastating bush and outback fires. Extensive rain has now at last extinguished most of Australia’s bushfires, but wool growers are still assessing the damage.…

Kabeer Naqvi, CEO of U Microfinance Bank Ltd, one of Pakistan’s fastest growing businesses, is clearly a man in a hurry. His bank – branded U Bank – is digitising quickly as it grows its deposits and its important lending business, that is pulling many thousands of Pakistanis out of poverty and into lives of sustainably growing income.…

GEOGRAPHICAL indications can be controversial legal protections that some food manufacturers regard as being unjust restrictions on trade in quality food items that are inspired by traditional products.

Of course, for companies based in traditional production regions of goods such as Prosciutto ham and Irish whisky, they can be a Godsend – preventing illicit competition (as they see it) from banking on a reputation for taste that has been created by protected manufacturers in previous decades, even centuries.…

South-east Asia is not known for a tradition of eating dairy products, but actually consumers in the region’s most populous country Indonesia (population 270 million people) have been eating cheese for more than a century (partly thanks Indonesia’s historic links with the Netherlands) and the country has a thriving domestic dairy industry.…

As with every business sector in every country around the world, Japan’s paint and coatings industry has been thrown into uncertainty over the full impact and longer-term implications of the coronavirus Covid-19 that has swept the globe since first emerging in China in December 2019. …

Indonesia’s industry ministry launched an initiative in February (2020) aimed at eliminating lead used in paint made and sold in the country. It involves the Indonesian paint industry, is part of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) project and is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an international investment body.…

Digital printing is still a relatively new concept to Poland’s traditional fabric finishing sector – but national pride in the country’s well-established textile sector is sparking a desire to modernise so it can maintain its competitive edge. Much of the resulting investment has been focused on local and independent textile printers located throughout the country – but a significant number of these are based in Łódz, central Poland, a key textile manufacturing hub, with the port-town of Gdynia also being home to upgraded finishing plants.…

THE RELEASE this week of an immigration policy by the British government that is designed to emulate the points-based systems of Canada and Australia is yet another example of how Brexiteers ignore the reality that Britain is a small island off the coast of a populous and rich continent – Europe.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is taking a hard look at hydrogen as a low carbon option to help make Europe a first climate-neutral continent by 2050, a key policy goal that is at the heart of policy-making within the new European Commission of its president Ursula von der Leyen – however he need to make H-vehicles and renewables-based H-fuel cheaper is a major challenge.  …

THE MANY properties that have contributed to graphene being described as a ‘super material’ make it an increasingly attractive choice as an ingredient in a wide range of coatings with special functionalities say researchers and manufacturers. And, with Many of these properties offering environment-friendly and sustainable benefits, graphene is being considered as a key part of the coatings industries efforts to reduce carbon emissions and hence climate change.…

Unterweser Nuclear Plant (KKU) in Northern Germany went into service in 1978 and with 1,425MW gross electricity output, the pressurised water reactor (PWR) plant was once world champion in terms of generated electricity.

Having booked an impressive lifetime total of 305 billion KWh, KKU went out of service in 2011 after the political leadership in Berlin reacted to Japan’s Fukushima disaster that year by ordering a nuclear phase-out before plants were due to end operations.…

CONSULTATIONS are being assessed in Australia to develop a National Standard for Environmental Risk Management of Industrial Chemicals, which will include coatings and their chemical ingredients, Australia’s department of agriculture, water and the environment has said in a note. The national standard, for which consultations were to end in February, is being designed to ensure that potentially harmful high-risk chemicals are subject to appropriate and consistent environmental controls across the nation.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has called on EU member states and other EU institutions to work harder to fight the scourge of food fraud, which can damage the commercial health of legitimate manufacturers and risk consumer health. In a detailed policy statement (called ‘council conclusions’ in EU jargon), ministers said an EU “legal definition of food fraud” should be created that would underpin future regulatory actions fighting such wrongdoing, which can include deliberate mislabelling and the use of illicit ingredients.…

WITH Middle East dairy sales expanding steadily, dairy suppliers from around the world are targeting its consumers, hoping to gain a foothold in an increasingly diverse marketplace that is often open to innovation.

Dairy Industries International attended the 4th Global Dairy Innovation Congress MENA 2020, held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), from January 20-21, where participants were encouraged by sales projections as from market researcher Euromonitor International that the Middle East (and Africa) dairy market should expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 3% between 2019 and 2023.…

Wrangling between Chile’s dairy farmers and major dairies and process is over milk prices is threatening to overshadow the opportunities that this Potentially strong industry has to grow, especially in export markets. On a similar latitude to Australia and New Zealand, southern Chile’s Los Lagos and Los Rios regions offer almost ideal conditions for dairy farming, with plentiful rains, lush pastures, and mild winters.…

IMPORTERS of paints into Japan have been given four time-windows in 2020 to secure ‘small volume permits’ under which coatings can be brought into Japan without any new chemical components being declared to regulators. This special exemption applies to imports of a product into Japan under one tonne per year, says the Japanese Chemical Substances Control Law.…

INTERNATIONAL collaboration, financial and strategic support and government policy consistency that endures beyond changes in political administrations are vital to maintain accelerating global gains in access to higher education, delegates at an international conference in Scotland were told this week.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission will next year (2020) consider whether to add zirconium to the European Union (EU) critical raw material list, with the aim of encouraging production and recycling of a mineral so resistant to corrosion, it is widely used in the nuclear industry.…

Diplomats at the World Trade Organisation’s goods council have attacked the European Union (EU) over its plans to integrate titanium dioxide and cobalt into its health and safety laws, claiming this could impose unnecessary red tape restrictions on exporting certain stainless steels to the EU.…

African manufacturers are trying to integrate sustainability in their textile and fashion supply chains as retailers demand compliance with increasingly high standards fuelled by consumer pressure. But to do so, manufacturers are asking for assistance from international organisations to implement change.…

A free trade deal between Europe and Australia is in the making but European Union (EU) trade negotiators have managed to generate some serious concerns among Australian dairy industry in the process. The EU wants Australia to recognise the exclusive rights of EU cheesemakers to the traditional names of almost 60 different types of cheeses through Australia recognising EU geographical indications (GI) within any agreement.…

RETALIATORY duties imposed by the USA in a trade dispute with the European Union (EU) over aeroplane subsidies will, argues Italian farmers union, Coldiretti, shrink Italian food exports to the US by 20%, with the Italian speciality cheese sector being the hardest hit.…

As national, regional and international legislation nudges the world away from its reliance on fossil fuels, corporations are increasingly sourcing renewable energy through the mechanism of green power purchase agreements (PPAs), whereby companies (and also utilities) act as an off-taker, making commitments for future renewable energy payments.…

A highly competitive market combined with healthy sums of investor capital look set to drive forward an increase  in merger/acquisition (M/A) activity in the cosmetic packaging sector, as companies seek to deliver added value to existing customer bases and extend their footprint into new territories, both geographic and product ranges.…

Robust international enforcement of revised AML guidance will improve current weaknesses in cryptocurrency compliance, according to financial services analysts.

Current figures indicate about 3,000 separate cryptocurrencies being traded with a value of USD221 billion, according to Yahoo Finance on October 8^.…

A few years ago, New Zealand Barque oil and gas prospect was rated as one of the most promising exploratory reserves in the world. The decision by New Zealand’s Labour-New Zealand First-Greens coalition government decision last April (2018) to ban any new offshore exploration permits has, however, complicated any future operations at the Barque, east of NZ’s South Island.…

The former CEO and chief operations officer (COO) of Monaco-based energy services company Unaoil have pleaded guilty to facilitating millions of US dollars in bribes to officials in multiple countries. Britons Cyrus Ahsani and Saman Ahsani accepted they made illicit payments in countries including Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya and Syria.…

RUSSIA’S dairy industry has been trying to develop its size and sales while its government’s restrictions on European Union (EU) dairy imports remain, but there are questions about how well producers would cope with imports once these sanctions are, eventually, lifted.…

THE DEVELOPMENT of uniform safety standards to help reduce the number of reputation-damaging accidents occurring as automated vehicles are rolled out commercially is of key importance, a CAV Canada conference (connected and autonomous vehicles) in Canada has been told.

Sasha Ostojic, a board member of California-based autonomous vehicle company Zoox, and a former senior vice president engineering at GM’s Cruise Automation, said of the current American system, where manufacturers are protecting their CAV IP and not sharing safety information: “I truly think this is a problem.…

Botswana looks set to boost southern African copper supplies with Khoemacau Copper Mining Pty. (Ltd), a subsidiary of a US-based company, Cupric Canyon Capital, planning to open a mine in the country’s Kalahari copper belt.

The planned mine has an initial annual production of 62,000 tonnes of copper (and 1.9 million ounces of silver), with managers hoping to increase yearly production to over 100,000 tonnes of copper and three million ounces of silver.…

Predicting fashion trends in advance to match supply chain requirements has long been a challenge for the knitwear industry and it is now developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine technology that learns from social media images to get ahead of the market.…

Peruvian clothing manufacturers are betting on a local fibre with international renown to grow exports: alpaca. “Instead of exporting the raw materials, we want to export more value-added products,” Raúl Rivera, marketing manager of Michell & Cia, an Arequipa, Peru-based maker of alpaca fibre, yarns and garments, told just-style. …

From the creation of nanotube coatings to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in modelling to reduce production flaws, saving costs, textile composite manufacture is becoming smarter “on a near daily basis, according to researchers.

Uday Vaidya, chief technology officer at the Tennessee, USA-based Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), told Future Textiles described how thermography applies heat using maps to fabrics; when they cool, systems reveal the difference in effects and defects “which saves a lot of time”.…

THE BEAUTY and personal care sectors have performed healthily in Australia and New Zealand throughout the past year, with companies providing consumers with fulfilling experiences, skin care excellence and natural ingredients performing particularly strongly.

The continued growth of beauty and personal care in Australia in 2018 was also driven by the expansion of specialist retailers Mecca and Sephora in premium beauty.…

As recycling schemes collecting waste paint become more common worldwide,

innovation within the field is being encouraged and rewarded.

Some manufacturers have developed processes to mix waste products with virgin paint to create reformulated paint for retail. Other organisations are supporting underprivileged community groups with free paint to protect and decorate public buildings.…

The news that major American retailer Barneys New York has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy and plans to close all but two stores is yet another warning sign for the industry that brands should not rely upon department stores to sell their product.…

‘AUSTRALIAN-made’, ‘cruelty-free’ and ‘natural’ – these were the marketing buzz words most commonly cited during Australia’s leading beauty event – Beauty Expo Australia – staged in Sydney between August 24 and 25.

Although ‘Proudly Australian’ has become a slogan used by many beauty brands based in Australia, the conference actually demonstrated how Australian beauty retailers and consumers are open to trying more international lines, new treatments and innovative products.…

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) trade deal struck with South America’s Mercosur group of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, will open this emerging market to EU confectionery exporters, but Europe’s sugar sector fears increased Brazilian sugar exports. The agreement, which now needs to be ratified by both sides, will phase out Mercosur duties on EU exports of chocolate and sugar confectionery of 20%; biscuits (taxed at 20% to 35%); liquorice extract – 8%; and confectionery-making equipment – 14%.…

DOING business in many southeast Asian countries is becoming increasingly challenging, with major companies being exposed to increasingly sophisticated financial crime and widespread corruption. Poorna Rodrigo reports.

COMMERCIAL crime in southeast Asia is fuelled by the fact that it contains wealthy and medium-income well-regulated jurisdictions, alongside weakly-regulated, corruption-heavy poorer countries.…

THE EMPATHY, connectedness and flexibility skills taught to students during an innovative international problem solving programme at the USA’s University of Oregon (UO) have manifested themselves in three prize-winning solutions to community problems.

These focused on environmental degradation, social inequality and public health, with students having 10 days this month to develop groundbreaking ideas for action at an Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Undergraduate Leaders Program.…

STUDENTS from top Pacific Rim research universities have embarked on an innovative programme of problem solving, designed to create fresh solutions on pressing socio-economic problems that leverage leadership skills and community contacts.

The University of Oregon (UO), in Eugene, Oregon, welcomed 50 undergraduate students from 30 universities based in the Pacific Rim region, including from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Japan, Australia, and more.…

THE WOOL sector is part of an increasingly complex and global supply chain and, as a result, international technical standards are growing in utility and importance. Where suppliers and buyers follow and require the use of international standards to guide their operations and products, there will be fewer nasty surprises, in orders and purchases.…

THE TRADE war between the USA and China that has seen both sides impose a wide range of duties on each other’s exports has depressed Australian wool prices though a reduction in demand from key Chinese buyers.

Australian Council of Wool Exporters and Processors executive director Peter Morgan told just-style that the Washington-Beijing stand-off has come during other events depressing wool sales: “Events such as the US, China trade wars, US, India trade disputes, the US, Iran political tensions and the negative rhetoric during the recent G20 meeting” have been  disruptive and this obviously “effect global economic confidence,” he said.…

Brazilian beef exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) saw an increase of 439.84% year-on-year in the first half of 2019, according to figures issued by the Dubai-based Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. Brazilian beef sales to all Arab countries were up 47.62%.…

BULGARIA’S plastics industry has been making the most of the growing demand for supplies from major western markets. The sector has been particularly buoyant over the past five years, with Bulgaria’s comparatively low costs and occasional regulatory light touch making its plastics companies competitive with competitors in western Europe.…

IT has been another subdued year for the beauty and personal care product market in Latin America, as the region’s economy underperforms yet again after six years of deceleration (and in some countries outright recession), keeping a lid on sales growth. …

VIETNAMESE technical textile producers look set to capitalise on the ongoing trade war between the US and China with an increase in approaches from American automotive supply chain clients already being witnessed.

In May, the Trump regime increased tariffs on USD200 billion of imported Chinese goods, including many technical textiles and end-products made of technical textiles.…

AN INTERNATIONAL market research company is predicting that the legalisation of recreational cannabis, notably in Canada, and now in 10 US states, could encourage tobacco consumers to shift from smoking to vaping, and even depress tobacco sales overall long term.

Shane MacGuill, head of tobacco at Euromonitor International, said that while in the short term, recreational cannabis legalisation “could support the Canadian tobacco market as consumers experiment with consumption of cannabis flower in combustible format”, he predicted “any bump will be relatively small and short lived”.…

WOLLASTONITE has been described by a Canadian producer as “a white mineral for a greener world,” and it seems governments, businesses and industries agree – with wollastonite is set to see increased market growth in its traditional uses plus a new focus on its powerful qualities to help tackle climate change.…

WOLLASTONITE has been described by a Canadian producer as “a white mineral for a greener world,” and it seems governments, businesses and industries agree – with wollastonite is set to see increased market growth in its traditional uses plus a new focus on its powerful qualities to help tackle climate change.…

AFRICAN swine fever (ASF) has been squeezing pork supplies in China to a point where the country’s political leadership fears upheaval, as reflected by the country’s government influenced social media restricting ASF-related discussion. Even academic articles, if ASF-themed, now require explicit regulatory approval before publishing, informed sources in China, who requested anonymity, told just-food.  …

ANTI-fraud experts understand that managers always need to be aware of the potential for their organisations to lose money to fraud and corruption. But the fact that the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/acfepublic/2018-report-to-the-nations.pdf

estimates an average 5% of public and private revenues are lost to fraud indicates that more awareness is needed.…

ANTI-fraud experts understand that managers always need to be aware of the potential for their organisations to lose money to fraud and corruption. But the fact that the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/acfepublic/2018-report-to-the-nations.pdf

estimates an average 5% of public and private revenues are lost to fraud indicates that more awareness is needed.…

THE AUSTRALIAN coating and paint market has experienced volatility over the past five years, with mergers and acquisitions consolidating the industry, whilst consumer demand and legislation have boosted the sale of more environment-friendly products. Across the Tasman Sea, meanwhile, New Zealand has seen growth due to innovation in high-performance and green coatings.…

THE INDUSTRIAL minerals mining and processing sector and its customers has an increasingly complex and global supply chain and as a result, international technical standards are growing in utility and importance. Where suppliers and retailers follow and require the use of international standards to guide their operations and products, there will be fewer nasty surprises, in orders and purchases.…

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) took effect in December 2018, incrementally bringing down import tariffs for Vietnamese garments in a market with 495 million consumers across 11 countries.

But Vietnamese garment-makers are struggling to reduce costs to deliver pricing that is competitive enough to make the most of CPTPP.…

THE LEGALISATION nationwide of recreational cannabis in Canada last October (2018) was a groundbreaking move – a first for a major western country – and from this coming October 17, at the latest, one that may have significant implications for the beauty business.…

Europe’s universities have been told how they need to be flexible when developing models to generate innovation with real value to society, ensuring this work meshes effectively with business partners.

The message came at the European University Association’s (EUA) annual conference, in Paris, on April 11-12.…

ON the face of it, Japan and Russia are perfect partners for growing trade in liquified natural gas (LNG). Japan has always had few fossil fuel resources for powering its sophisticated industrial economy, and Russia has plenty of gas to export.…

SUPERFRUITS offer personal care product brands lots of marketing muscle, delivering an image of exoticism, as well as offering real functional benefits.

As a result, beauty companies have been willing to trawl the world for new super fruit ingredients to give their lines a competitive edge.…

THE MANUFACTURE, distribution and use of leaded paints in projects funded by Japan’s public sector has been banned from March (2019), at the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year. For instance, Japan’s ministry of education, culture, sports, science and technology revised its building construction standards for educational facilities in April (2019), requiring manufacturers to use a non-leaded primer or sealer before applying antibacterial paint on surfaces such as gypsum board.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) chocolate, biscuit and confectionery industry association CAOBISCO has raised concerns that EU exporters will be unable to exploit the reduction of Japanese tariffs under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), in force since February 1. CAOBISCO is concerned about how the deal includes rules of origin forcing its members to demonstrate how they source specific volumes of ingredients from the EU, rather than their value, which would be easier to demonstrate.…

THE REDUCTION of transport costs for the mineral sector through high-capacity marine cargo handling solutions was a key topic of the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention held in Toronto, this month (March 3-6). The CSL Group Inc (CSL), a privately-owned shipping company based in Montréal, Québec, and the world’s largest owner and operator of self-unloading vessels, explained how its systems can improve the logistics chain and better integrate cargo loading with mining operations.…

With more than 5.48 billion (see https://www.worldwidewebsize.com) pages on the internet, fraud investigators have a wealth of material at their fingertips to help trace fraudsters and link target individuals, objects, locations and events. Thankfully, there are also increasingly sophisticated sites and tools available online to make this task more efficient and less time-consuming.…

Australia is witnessing strong solar energy growth, with unprecedented increases in power generation being complemented by rapid advances in storage that are tempering concerns that the country could be approaching a peak-solar output crunch.

The continent now has more than 10.1GW of solar installed, combining large- or utility-scale (above 100kW) plants, medium- or commercial-scale ones (10-100kW) and small-scale household rooftop stations (below 10kW).…

Few issues give Irish politicians as much grief as the health service. Perennial budget overruns and waiting lists have ruined several ministerial careers. But what should have been a good news story, the building of a new National Paediatric Hospital, in Dublin, has done perhaps the most damage.…

INDONESIA is seeking to be among the world’s top five textile and apparel producers by 2030, partly by taking advantage of digital technology, a government official has announced.

The adoption of industrial revolution 4.0 technologies will make Indonesia’s textile industry more efficient and competitive globally, said Muhdori, director for textile, leather, footwear and multifarious industries at the industry ministry.…

TRADING partners with the European Union (EU) are concerned about the EU cutting the size of low duty import quotas once Britain quits the bloc, which it is scheduled to do on March 28.

The EU has released detailed plans to reduce the amount of some goods it allows into the EU, to take account of Britain exiting the single European market.…

CONCERNS about the environmental and health damage caused by sunscreen chemicals has started to translate into regulatory action around the world, with the US state of Hawaii being the most high-profile reformer.

Hawaii has imposed a state-wide ban on the sale and distribution within Hawaii of products containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, which are widely regarded as having a harmful impact on coral.…

A TECHNOLOGY entwined with fossil fuels that, by the of 2018, boasted 43 large-scale facilities, (18 in commercial operation, five in construction and 20 in development), and which processed almost 40 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of CO2, is clearly more than a passing fad.…

WITH the Asia-Pacific coatings market and industry being one of the most dynamic worldwide, experiencing continuous robust growth, the potential for additives to give brands an edge in seizing market share is increasingly important.

Backed by buoyant construction, automotive and marine industries across the Asia Pacific, the region’s paint and coatings additives market is showing promising growth, analysts say.…

DRAWING inspiration from the sustainable fabric-making methods of Indonesia’s Baduy tribal community, who live in a remote region of Java, a high-profile Indonesian textile designer has commercialised is these textiles to create runway fashion for a global audience.

Woven fabric designs developed by Merdi Sihombing, called Suat Songket and Samping Aros, are “unique traditional weaving patterns that are used by the Baduy community,” Mr Sihombing told WTiN.com,…

THE WOOL industry worldwide needs to bolster its reputation for sustainability, amidst increasing siren attacks on its marketing position from animal rights and environmental activists, the 2018 International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO) Wool Round Table, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, heard this month (December 3-4).…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has approved establishing disputes settlement panels ruling sought by the USA on whether retaliatory duties imposed by the European Union (EU), Canada, China, and Mexico on US confectionery and sweet bakery and associated ingredient exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

WITH consumers globally becoming ever-more concerned about whether the woolen products they buy, use or wear were made without cruelty to the animals from which this natural fibre was shorn, the wool industry has been working hard to improve its traceability systems.…

A BUDDY training system has been launched by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), enabling countries with significant regulatory capacity to help other states prepare for the upcoming CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) scheme. ICAO has been training national officials to advise on ensuring CORSIA’s legal requirements are written into local laws and also on building the emissions data monitoring, reporting and verification systems they need to measure their airlines’ carbon footprint.…

MEAT industry professionals in the USA are gearing up to re-enter Japan’s lucrative lamb market, following the Japanese government in July (2018) lifting a ban to import American lamb into Japan. US exporters are looking to persuade Japanese consumers that American lamb is a quality, even niche, product, as they look to compete with Australian and New Zealand rivals.…

MPs in Canada have returned to their House of Commons after the traditional summer break, when they are expected to vote on a draft law, the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, that would ban the testing of cosmetics and their ingredients on annals in Canada and block the sale of personal care products that have been assessed using such techniques.…

Charities continue to be at risk of being exploited by terrorist groups looking to transfer money and finance their operations, with the Middle East a high-risk area.

These non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are, however, criticising the extra scrutiny the sector is facing from regulators, banks and governments, saying it is driving charity financing into the shadows, actually increasing risks of financing by crime and terror groups.…

THE GLOBAL artists’ paint market and industry may be small compared to bulk coatings segments, but it is important – and not just because real profits can be made by manufacturers, but also because this specialist segment drives innovation.

The need to reduce the environmental health impact of products that have inevitably had to deliver high-quality performance is one key focus of manufacturers and brands at present.…

COMMENTATORS may scoff at President Donald Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’ negotiating pretentions, but it would be hard to argue that the American food sector was not a winner in the new USA-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal, stuck on September 30.…

The recent sight of a Chinese internet celebrity in a milking parlour in Limerick could be a hint of what the future holds for Ireland’s increasingly international dairy industry. Xiao Lu Yu, one of the ‘influencers’ who monetise Chinese social media (see https://m.weibo.cn/status/4279583182420503…

Indonesia is seeking to open new markets for its textile and garment products – not only are free trade agreements with Australia and fellow Asian countries are on the cards, the industry’s association and the government has announced, but the industry is also targeting African export sales.…

THE CHINESE government has directly targeted the American knitwear sector in the latest tit-for-tat response in the trade wars launched by US President Donald Trump. Beijing has highlighted knitted goods in a list of products that maybe subject to retaliatory tariffs, should the USA impose a threatened third list of duties on Chinese tech, drafted over alleged thefts of American IP.…

A senior figure in the American cotton industry has told just-style of his concern that Turkey’s collapsing currency and trade disputes with the US government will cause it to import less US-made cotton.

The Turkish lira – TRY has dropped in value by 45% this year – indeed last September 12, USD1 bought TRY3.43, this September 11, it bought TRY6.43.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has attempted to heal a long-standing dispute with the United States by requesting authorisation from European Union (EU) ministers to open negotiations on the redistribution of quotas for hormone-free beef imported in European countries. Speaking to GlobalMeatNews, the secretary general of the European Livestock and Meat Trades Union (UECBV), Jean-Luc Mériaux said he supports the tasks and forging “a consensus aiming at consolidating trade flows”.…

Japan’s wagyu producers are penetrating the Australian market following the lifting of an import ban on Japanese beef in May, but sales may be limited to the high-end market.

The ban had been in place for 17 years due to outbreaks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease in Japan.…

The new director of the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Lisa Osofsky, has highlighted strengthening international cooperation in the fight against fraud as a priority in her new job. Dual American-British national Osofsky, who comes with a background as a federal prosecutor in the US, particularly wants to step up cooperation on deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs).…

WITH the old certainties that the world would move steadily towards ever freer trade now crumbling, the technical textile sector is closely monitoring shifts in trade policy by key governments and international organisations.

This industry depends on the free flow of materials and finished goods – and unlike many textile segments – still has a significant manufacturing presence in mature markets, making the impact of trade policy changes complex and hard to predict.…

A new report from Transparency International has found that only 11 major exporting countries in the world significantly punish companies that pay bribes abroad. The report, called ‘Exporting Corruption’, also found that more than half of world exports come from at least 33 jurisdictions, including several European Union (EU) member states, where companies that export corruption along with their goods and services face weak consequences. …

The UK and Australia are poles apart geographically but share the aim of becoming leaders in using or selling hydrogen for energy. The scheduled unveiling in November (2018) of a conceptual design to convert an eighth (8.3 million) of the UK’s population to 100% low-carbon hydrogen gas between 2028 and 2035 matters.…

AUSTRALIA and New Zealand might be saturated markets for the cosmetic and toiletry retailing industry but the consumers’ willingness to buy a variety of complex formulated and premium green products is continually expanding revenue. Millennial consumers especially are contributing to rising demand for independent and green brands.…

COULD digital textile printing help bring the Australian textile and clothing manufacturing sector back to sustainable growth? There are experts who believe this scaleable finishing technology can give Australian design talent room to thrive.

Faced with the proximity of China’s manufacturing juggernaut, it is no surprise that mass textile and clothing manufacturing declines in Australia, but digital technologies are giving the industry a chance to find new niches.…

A WORLD Bank senior manager has called on governments and policymakers to take a more proactive role in shaping the future use of blockchain technology, recognising its potential to transform the global economic landscape.

Arunma Oteh, vice president and treasurer of the World Bank, told the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) Blockchain Policy Forum in Paris, September 4-5, that regulators needed to ensure the benefits of blockchain outweigh the risks.…

THE CHINESE government has directly targeted the American confectionery and related ingredients sector in its latest tit-for-tat response in the trade wars launched by US President Donald Trump. Beijing has highlighted these goods as products that may become subject to retaliatory tariffs, should the USA impose a threatened third list of duties on Chinese tech, drafted over alleged thefts of American IP.…

They say the UK can forge its own future by negotiating bespoke trade deals that reflect British interests rather than those of Brussels. But the more comprehensive deals Britain strikes, the more its room to manoeuvre will shrink – because all its trading partners (who are also striking deals with each other) will have to agree the same or similar terms for such deals to work.…

SUPPORTERS of the European Union (EU) as a political concept stress how it has the vision, and the money, to promote energy projects of common interest (PCIs) between its (for now) 28 member states. Their goal is to promote an effective continent-wide energy market that offers European citizens more security in their supply of gas, electricity and to a lesser extent oil.…

THE INDIAN government has been sending out conflicting signals about its trading policy for its important knitwear sector. While it last month (July 18) announced it was increasing import duties for some key knitted apparel and knitwear inputs, talks are moving ahead to forge a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with 16 Asian counties.…

THE CANADIAN government is resisting Australian proposals to establish a disputes panel at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to judge whether discrimination against wines imported into Canada break global commerce agreements.

Despite Australia making its initial complaint to the WTO back in January, Canada claimed to a WTO disputes settlement body (DSB) meeting yesterday (Aug 27) that talks held since then between the two governments had been inconclusive and more time was needed for consultations.…

Australian beef and lamb producers are to receive a sales and marketing boost in Japan as non-profit organisations (NPO) use the anticipation of the country’s staging of the Rugby World Cup in 2019 to help their meat products gain a stronger foothold in the market.…

The Indian beauty and personal care industry is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.6% until 2022, according to research conducted by market analysis company Euromonitor International, down from the 9.1% year-on-year growth to USD14 billion that the sector reported in 2017.…

PLAIN packaging rules, or approximations, are growing around the world, but the tobacco sector still argues that these controls are over-reaches that do not reduce smoking and instead encourage counterfeiting and smuggling.

Since January 2017, French smokers have been buying non-branded packs of cigarettes, seeing only a warning picture with text about how tobacco consumption affects people’s health, along with the name of the manufacturer in a simple typeface.…

THE ASIA-PACIFIC (APAC) region’s oil and gas sector faces an unprecedented level of decommissioning for which it is under-prepared and lacks experience, analysts have warned. Unclear regional government regulations coupled with a lack of local expertise mean that companies and regulators face a steep learning curve, high initial costs and the potential for mistakes, according to the consultancy group Wood Mackenzie’s latest analysis.…

JAPANESE eateries are expanding in Indonesia as the appetite for beef rises among south-east Asia’s most populous country’s growing middle class.

In 2016, Indonesia’s beef consumption was 1.84 kg per capita (its population is 261 million), up from 1.45 kg a decade earlier, according to business researcher Statista.…

THE RUSSIAN and European Union (EU) meat industries are beginning to accept Russia’s ban on meat and livestock as a fact, with President Vladimir Putin extending the existing embargo on imports of meat and other food products to Russia from western countries and allies until December 31, 2019.…

THE NEWLY signed 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) could help Vietnam boost garment and textile exports to the lucrative Australian market significantly. But the Asian clothing makers may still face big challenges in taking market share in this mature market away from China, experts warn. …

GROWTH of distributed renewable power generation with storage is set to pick up significantly in key global regions of demand for electricity. Quantifying its impact on the rate at which renewables will capture share in the energy mix is made difficult by its often-hidden nature, but some utilities and energy policy makers are starting to get to grips with the challenge – the eventual results will be of interest to oil and gas marketers.…

THE NONWOVENS sector has always been at the cutting edge of materials production, and so established developed economy manufacturers have often had the edge. But with global markets integrating, and emerging economies becoming increasingly sophisticated, new nonwovens manufacturing bases are growing all the time.…

THE ECONOMIES of the Asia Pacific region are impressively dynamic, but HR experts agree much more could be gained if the region were to succeed in improving women’s skills and providing them with equal opportunities at work.

Illustrating just how much potential there is, the latest report from the McKinsey Global Institute published in April, ‘The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in Asia Pacific’, has found that advancing women’s equality in the region could add USD4.5 trillion to their collective GDP annually in 2025 – a 12% increase over the “business-as-usual trajectory”.…

Zimbabwe’s parliament has approved new mining legislation and measures that reform controls imposed under the ex-President Robert Mugabe, with the goal of boosting production and wooing investors. The liberalising measures dovetail with declarations from new President Emmerson Mnangagwa that the country – which has extensive lithium and chrome deposits – is now open for business.…

The new realities of accelerating wage growth and the global shift towards placing smaller orders needs to be answered by Vietnam-based garment-makers by embracing technology-driven automation, according to ThreadSol, an India-based technology company. It supplies leading manufacturers in Vietnam with production software driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data.…

Cotton industry analysts have said the clothing industry should not overreact to a major hike in Chinese cotton futures contracts, following years of stockpiling the fibre by China buyers, even though they accept market uncertainty has been driving up prices.

Contracts have been purchased covering more than 361,000 bales of US cotton for 2019-20, according to US Department of Agriculture data which “would be enough to make 400 million t-shirts,” the Wall Street Journal suggested in an article on June 10, adding: “China has never booked that much cotton that far in advance at this time of year, in data going back to 1998” and has now become a “major consumer” of US cotton.…

FRAUD poses a “tremendous threat to organisations of all types and sizes, in all parts of the world”, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) – which like many expert groups have sought to demonstrate the scale of the problem with statistics.…

VIRTUAL reality (VR) systems are increasingly available and useful for the civil aviation sector – with their training benefits a key focus of an International Air Transport Association (IATA) conference. Its first ever Aviation Virtual & Augmented Reality Summit (AVARS), in Geneva, June 5 and 6, (2018), showed how shocking viewers through VR can really make a difference – the death of a virtual passenger underlined the importance of such tech in safety training.…

FRAUD poses a “tremendous threat to organisations of all types and sizes, in all parts of the world”, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) – which like many expert groups have sought to demonstrate the scale of the problem with statistics.…

MALAYSIA has long positioned itself as a higher-tech source of textile manufacturing and so it is maybe no surprise that it has been growing its digital textile printing segment.

That has been to the benefit of key Japan-based digital imaging and printing solution supplier Epson, which currently claims a Malaysian market share of 87% – based on data harvested last year (2017).…

The European Commission has proposed new European Union (EU) company law procedures saying how a company should move from one EU country to another; companies from different countries can merge; or one company can divide into two or more new units in more than one EU country.…

OFFICIAL projections for Vietnam’s garment and textile exports in 2018 are bright but input imports for garment and textile production were more than half of the value of garment and textile exports in 2017, highlighting the need for increased domestic sourcing, industry analysts say.…

NEW flexible dress code policies introduced across Asia are facing something of a backlash as employers and employees wrestle with matching cultural and corporate identities to assess the appropriate level of work attire.

While heat and humidity, as well as the needs of the growing number of working mothers, do provide some rationale for more flexibility in east and southeast Asian workforces, cultural forces and the fear of missing out on business opportunities seem to be leading some companies to hold on to traditional rules, either real or implicit, for business wear.…

AS in the Caribbean, small island jurisdictions in the south Pacific vary regarding their anti-money laundering (AML) exposure through the extent to which they host offshore financial sectors. As a result, when comparing the counties of Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands, it is clear which of the three global AML regulators have had to worry about – Vanuatu.…

AN UPCOMING European Union (EU)/New Zealand free trade agreement (FTA) will benefit the metals industry, New Zealand and European experts have told Metal Bulletin, after a preparatory customs agreement between the partners came into force May 1.

Notably, Europe will gain more access to New Zealand’s quality low emission-produced metals as well as metal components, Nick Collins, chief executive of industry association Metals New Zealand (Metals NZ) said.…

The Indian government has launched a disputes proceeding at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), protesting at the USA’s imposition of duties of 25% and 10% on imports of India-made steel and aluminium products.

New Delhi argues that the tariffs, imposed on March 23 by the Trump administration to protect and expand American aluminium and steel production, break the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its Agreement on Safeguards.…

AS China’s retreat from mass market clothing production continues, Bangladesh knitters are eyeing another added value knitwear niche – sportswear. Following the industry’s success in boosting sales within the profitable lingerie segment, Bangladesh manufacturers are ramping up production in sports apparels, although some experts say that work is needed on boosting its supply chain, particularly of manmade fibres.…

Unlike the limited range of minerals used in fossil fuel production, many minerals, metallic and nonmetallic, are used in renewable energy technologies. However, production is often low and concentrated in a limited number of countries – creating potential strategic supply problems.…

WITH a new European Union (EU)/New Zealand customs agreement coming into force this week (May 1), EU farm body Copa-Cogeca secretary-general Pekka Pesonen has warned that anticipated follow up trade talks should not boost NZ access to EU meat markets.

“The EU has a big export market with up to 500 million consumers and we do not see that we can benefit or have a balanced trade deal from an agreement with New Zealand which has up to five million consumers,” Mr Pesonen told GlobalMeatNews.…

Prospects for US beef sales in Taiwan are looking rosy, buoyed by a good economy and greater demand from Korean BBQ and hotpot restaurants sourcing high quality cuts, according to the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF). Joel Haggard, the association’s senior vice president of its Asia-Pacific office, in Hong Kong, told GlobalMeatNews: for the past year or so “there’s a kind of a ‘meat boom’ happening; what we’re seeing is more outlets trying to do business with beef on their menus,” and adding that a “robust” economic growth was fueling diner interest.…

After the USA, UK, Australia and others, Canada could become latest country to introduce deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs). The government has proposed legislation to create a scheme, to be known as the Remediation Agreement Regime (RAR), which would involve voluntary agreements between prosecutors and corporations accused of committing a criminal offence. …

EXPERTS have expressed mixed reactions on how a proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), now years in the making, could help revive the garment and textile sector in South East Asia.

The 16-member bloc that includes the 10 ASEAN member countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and six other countries – Australia New Zealand, China, India, Japan and South Korea – have been negotiating the deal since November 2012.…

THE SOUTH Korean cosmetics market, currently evaluated by Frost & Sullivan at USD12.4 billion and growing at 7% year-on-year, is leaving behind the negative effects of a de facto boycott by Chinese tourists. The travel freeze, sparked by Seoul’s decision to install a US-made anti-missile system to protect itself from North Korea, has been in place since early 2017.…

The South Pacific’s Cook Islands (population: 11,700) and Niue (population: 1,600), both largely autonomous jurisdictions in free association with New Zealand, have in the past been accused by international AML experts as being tax havens that facilitate money laundering. But reforms indicate that AML/CFT controls are tightening.…

DEFERRED Prosecution Agreements (DPAs), that allow companies and individuals that admit to wrongdoing and cooperate with investigators and avoid prosecution, are becoming increasingly common worldwide, including for money laundering offences. The systems are particularly useful sticks to force erring financial and other corporate institutions to improve their anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism systems (AML/CFT), with prosecuting agencies deferring criminal cases on condition of sustained AML/CFT reforms.…

PAPUA New Guinea (PNG) left the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list in 2016 and is taking steps to stay that way. The Pacific island state has established new anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism legislation and associated controls. Opportunities for money laundering in this culturally diverse country are limited given 85% of its 8.5 million people are subsistence farmers.…

Word from US President Donald Trump that he may reverse a longstanding position and explore the possibility that the country may join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) after all, has left the fashion industry – along with much of the American business community – somewhat sceptical, while being supportive.…

BRAZIL’S automotive industry is awaiting the final details and presidential sanction of a 14-year incentives program called Rota 2030, that will offer up to Brazilian Reals BRL1.5 billion (USD467.4 million) in annual tax credits sector-wide to auto and auto parts manufacturers selling cars in Brazil.…

Despite the rise in alternatives, notably prepaid cards and cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, cash remains the instrument of choice for the world’s money launderers, say anti-money laundering experts.

Indeed, they say that a July 2015 report from European police agency Europol ‘Why is cash still king?’…

ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI)-led candidate screening or simply put, automated recruitment is ready to take off in east and south-east Asia. However, a key challenge in the process is making automated interactions valuable and engaging enough for candidates – so that “they don’t feel like they are talking to a dumb machine,” an industry expert said.…

AUSTRALIA may have been strengthening its anti-money laundering (AML) systems, but an admission last year (2017) by the country’s biggest bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), about AML failures was a clear reminder that reforms are still needed. The Commonwealth Bank admitted that it had breached Australian AML laws 53,700 times.…

THE PROSPECT of a grand bargain between the European Union (EU), the USA and Japan, involving action to reduce steel and aluminium overproduction, but abiding by global trading laws, has been raised.

An unusual Brussels meeting on Saturday (March 10) between EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Japan’s minister for economy and industry, Hiroshige Seko, debated such a plan, and agreed to continue discussions.…

AMERICAN pigmeat exporters have since yesterday (April 2) had to pay additional retaliatory 25% duties on products sold to mainland China responding to the USA’s imposition of 25% and 10% duties on imported steel and aluminium.

China’s ministry of commerce has announced that following a brief round of public consultation, these duties would be collected with immediate effect.…

WITH boasts of being the strongest, thinnest, most flexible material that is also super-lightweight and an excellent thermal and electronic conductor, the ‘wonder material’ graphene is finding its properties a game changer in the sporting arena – including at last month’s Winter Olympics (February).…

THE MALAYSIAN textile industry is pinning hopes on a government decision to reintroduce an export-targeted grant to revive the sector’s declining overseas business.  

The decision to reintroduce the Market Development Grant, offered to SMEs, was announced during the 2018 national budget unveiled in October 2017.…

THE INTERNATIONAL coatings industry may have a new and potentially booming niche to exploit – coatings that can harvest sunlight and heat and turn it into renewable electricity, without being incorporated into solar panels.

Noted a paper from the Indian Institute of Technology, in Patna: “As the energy demands are growing day by day, there is need of enhancing the efficiency of energy systems, which can be enhanced using the advanced coatings.”…

INDIA’S 12 newly sanctioned nuclear reactors with 9,000-megawatt (MW) capacity may use imported fuel, but most of the equipment will be made in India, government officials have told Fuel Cycle Week.

“We will see what is the maximum [amount of fuel] we can get from within the country and then what will be the external input of fuel,” Malur Ramaswamy Srinivasan, member of India’s Atomic Energy Commission, told Fuel Cycle Week.…

JAPANESE wagyu beef exports to Taiwan are set to soar as meat producers tap into demand following the lifting of a 16-year ban on the product, while riding on the tailwind of a Japanese government promotional campaign.

The ban on imports of Japanese wagyu, imposed after an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease in Japan in 2001, was lifted by the Taiwan government last September (2017).…

MAJOR shifts in the power of exporting countries within the meat and livestock sector in the past decade have been identified in new statistical analysis released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The global body has noted how India between 2006 and 2016 became a bovine meat export power house (notably in buffalo meat) with overseas sales rising from 79,400 tonnes (1.9% of world exports) to 1.2 million tonnes (18.7%) and the world’s largest exporter to boot.…

THE FUTURE of materials in this carbon-averse world is all about lightweighting. But quality and safety must be maintained. Nowhere is this truer than with the aerospace textiles segment, where durability, toughness and flexibility is allied with low weights, of importance when civil aviation operators are under pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.…

COATINGS technologies are proving to be an effective way of boosting the energy efficiency of building as well as aiding renewable energy systems that are integrated into their fabric. Research and development on such technologies are inspiring innovation academia and industry, noted a paper from the Indian Institute of Technology, in Patna, where authors Anup Kumar Keshri and M. …

COATINGS technologies are proving to be an effective way of boosting the energy efficiency of building as well as aiding renewable energy systems that are integrated into their fabric. Research and development on such technologies are inspiring innovation academia and industry, noted a paper from the Indian Institute of Technology, in Patna, where authors Anup Kumar Keshri and M. …

FINANCIAL crime experts are urging Indonesia to step up its war on terror financing and money laundering highlighting the south-east Asian nation’s vulnerability to these threats. The USA state department’s 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) noted these threats are significant despite Indonesia neither being a regional financial centre nor an offshore financial haven.…

Australia has today (January 16) requested formal talks with Canada at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), where it will pressure the Canadian government to liberalise wine trading restrictions in four of Canada’ provinces. These are British Columbia (BC), Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.…

Retail sales of lamb and mutton are on the rise in Japan, boosting domestic production as well as imports from Australia and New Zealand.

While sheep meat consumption remains minimal in the country, at only 0.1kg per capita in 2017, compared to pork (15.4kg) and beef and veal (6.6kg), according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), 2017 marks its second consecutive year of this market’s growth.…

FINANCIAL fraud, as all practitioners know, has become increasingly international, a trend that will doubtless continue. For law enforcers based on national units of theoretically sovereign countries, this poses challenges, and one particularly tough nut to crack are procedures to extradite suspects to face trial in the country where their alleged victims reside.…

DEFERRED Prosecution Agreements (DPAs), that allow companies and individuals that admit to wrongdoing and cooperate with investigators to pay a fine and avoid prosecution, are becoming increasingly common worldwide. Enabling wrongdoers to avoid being debarred from bidding for many contracts and providing law enforcers with a commitment that companies and individual fraudsters will avoid fraud in future, DPAs offer benefits for police and suspects.…

*The Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) is closer to being in effect, with Barbados, Côte d’Ivoire, Jamaica, Malaysia, Panama and Tunisia signing. Now 78 jurisdictions have signed the convention, with Algeria, Kazakhstan, Oman and Swaziland to sign soon.…

GOVERNMENTS are starting to develop anti-methane emission policies that could impact the meat and livestock industry as part of their response to the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change. World leaders who participated at November’s COP23 (conference of parties) climate summit in Bonn, Germany, were advised by a key investor group to reduce livestock methane if greenhouse gas emissions are to be tackled effectively.…

*The European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has published a blacklist of jurisdictions it thinks do not cooperate sufficiently with international efforts to reduce tax evasion. They are American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).…

THE STRATEGY and business development director of global aviation and transport systems giant Thales predicts that a global set of comprehensive rules controlling unmanned aircraft could be in place by 2019. That would be the year of the next triennial assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and allow enough time for expertise to be developed in countries such as the USA, Singapore, Australia, and the UK, that are leading on drone regulation.…

THE COMMONWEALTH Bank of Australia (CBA) has admitted significant failings in its anti-money laundering and terror finance controls, with the country’s financial intelligence unit (FIU) AUSTRAC alleging more than 53,800 contraventions of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006. CEO for AUSTRAC (the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre) has said: ‘These allegations are very serious and reflect systemic non-compliance over approximately six years”, between 2012 and 2017.…

THE POPULARITY of soft merino wool in China is growing, with this demand offering Australian wool exporters a potential export bonanza, until – and if – Chinese wool growers develop their own merino supplies.

But for the time being, say Australian and Chinese merino experts, efforts to develop Chinese merino production remains stuck in laboratories, with Chinese consumers mistrustful of the quality of China-made wool.…

NEW Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signal a promising outlook for the Vietnamese textile industry with tariff concessions providing the biggest stimulus to figures, according to the country’s trade officials.

Attendees at the 17^th Vietnam International Textile & Garment Industry Exhibition, held late last month (November 22-25th) in Ho Chi Minh City, heard the deals will impact significantly on the national textile sector.…

PERSONAL care product packagers are taking increasing care over the design and development of secondary packaging, noting that this can impart brand value, just in the same way as the elegant primary packaging that has always been part of the personal care product experience.…

HONG Kong regulators have laid down binding rules on financial institutions insisting that they practice effective cybersecurity management. The special administrative region’s (SAR) Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has issued ‘Guidelines for Reducing and Mitigating Hacking Risks Associated with Internet Trading’ requiring all licensed or registered internet traders to implement 20 steps to reduce cyber-attack vulnerabilities.…

THE AUSTRALIAN government has unveiled tighter security screening for workers at Australia’s airports, including baggage handlers, aircraft engineers and caterers. The country’s infrastructure and transport minister Darren Chester said: “Airport workers, together with their vehicles and belongings, will be randomly selected for explosive trace detection testing and other screening when entering or working in secure airside areas at major airports.”…

WHILE the Vatican City State and Holy See’s acceptance that their financial institutions could be exploited by money launderers is far more realistic than the denials of 10 years ago, a much-anticipated Italian court ruling has shown much work is needed to clear dirty money from these hallowed accounts.…

CHINA’S imposition of temporary safeguard duties to protect its sugar industry have been challenged at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with sugar giant Brazil arguing Beijing’s tariffs break global commerce rules. In a signal that Brazil might be considering launching a disputes case against China, diplomats for the South American country told a WTO safeguards committee meeting that the duties broke the WTO agreement on safeguards and the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT). …

THE RUSSIAN government has expanded the range of meat and livestock imports that it is blocking from the USA and the European Union (EU) and other associated countries who have been imposing sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of the Crimea and support for Ukraine separatists.…

Work is underway to promote Japan’s quality wagyu beef to athletes and tourists visiting Tokyo for the 2020 summer Olympic Games to boost exports in the long term. While details have yet to be confirmed, marketers are developing plans to operate Olympics-related promotional events and special dedicated marketing spaces, maybe near the Olympic village for athletes.…

MALAYSIA is making progress in combating money laundering but political interference is still a problem in implementing policies and enforcing laws, experts have told Money Laundering Bulletin.

A dynamic upper middle-income country (USD9,850 per head gross national income in 2016, says the Word Bank), some of Malaysia’s ML and TF [terrorist financing] risks derive from its geographic position.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) planned trade deal with Japan – its sixth most important trading partner – struck in principle at the July 6 EU-Japan Summit in Brussels and set to be operational in 2019, will benefit the EU dairy industry greatly, experts say.…

INDONESIA is an important market – it does not just have 261 million people, but its female consumers especially are becoming more assertive and shaping colour cosmetic trends that brands should follow if they want to boost revenue. Last year, market observers have said, women consumers in Indonesia decided they wanted to buy matte lipstick, and this demand has mushroomed.…

THE UNITED Arab Emirates (UAE) has long been a fertile ground for colour cosmetics brands thanks to its large young population (its median age is just over 30) and the presence of image conscious consumers. Despite the pressure of rising costs and fierce competition among brands, the country’s colour cosmetics market experienced moderate growth in 2017 compared to 2016, increasing an estimated 4% in value terms to reach Emirati Dirham AED1.1 billion (USD299.4 million), according to market researcher Euromonitor International.…

OFFSHORE exploration is going through difficult times, but the Barque prospect in New Zealand is being rated as one of the most promising upcoming exploration oil wells in the world. If successful the project, located offshore from South Canterbury and North Otago in the south-east of South Island, would be the most significant discovery in New Zealand since the giant Maui field in the Tasman Sea in the 1960s.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU)-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA), on which negotiations concluded December 2, 2015, will open up “huge business opportunities” for Vietnamese garment companies, business experts agreed last month (September). They were speaking at an event jointly organised by EU business federation BusinessEurope, EuroCham [European Chamber of Commerce] Vietnam and the EU-Vietnam Business Network.…

AUSTRALIA INTRODUCES DIRECTOR IDENTIFICATION NUMBER SYSTEM

THE AUSTRALIAN government has announced it is introducing a Director Identification Number (DIN) system for businesses, with each company director in Australia being given a unique identifier. These will enable the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and other regulators to check director activities and spot wrongdoing, claimed the minister for revenue and financial services, Kelly O’Dwyer.…

VIETNAM’S textile and clothing and textile sector is looking to sell more product into Asian markets such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, while solidifying its traditional export bases like the US and EU, the latest trade data indicates. 

Last year, Vietnam exported USD2.28 billion’s worth of clothing and textiles to South Korea – a 7.45% gain compared with 2015, according to Vietnam customs data analysed by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS). …

SOUTH AFRICA MULLS REMOVING OVERSEAS WORK TAX EXEMPTION

The South African National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) have proposed a 2017 Draft Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill that would remove a tax exemption for South African residents working overseas for more than 183 days (at least 60 days continuously).…

THE AUSTRALIAN cosmetic and toiletry retailing market has experienced modest growth amidst fierce competition over the past decade, figures reveal, with a constant stream of new products, many environmentally conscious, maintaining consumer interest in an otherwise saturated market.

According to California-based market research company IBISWorld, more than 18,000 people work in almost 4,000 businesses in the cosmetics industry in Australia, a country of more than 24 million people.…

IT is a constant truth within the personal care product industry that brands prosper when they understand markets that they are targeting. In New Zealand, one key and increasingly important factor is that the country’s 4.7 million people society is ageing.…

BANGLADESH has ramped up investments in high-tech equipment to bolster security at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), in its capital Dhaka, but sustaining mechanical and procedural improvements remains an ongoing challenge.
The spending has followed a string of bans on cargo flights out of the country’s main gateway over security concerns, with the European Union (EU) becoming the latest to enforce such restrictions on June 1, (2017).…

A REVISED tariff for cross-border e-commerce has been extended by China’s State Council for an extra year enabling food and supplement importers to save on duty.

China had planned the implementation of more stringent rules for e-commerce from January 1, 2018, but on September 20 authorities extended a transitional tariff policy for cross-border e-commerce retailers until the end of the year (2018).…

MOST of East Asia’s dynamic economies have traditionally relied on expats and there are no readily discernible signs that this is decreasing.

In Vietnam, which has been benefitting from production lines migrating from China amid rapidly rising labour and land costs there, increasing the number of expats six-fold since 2004 to almost 100,000 in 2016, the shortage of engineers and managers can be seen throughout most sectors.…

AS Singapore’s talent shortages begin to impact on business prospects, new opportunities are emerging for HR to play a lead role in aligning workforce planning with business strategy.

A recent report (released August 17) by the talent outsourcing firm KellyOCG, conducted across Singapore, India, Australia and Malaysia, found the majority of senior ‘C-suite’ level executives (61%) expected talent shortages to have a negative impact on their business going forward.…

INDONESIAN textile factories must improve their production of motif designs and colours to satisfy domestic consumers and boost local sales, said textile retailers at south-east Asia’s busiest garment and textile market in Jakarta’s Tanah Abang district. “We expect producers make more unique textile motifs, so customers will have more choices, which they will like,” said Eryanto, a trader who has been working for about 11 years at the Arjuna Bombay textile shop at Tanah Abang Block A market.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU)-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA), on which negotiations concluded December 2, 2015, will open up “huge business opportunities” for Vietnamese garment companies, business experts agreed earlier this month at an event jointly organised by EU business federation BusinessEurope, EuroCham [European Chamber of Commerce] Vietnam and the EU-Vietnam Business Network.…

WITH hacking an ever-present and growing threat to the security of commercially confidential – and especially financial – information, companies are being encouraged to hold their noses and invest in ethical hacking to secure their financial systems. This is especially the case now that more business is conducted via cloud-based systems.…

SOUTH Africans are boosting their spending on cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures, with their national market expected to generate South African Rand ZAR94.15 million (USD7.1 million) in annual receipts by 2024. This reflects a 5.8% annual growth rate from the ZAR61 million (USD4.6 million) spent in 2016, according to US-based market research and consulting company Grand View Research, in figures released in July (2017).…

Australia is to follow the United States and, more recently, the UK, in introducing deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) for serious corporate crimes such as fraud and bribery. The Australian Attorney General’s Department has said it is drafting legislation, which will be released later this year.…

BANGLADESH’S apparel makers have heaved a sigh of relief following a government announcement that it has received new explosives–detecting equipment for Dhaka airport, which the industry hopes will persuade the European Union (EU) to lift a direct flight air cargo ban.    …

While moves in the knitwear sector are afoot to overtake ‘fast fashion’ with sustainable products and processes, the ultimate push to become certified organic is proving an unnecessary step too far for many producers.

There is widespread support in the industry to embrace sustainable business practices and boost eco-credentials for yarns and knitwear items.…

HUMAN resources experts in Thailand have called on the country’s military government to reorient the education system so that students become more adept with digital technologies, bringing such skills to the workforce once they graduate.

They have commented after the release of findings by AlphaBeta – a Australia and Singapore-based strategic and economic advisory – which put Thailand at 10th place on overall digital ranking of Asia-Pacific countries, just ahead of Vietnam.…

SINGAPORE has been rated the best city in the world to live for professionals wanting to work in start-ups, according to a survey by furnished apartment web-rental platform Nestpick. The website’s researchers assessed 85 cities, looking at their start-up ecosystems. It assessed average salaries for entry level and experienced positions regarding project management, technology and marketing roles.…

CHINESE customers bought 28 million vehicles in 2016, up 7.3% from 2015, which saw a year-on-year growth of 4.7%, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. However, such sales were largely stimulated by tax incentives released by the Chinese government in 2015 to encourage the sales of low-emission cars.…

THE FIRST phase of building the Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA), in Turkey, set to be the world’s largest such facility, is more than half complete, although a projected opening of early 2018 is not expected to be met.

There are some 20,000 people working on the project, forecast to rise to 30,000 as work progresses and developments around the airport get underway, such as an associated Airport City, including shopping malls, hotels and entertainment facilities, according to Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA), the airport’s operator.…

STEPS are underway to improve airport security in Bangladesh after the European Union (EU) introduced strict checks on airborne cargo originating from Bangladesh. On June 1, the EU added Bangladesh to its list of high-risk countries it considers have inadequate airport security.…

INDUSTRY 4.0 and the Internet of Things are gathering pace, says Europe’s largest industry group for manufacturing systems engineering, Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V. (VDMA) in Germany. Elgar Straub, managing director at VDMA Textile Care, Fabric and Leather Technologies said: “Thanks to digital textile printing, it is now possible to print apparel, shoes and technical textiles directly.…

WITHOUT European Union (EU) supervision, the fight against fraud, in the UK at least, will become more difficult after ‘Brexit’, European fraud experts claim.

“London is already known to be a major money laundering centre, so that can only get worse once the EU ‘strings’ have been severed,” predicted Hugh Penri-Williams, fraud consultant and vice president of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) France.…

MONGOLIA remains one of the world’s key global production centres for cashmere, and its importance seems to be growing, with its cashmere garment exports increasing – total 2016 overseas receipts were USD9.6 million, up 196% since 2009.

Demand is driven by Mongolian goat fibres’ unique characteristics, most importantly of which its length of 38-45cm and thin microns facilitating the manufacturing of garments with higher quality than those made from Chinese and Afghan goat fibres. …

THE TRADE deal announced by the European Union (EU) and Japanese on July 6 that would cut tariffs and harmonise technical regulations has been welcomed by Japan and EU auto-makers – although the Europeans are expressing caution.

Brussels and Tokyo said they had stuck a “political agreement in principle” for an economic partnership agreement, that would phase out vehicle tariffs over seven years and bring regulatory convergence through a special auto annex. …

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) projected comprehensive trade deal with Japan, agreed in principle at a July 6 EU-Japan summit in Brussels, will benefit exporters of Europe-produced non-ferrous metals, experts have told Metal Bulletin. Japanese non-ferrous metal exporters are more cautious about the potential benefits for their industry, however.…

Myanmar human resources managers are facing a challenge managing a flood of qualified professionals return home from abroad in the past half-decade, with the country’s government transitioning from military to civilian rule and opening up the economy.

At first it may seem that Myanmar returnees – so called ‘re-pats’ – would be ideally placed to prosper in a local business environment.…

Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris Climate Treaty will not halt moves to cut fossil fuels or reduce decarbonisation requirements on the non-energy minerals sector and other industries, say experts.

Trump called for a new “fair” deal that would not disadvantage US businesses and workers and claimed that China and India had “no meaningful obligations” placed on them by the agreement.…

THE GROWING importance of computer apps (applications) in fraud investigation has been highlighted at an expert conference – Forensics Europe Expo, the annual exhibition for the international and digital forensic communities held at the Olympia exhibition centre in London in May.…

Any professional involving in combatting fraud has an array of reports, statistics and research to choose from to help with their work. But what is useful intelligence and what is marketing froth? Fraud Intelligence has reviewed the output of publicly available fraud reports and asked some leading fraud professionals about how they use these reports.…

THE INDONESIAN government needs to establish new livestock production zones as it proactively tries to boost the country’s national meat production and consumption through encouraging the import of livestock, and temporarily of frozen beef, the country’s executive director of the Indonesian Meat Importers Association has said.…

Consumers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are becoming savvier about their beauty products and more conscious of what ingredients they’re putting on their skin and hair. This increasing awareness along with a widening choice of products is driving steady growth in the country’s natural and organic cosmetics and toiletry market.…

AUSTRALIA is witnessing something of a sea change when it comes to natural and organic cosmetics.

Jill Chambers, founder of a natural and vegan cosmetics company The Makeup Factory, based in Perth, told Cosmetics Business Markets “Just a few years ago there was a huge misconception that if a brand was natural it wasn’t effective.”…

THE PLANNED introduction of mandatory audit firm rotation (MAFR) by the South African Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) has sparked widespread dissention within the country’s business and accounting communities This is despite that the reform’s goal is to strengthen auditor independence and audit quality and that there are some calls for the move to be brought forward from the current introduction date of April 1, 2023.…

AUSTRALIA has renewed its fight against money laundering and other financial crimes by launching a new government and private sector alliance designed to route effective financial intelligence from financial services to law enforcers.

The initiative comes as the country continues to review its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism regulations, in the face of international criticism that its laws contain loopholes, notably regarding controls of real estate purchases.…

The Russian government has told Industrial Minerals of its plans to help boost rare earth element (REE) production across Russia in upcoming years.

The government is initially setting aside USD350 million for direct and indirect support for the sector, said an official at the ministry of industry and trade.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) pig meat producers were big winners in boosting export sales over between last March (2016) and February (2017), according to the European Commission, with receipts rising by more than 33% compared to the same period last year. The EU pigmeat sector earned EUR5.4 billion in export earnings from March 2016 to February 2017, EUR1.35 billion more than the same period in the previous year, leading the United States and Canada as the second and third most important pigmeat exporters, reported EU statistical agency Eurostat.…

Japan’s NH Foods Ltd is to buy Uruguayan major meat processing company Breeders & Packers Uruguay SA (BPU) to increase its meat supply capacity in emerging markets, notably in Asia, and to tap the major mature beef consumption markets in North America and Europe.…

China’s pre-packaged food and dairy products wholesale company Beingmate Baby and Child Food has announced the establishment of an Australian trading unit named Guangdasheng (Australia) Pty Ltd to boost its raw material supplies.

According to a regulatory filing from the company, Beingmate wants Guangdasheng to acquire 51% of New Zealand-based Fonterra’s Darnum plant, in Victoria, Australia.…

THE NEW Global Aviation Security Plan (GASeP) needs to be flexible and strategic, avoiding mandating detailed specific solutions that risk becoming outdated, the director general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said. Commenting on the development of this plan by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in an exclusive interview with Jane’s Airport Review, IATA’s Alexandre de Juniac said We would like to see a plan that has clear strategic goals, backed up by ambitious and measurable targets.…

Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia have announced that they will be exploring a commercially viable investment project to create an aviation biofuel supply, after 30 organisations expressed interest in such an initiative. The goal would be generating sustainable local production of such fuels.…

China is increasingly looking to utilise international cooperation to tackle cybercrime and other offences, including financial frauds. This month alone, the Chinese government has signed crime-busting pacts with both Australia and the European police authority, Europol, following a similar China-US government deal forged in 2015.…

Swiss bank Credit Suisse is facing parallel investigations in five countries – Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK for facilitating tax evasion and money laundering. The bank admitted in a March 31 statement that it was “cooperating” with local tax authorities which had contacted its London, Paris and Amsterdam offices the day before “concerning client tax matters.”…

A STAGGERING 62% of Asia-Pacific consumers (including China and India) buy natural and organic cosmetics and another promising 32% are keen to buy them – making the region a hotspot for manufacturers of such lines. But this impressive growth also has made the region a perfect breeding ground for greenwashing, experts warned.…

Shocking media images of dead animals and birds, killed by ingesting plastic in oceans have pricked the collective conscience of personal care product manufacturers and consumers as industry self-regulation over the use of harmful microplastics appears to have outpaced formal governmental regulation.…

A LARGE new office block near the National Concert Hall in Dublin could be the ultimate statement that Ireland’s medical technology (medtech) industry has come of age. With large windows set into sandstone-coloured walls, the building will house the headquarters of Medtronic, the US giant which moved its headquarters to Ireland in 2015 as part of a USD42.9 billion acquisition of rival Covidien, also based in Ireland but from a similarly American corporate background.…

EU PROPOSES BOOSTING ANTICARTEL POWERS OF NATIONAL EUROPEAN COMPETITION AUTHORITIES

A DIRECTIVE has been proposed by the European Commission that would ensure that national competition authorities across the European Union (EU) have a minimum level of powers enabling them to enforce EU antitrust laws.…

Manufacturers in China, which buys approximately 80% of Australian wool exports, are particularly nervous about the pricing, even as the beginning of the warmer spring season in the north of China is naturally reducing demand.

Chinese wool factories have been running 24/7 on Australian wool ever since the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) in December 2015 granted Australian wool exporters duty-free treatment for up to 30,000 tonnes of clean wool each year.…

THE DIAMOND trade is still one of money launderers’ best friends due the precious stone’s high value to mass ratio, akin to the highest value banknotes that can be obtained. Indeed, it is maybe harder to trace diamonds than numbered banknotes, there is no reliable means by which the point of origin of a particular diamond can be ascertained just by examining it.…

Continued uncertainty over the legal and fiscal regulations governing Myanmar’s metal ore mining industry is deterring substantial foreign investment from medium-and-large western mining companies, although industry insiders remain positive about the sector’s medium and longer-term potential.

Since Myanmar’s previous military-supported government amended the country’s 1994 mining law in December 2015, in an attempt to modernise the sector’s rules and kickstart the industry, the National League for Democracy government (which took power last April) has been slow to address concerns raised by potential investors.…

EUROPEAN and French meat industry organisations are preparing to respond to China’s decision to lift its embargo on French exports of de-boned beef for animals. China is the second largest importer of beef worldwide: “We welcome the move in principle,” European Union (EU) farm body Copa-Cogeca’s secretary general Pekka Pesonen told GlobalMeatNews.…

Cambodia’s garment industry is in a curious situation, with statistics indicating that export earnings from this key Asian fabric and yarn buyer are on the rise, despite evidence that overseas sales should actually be falling. According to one industry insider, this makes it difficult to project how the Cambodian clothing sector will perform in 2017 and hence how much it will spend on supplies.…

The official leading Switzerland’s efforts to combat money laundering in the country’s banking system has denied that a scandal unveiled last week involving Credit Suisse shows weaknesses in efforts to stop ill gotten gains being hidden in Swiss banks. Credit Suisse has acknowledged that tax authorities in France, the Netherlands and the UK are investigating the bank for tax evasion and money laundering.…

A MALAYSIAN government scheme encouraging foreign investors to buy property in Malaysia may have led to thousands of Bangladeshis breaching their country’s strict capital control restrictions.

A total of 3,493 Bangladeshis has participated in the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) long-term residency programme since 2003, according to statistics updated in December (2016) – 10.7% of all investors taking part worldwide.…

The consultation period for tightening e-commerce regulations for importers in China will be extended significantly for much of the country, its ministry of commerce has said. Instead, rather than new nationwide controls being introduced next January 1 (2018), they will run on a pilot basis within 15 cities, including Hangzhou, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hefei, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Dalian, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Fuzhou and Pingtan.…

BIOMETRIC identification, use of blockchain technology to protect the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and better surveillance of the deep and dark web will continue to influence intruder detection and prevention developments this year.

Accounting and auditing network Deloitte Global estimates that 40% of smartphones in the developed world will be using fingerprints as a personal security mechanism by the end of 2017.…

SOUTH African fragrance sales are growing swiftly. Research released by Euromonitor International in April 2016 entitled ‘Fragrances in South Africa’ showed a market more than doubling from South African rand ZAR5.288 billion (USD423 million) in 2010 to ZAR11.505 billion (USD923.4 million) in 2015.…

THE ANCIENT Celts has a saying: “To the brave belong all things.” And in business, this remains true. Companies prepared to take big risks, can reap big spoils. But they can also stumble into disaster. Such calculations are always made when foreign companies consider trading or investing in so-called ‘failed states’ or those at risk of failure.…

THE ASEAN Audit Regulators Group (AARG) and the big-four audit firms have agreed a measurable goal to improve audit quality within south-east Asia. The project involves Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand; along with Malaysia’s Audit Oversight Board, Indonesia’s Finance Professions Supervisory Centre, Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission.…

EVERY time apparel industry executive Israfil Alam and his wife buy groceries, one item doesn’t elude them: chocolate for their 13-year-old son Isman Sayer.

“Isman’s favourite is Kit Kat Chunky,” Alam, a Dhaka-based general manager at knitwear maker Magpie Group, told Confectionery Production.…

A TRAINING project for Pakistan cotton farmers has been launched by the Australian government, industry association Cotton Australia and the global Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), with the goal of boosting production in this key south Asian supplier of the fibre.…

The chairman of the Indonesian Textiles Association (API) has expressed cautious optimism about President Donald Trump’s rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact and re-confirmed the need to boost Indonesia’s competitiveness.

Trump pulled the USA out of the agreement on January 23, and while that could be bad news for the other 11 TPP partners, including regional textile sector competitors Malaysia and clothing hub Vietnam, the deal had yet to include Indonesia.…

A collaboration forged between Australia and New Zealand in January this year could demonstrate how countries can pool resources to develop autonomous vehicles (AV). The antipodean neighbors are to launch an Australian and New Zealand Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ANZDVI), according to Peter Damen, chair of executive steering committee, of an existing partner the Australian Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ADVI).…

Wool represents luxury in China, with most Chinese seeing wool as a superior fibre, so investment into wool research and development is a sensible approach for companies such as the Sunshine Group, headquartered in Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province.

The company, one of the world’s largest wool production enterprises, aims to bring wool to perfection from its location north of Shanghai.…

INDONESIAN human resources departments are having to adapt to a growing challenge – an increase in the number of Indonesians returning home to work in the world’s fourth most populous nation and Southeast Asia’s biggest economy by far.

The continued economic rise of this archipelago nation of 250 million people has been accompanied by a wave of returning Indonesians who have received years of university education or job training in faraway places such as the US, the UK, continental Europe and Australia.…

Anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International (TI) has called on major financial centres to be more open about their anti-money laundering (AML) efforts, claiming survey data indicates governments are being overly secretive. In a report based on studies of 12 developed jurisdictions called ‘Top Secret: Countries Keep Financial Crime Fighting Data to Themselves’, TI has said that only 36% of basic anti-money laundering indicators drawn from internationally accepted guidelines is available to the public and regularly updated.…

EUROPEAN drinks industry associations have said they are now preparing to exploit the export market benefits that flow from yesterday’s (Feb 15) approval by the European Parliament of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA).…

EUROPEAN drinks industry associations have said they are now preparing to exploit the export market benefits that flow from yesterday’s (Feb 15) approval by the European Parliament of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA).…

One month after staunch free-trade opponent Donald Trump became US President there are many policy decisions still to be confirmed and clarified to get a full idea of the impact his presidency will have on the trade in technical textiles. His accession comes during an unstable time for international trade – it is arguably even less clear how the UK’s planned exit from the EU will work out for the sector.…

Natural gas, including its liquefied form LNG, can be the long-term growth story among fossil fuels but needs to withstand stiff challenges

The naming ceremony in February 2017 for offshore facilities for the Ichthys liquefied natural gas project in Australia was another milestone in the huge wave of investment in LNG production capacity globally in recent years.…

SKIN cancer ranks as South Africa’s most common form of the disease with the country also suffering the second highest incidence globally after Australia, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation of South Africa – research such as this is driving sales of sunscreen products.…

EVERY time apparel industry executive Israfil Alam and his wife buy groceries, one item doesn’t elude them: chocolate for their 13-year-old son Isman Sayer.

“Isman’s favourite is Kit Kat Chunky,” Alam, a Dhaka-based general manager at knitwear maker Magpie Group, told Confectionery Production.…

CRACKING the sun care product market in a country like Iran is not easy because many Iranians consider sun care an “unnecessary luxury.” That said, it’s not all bad news. The country’s small niche sun care segment is growing slowly even from a low base.…

As US President Donald Trump on January 23 pulled America out from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with an executive order, he signalled he will instead ask Asian TPP members for bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs). This includes countries such as Vietnam that rely on apparel and textile exports.…

AS many leading fashion brands are stepping up use of Australian Merino wool, Chinese fabric makers with a long track record of in-house research and development (R&D) into wool are finding themselves better positioned than latecomers to reap the fruits of this trend.…

Even as the official withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been greeted by enthusiasm by American automakers, the focus is shifting to the bilateral trade deals that President Donald Trump has promised will take its place.…

THE OLIVE oil industry has traditionally been dominated by some key major European players, notably Spain, Italy and Greece, but with global consumption rising, production is emerging in countries which have previously relied on imports.

International Oil Council statistics show how new production centres are being created.…

THE US Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) has called on the new American administration of President Donald Trump to work hard to negotiate new bilateral trade deals with Asian markets now he has formally pulled his country from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.…

As US President Donald Trump has been wasting no time carrying out his campaign pledges to undo long-standing American trade ties, the Asian apparel industry and the US retailers it supplies have ample reasons to be on edge.

Signs are particularly worrisome for apparel players sourcing from Vietnam, a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the unratified 12-nation deal that will now not include the USA after Trump extracted America from its commitments via a January 23 presidential memorandum.…

WINTER sportsmen and women are busy training for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, in South Korea, from next February 9 to 28 (2018), and part of their preparation will be securing the best clothing and footwear made from carefully drafted technical textiles.…

UNITED States (US) President Donald Trump’s decision on January 26 to sign an executive order to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) should provide opportunities for European Union (EU) dairy exporters, according to European dairy experts.

“From an EU dairy perspective, we would hope that the European Commission will continue to make an effort in our European trade negotiations, especially with Japan,” Alexander Anton, secretary general of the European Dairy Association, told Food & Drink Technology News.…

The January 23 presidential memorandum from President Donald Trump, puling the USA from participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal has disappointed the American cosmetics and personal care products sector. This is not only because of the tariff barriers it would have eliminated but also because the TPP would have pushed regulatory controls in all TPP countries in the same direction.…

CHINA’S central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBC), has issued a new anti-money laundering and terror finance reporting requirements for all financial institutions inside the country. The rules come into force July 1. They cover banks, brokers, foreign exchange, online and mobile payment systems and insurance companies, who will have to file reports to the central bank, via their headquarters or via representative institutions, if a client requires daily cash transactions exceeding Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY50,000 (USD7,261) or a larger amount of USD10,000’s worth in foreign currency.…

Indonesian batik producers are turning to social media to boost sales, helping them maintain production when not only standard marketing and distribution channels are not delivering enough revenue but standalone websites and major e-commerce sites.

Rusydi Bawazir, producer of Nargis Batik Podhek, from Madura, East Java province, started online marketing three years ago by using website: nargis.web.id.…

HR managers in Taiwan are being forced to review their working hours and holiday strategy as young professionals seek more work-life balance than their older peers. East Asian employees are known for their extreme diligence, with those in Taiwan, for example, on average toiling away for 2,134 work hours a year, compared to the average for Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) member states of 1,771 hours.…

Hacking and data breaches keep Asian IT departments awake at night, but many of the most serious cyber security incidents can be prevented with greater vigilance from HR professionals. Of course, there are a wide variety of risks being posed to companies from online environments, from denial-of-service attacks, to Trojan programmes that monitor computer use, and theft of identities and intellectual property.…

PHOTOS posted on the Chinese microblog platform Weixin (commonly known in English as WeChat) from the Indonesian holiday island of Bali recently are emblematic of key trends in China’s cosmetics and personal care markets, notably booming ecommerce sales. Over 100 Chinese sales managers – technically self-employed and operating on commission – flew to Bali as guests of USANA Health Sciences Inc, which in 2010 acquired BabyCare Ltd, a China-based direct selling company that develops, manufactures and sells nutritional products.…

ONE of the wealthiest countries in the world, Qatar’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was estimated at USD73,653 in 2015, according to the World Bank. Close to 85% of the country’s 2.5 million population are expatriates and this has influenced the skincare products on offer, while high levels of disposable income continue to drive consumption.…

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), the Australian meat sector’s development organisation, has welcomed the first large-scale Vietnamese agricultural investment in its country – a Australian dollar AUD18 million (USD13.6 million) cattle station buy by An Vien Pastoral Holding and Agriculture Company in the Northern Territory.…

THE PROMISE from US President-elect Donald Trump to withdraw the USA from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement on his first day of office has prompted widespread nervousness in auto-sectors around the world.

His rejection of the deal could scupper an agreement negotiated over five years by the United States; Australia; Brunei; Canada; Chile; Japan; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Peru; Singapore and Vietnam.…

HUMAN resources experts in the Asia-Pacific region are mulling the potential impact of US President-elect Donald Trump abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. He has promised to withdraw the US from the agreement on his first day in office.

And without American participation, the pact seems dead in the water: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently said it would be “meaningless,” while Vietnam, whose export-driven economy was expected to be one of the major beneficiaries of the TPP, has withdrawn the proposal for ratification in its National Assembly.…

A senior Canada metal industry association has called on its government to continue ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), despite US President-elect Donald Trump’s commitment to withdraw the US from the trade deal on his first day of office.

“We definitely still support Canada moving forward with the TPP, even without the US.…

IRAN’S rose water export sector is facing the potential for rapid expansion now that the country can trade freely globally after the bulk of international banking and economic sanctions imposed over the Iranian nuclear programme were lifted this January (2016).…

UNITED States President-elect Donald Trump’s commitment to withdraw the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, condemning the deal as a “potential disaster for our country”, has received the thumbs-down from the cosmetics industry.

“TPP represents an important step forward for the cosmetics industry in the signatory countries, containing as it does a specific annex for cosmetics and personal care,” Cosmetics Europe director general John Chave told Soap Perfumery & Cosmetics.…

Specialised debtor finance products for the garment industry are a niche area that continues to grow, and these services are increasingly being offered worldwide. Craig Michie, head of trade finance at Australasian debtor finance company Scottish Pacific, explained to just-style: “We see entry level businesses who need as little as AUD50,000 [USD38,000] and larger businesses who need upwards of AUD50 million but the challenge is the same for both – how to keep trading when the cash cycle is so long in the apparel trade,” he said.…

With a strong national economy and significant investment in construction and public buildings, the Philippine paint and coatings sector is enjoying a period of robust growth. Official figures for the overall paint market have not been published since 2014 but the leading sectors have continued to flourish.…

EXECUTIVES at a Vietnam knitwear company have told WTiN.com that while it has expanded production because of increased exports, if costs continue to rise in this south-east Asian country – the company is prepared to move production overseas.

Over the last roughly 30 years, Thai Son S.P.…

Fast fashion is all about getting product to market quickly without over-spending. And while new technologies such as digital printing machinery can speed up the process, they can also add cost.

Guido Schlossmann, president and chief executive officer of Thailand-based consultants Synergies Worldwide, stressed to just-style that the key issue is getting the balance right.…

Sun protective clothing is continuing to move from its health-focused niche origins to become a general and versatile product, protecting consumers of all ages from the harm of prolonged sun exposure. What first began as products for children or for people with varying skin ailments, such as melanoma or xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), a rare disease where the body is unable to repair damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) light, the market has been expanding robustly.…

THE ASIA-PACIFIC region has been regarded as the workshop of the world for most of the 21^st century, and this is especially true for the technical textile sector, where output has continued to grow, partly fuelled by growing regional demand.…

Indonesia’s personal care product sector is faring well at first glance, with domestic sales more than doubling in size in value terms over the past five years. Multinational companies see it as a lucrative market, while local firms also seem to hold their own.…

SINGAPORE has signed deals allowing for the automatic exchange of financial account information with two key trade partners – Britain and Australia. The agreements were struck by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) with the UK’s Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).…

THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is helping its member states design safe operation rules for drones, even though many such aircraft and their systems operate domestically and are hence beyond ICAO’s usual cross-border remit.

“States are saying we all need help and want this to be harmonised,” said Leslie Cary, the ICAO air navigation bureau’s remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) programme manager.…

COTTON

Cotton maybe one of the most popular fibres for clothing and accessories because of its universality, timelessness, and availability, but this past year has shown that the fibre is not immune to volatile economic markets. World cotton production fell by 17% to 21.65 million tonnes in 2015-2016, the lowest volume since 2003-2004, according to the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC).…

There is “irrefutable evidence” the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 that crashed over war-torn Ukraine on 17 July 2014 was hit by a Russia-made BUK missile from the 9M38 series, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service’s Joint Investigation Team (JIT) told a Wednesday (September 28) press conference for relatives of the 298 victims.…

SINGAPORE has signed deals allowing for the automatic exchange of financial account information with two key trade partners – Britain and Australia. The agreements were struck by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) with the UK’s Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).…

AUSTRALIAN cosmetics consumers are increasingly going online to buy their products, offering e-tailers and web-savvy personal care product companies an opportunity to grow their sales.

And in Australia’s mature market, there are a lot to be had. Almost two-in-every-three (64%) women in Australia (aged 14+) buy some kind of make-up in an average six months.…

THE ASIA-Pacific coatings additives market is big business, and is getting bigger. According to Pune, India-based market research organisation Markets and Markets, the coatings additives market in the Asia-Pacific region will be worth USD2.81 billion in 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 7.2% until 2021.…

WORKFORCE DEMOGRAPHICS

East Asia is a very varied region in terms of economic development. Take the 10 members of trade bloc ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations): with 632 million people, demographics greatly vary, from aging Singapore and Thailand, to the younger and emerging economies of Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.…

Pakistan’s textile industry is warning of serious damage to the cotton-related businesses if a new 4% import duty currently charged on raw cotton for textile manufacturers serving domestic market is maintained.

“This policy will have a long term impact on the cotton consumption in Pakistan and the whole value chain will be affected,” Asif Inam, vice chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), in Karachi told WTiN. …

The Indonesian Textiles Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) has told WTiN.com that it enthusiastically endorses the opening of negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Indonesia to forge a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) free trade deal.

The goal of the talks announced in July will be to create an agreement that goes beyond traditional agreements that focus on duty and quota abolition, to include removing non-tariff barriers through regulatory mutual recognition and harmonisation.…

Autoparts researchers are developing the use of grasses, such as hemp or flax, to make tough bioplastics that are lightweight and also help reduce a vehicle’s carbon footprint by using a renewable resource as an input.

A key innovator is Bruce Dietzen, president of Renew Design, a Florida, USA-based company that produces custom-ordered cars whose body components are made from processing the outer stalk of hemp plants through combining it with a synthetic resin and placed in a mold.…

ORGANIC wool can pose various challenges to producers and apparel and textile manufacturers, including added costs and more complicated logistics. But for niche markets, these products can attract customers willing to pay more for softer, chemical-free woollen goods.  

Dalena White, secretary general of the Brussels-based International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO), told Twist International: “Wool farmers have lovely stories to tell, including the heritage of their sheep, the natural pastures they graze on and the love they have for their animals and their native land.…

A wealth of experience in creating natural fibres – from cotton, hemp and silk to bamboo, banana and paper – combined with cutting-edge technology is giving Japanese companies an international edge in making eco-friendly fabrics. Scientists are bringing together old and new as they re-examine ancient practices and consider innovative techniques to bring new products to market.…

Despite low oil prices, oil and gas operators are showing interest in adopting ‘dynamic barrier management’ (DBM), a new paradigm of risk management with applications across industries.

The concept involves using real time or near-real time information from multiple sources to track the continuous status of technical, operational and organisational safety barriers that are diverse in nature and degrade at different rates¹.…

THE ASIA Pacific region remains the workshop of the world in terms of nonwovens production, and it is not only China’s producers who are growing, local suppliers are feeding growing domestic markets for nonwovens products elsewhere in east and southeast Asia.…

AUSTRALIAN government and meat industry agencies are boosting their efforts to increase biosecurity for the country’s critically important livestock sector.

Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) has welcomed an Australian dollar AUD5.8 million (USD4.45 million) project boosting biosecurity systems for Australia’s livestock industries.…

THE opening of Paddy Power bookmaker shops in provincial Romanian cities such as Cluj in the past year is the latest show of international ambition from an Irish corporation which has become a market leader and has shaken up the European gambling industry.…

MONGOLIA’S raw cashmere production is growing. The number of goats supplying this luxury fibre increased by 2.9 million to 24.9 million in 2015 compared with 2014, bringing production to 7,470 tonnes last year, according to Mongolia-based Monital Cashmere.

Indeed, the country’s major cashmere manufacturer the Gobi Corporation, stresses that Mongolia is the world’s second largest producer of cashmere – supplying 41% of global production (in 2014), second only to China.…

THE UK’s vote on June 23 to quit the European Union (EU) creates deep uncertainty over the shape of future electricity industry regulations in Britain, and the UK’s regulatory relationship regarding power supplies with countries remaining in the EU.

Victory by the ‘Leave’ side in Britain’s in-out referendum enables the UK government to kick off an exit process by invoking Article 50 in the Treaty on European Union, which gives notice that member state wishes to leave.…

BRAZIL’S JBS, the giant meatpacker and meat processing company, has been arguing it has not been harmed by raids carried out by Brazilian police earlier this month, dubbed ‘Operation Sepsis’, part of the country’s ongoing ‘Lavo Jato’ corruption investigations.

Brazilian media has reported that on July 1 federal officers searched the São Paulo home of Joesley Batista, CEO of J&F Investimentos, the parent company of JBS.…

THE COMMON market launched on January 1 by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has so far failed to promote a sustainable increase in legitimate intra-ASEAN meat and livestock trades. Instead, imports from outside the bloc, domestic production and US dollar-based smuggling continue to thrive, say experts.…

South-east Asia is a region that has sharp contrasts in economic development, from between the wealth of Singapore to countries such as Myanmar, where poverty is endemic and consumer markets are relatively undeveloped.

Such contrasts pose challenges for personal care product companies seeking regional strategies to tap the markets of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) 10 countries, whose cosmetics suppliers have to comply with the standards of the ASEAN Cosmetics Directive, which was modelled on European Union legislation.…

Business governance experts in Canada have told Board Agenda how they think companies can maximise the ability and performance of their non-executive board members.

Their comments come as concern about the effectiveness of non-execs in Canada has been piqued by media reports that Pierre Beaudoin, a director of Montréal-based comms and finance conglomerate Power Corp, had 20.28% of shareholder votes withheld at a director election in May – usually such elections proffer 100% support.…

SINGAPORE has promised that it will implement the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has said it accepts profits should be taxed where real economic activities generating them are performed and where value is created.…

Tough regulation and a willingness for law enforcement authorities to crack down hard on fraudsters seems to be doing its job of curbing mortgage appraisal fraud in both the United States and the United Kingdom as the number of cases is falling.…

The Russian government has decided to ease its extended embargo on imports of food and agricultural products to Russia from Western countries, according to the Russian ministry of agriculture. 

An official statement said exports from the European Union, USA, Norway, Australia and Canada of poultry meat, frozen beef, plus dried and frozen vegetables used to make baby food in Russia would be allowed into the country.…

INDIAN nuclear plants have been awarded their first ever nuclear operator’s liability insurance policy, a move that is expected to attract international manufacturers of nuclear components to help in building new power generation capacity. Confirming the policy issued on May 26, Alice G Vaidyan, chairman-cum-managing director of General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC), told Fuel Cycle Week that, USD224 million insurance cover has been provided to all 21 nuclear power plants run by Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL).…

A SWEEPING review of Australia’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, published in April 2016, has made more than 80 recommendations to tighten and extend the scope of this key piece of legislation. Among these are proposals to streamline due diligence obligations on the part of reporting entities while reinforcing auditing procedures, increasing the scope of the legislation to cover more professional categories and types of transactions and increasing surveillance particularly in the remittance sector.…

THE INFLUX of foreign tourists and investment to once-isolated Myanmar has resulted in an increasing demand for meat, while a limited manufacturing base is presenting new opportunities for international suppliers.

Almost 90% of Myanmar’s population are Buddhist and almost a third live below the poverty line; factors which have historically kept meat consumption levels low.…

THE UK’s vote last Thursday (June 23) to quit the European Union (EU) creates deep uncertainty over the shape of future nuclear industry regulations in Britain. The same applies to EU market access for British nuclear fuel and component companies or exporters from the rest of the EU wanting to target British nuclear operators.…

INDIAN nuclear plants have been awarded their first ever nuclear operator’s liability insurance policy, a move that is expected to attract international manufacturers of nuclear components to help in building new power generation capacity. Confirming the policy issued on May 26, Alice G Vaidyan, chairman-cum-managing director of General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC), told Fuel Cycle Week that, USD224 million insurance cover has been provided to all 21 nuclear power plants run by Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL).…

The boom in tourism in Myanmar has inflated local demand for international food brands, as the local branded food manufacturing base remains very limited in scope. Tourism is expected to continue to grow due to the country’s first democratically elected government coming into power last month (April).…

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and product lifecycle management (PLM) software have become fundamental tools in the quest for excellence in apparel supply chain visibility. Competition is fierce among software providers to maintain relevance with interrelated technologies, such as omni-channel retailing, cloud computing and even social media mining.…

Pakistan remains a source of concern to global anti-money laundering (ML) authorities even though the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the world’s leading AML organisation, removed the country from its monitoring process last February (2015). Then, FATF cited Pakistan as having made “significant progress” in improving its AML and CFT (combating the financing of terrorism) regime.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Energy Agency (IEA) has warned that Belgium’s planned phase-out of its nuclear power capacity threatens the security of its energy supplies. In a paper on the country’s energy outlook, the IEA concluded: “Phase-out by 2025 is close. Security of supply needs to be ensured, but new investment in generation capacity is lacking.”…

It gets exceedingly hot in Riyadh in the summer, with the mercury rarely below 40 degrees Celsius, but that does not deter Moazam Shah from going for his evening run around the residential compound he lives in with his family.

After six years in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Pakistani national Shah has acclimatised to exercising in extreme heat: “It’s a time for myself, to catch up on my thoughts,” he told Accounting & Business at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Manama, Bahrain.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it will propose a ‘services passport’ system by December 31, designed to simplify administrative procedures for service providers, such as accountants, auditors and bookkeepers, who want to expand to foreign member states. EU internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska said: “The cross-border provision of services in the EU is underdeveloped, in particular in the area of business services – such as accounting…” The passport system would give accountants more information, boosting legal certainty and clarity about relevant professional rules in another member state.…

The recent start of commercial operations at concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in Africa illustrates the potential for utility-scale CSP to capture an increasing share in the world’s power generation mix.

These plants include the 160 megawatt (MW) Noor 1 in southern Morocco, the foundation of what may become the world’s largest CSP generation site, and the 50MW Khi Solar One in South Africa.…

Fraud investigation has come a long way since the days when police launched dawn raids on suspect premises, driving criminals to flush away paper evidence down the toilet. We have technology to thank for that.

Advances in information handling have radically changed the ways in which big companies guard their financial records and the methods used by fraudsters to overcome them.  …

Fraud investigation has come a long way since the days when police launched dawn raids on suspect premises, driving criminals to flush away paper evidence down the toilet. We have technology to thank for that.

Advances in information handling have radically changed the ways in which big companies guard their financial records and the methods used by fraudsters to overcome them.  …

Chinese authorities have set up a laboratory to study and prevent bird strikes.

The lab – the first of its kind in China – will operate at Tianjin Binhai International Airport and carry out ecological analysis of birds.

Scientists will be study warning, intervention and correlation patterns by analysing habitat, soil, water and plants as well as analysing different ways of dispersing flocks.…

RUSSIA’S agriculture ministry has announced that it is drafting a decree that will extend the country’s ban on imports of a wide range of European Union (EU), US, Canada, Australia and Norway food exports until December 31, 2017. Russian agriculture minister Alexander Tkachev said in Moscow today that his ministry did not plan to expand the number of products covered by the ban.…

A COST of maintaining nuclear generation capacity of between 95 GWe and 105GWe in the European Union (EU) until 2050 and beyond will cost between EUR350 and EUR450 billion over the next 35 years, the European Commission has concluded. (That is between USD398 billion and USD511 billion at current exchange rates).…

New Zealand’s butter producers may be a global force in this key dairy segment, but they have regarded the groundbreaking Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement with scepticism. Negotiations for the TPP produced a deal last October (2015), and although New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra and the DairyNZ producers association declared they had secured increased access to some key markets – Japan, Canada and the United States all increased butter quotas to varying degrees – there was general agreement that the gains had been modest.…

It is high time universities started to measure more what achieve in student learning, and less in enrolment, the Presidents’ Forum of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) has been told. The president of the Netherlands’ Maastricht University’s, Professor Jo Ritzen, referenced an American study in 2011 which found that many USA university and college students did not learn much at all.…

Laboratory-grown meat has moved from a distant sci-fi concept to a realistic idea that could be commercialised and mainstream in just a few years, according to industry experts. “We aim to commercialise in four to five years, and it will become mainstream in the two to three years after that,” Prof Mark J Post, professor and chair of physiology at Maastricht University, in the Netherlands, told just-food.…

Several brands of traditional Chinese medicines have been found to contain illegal substances not fit for human consumption, according to a study carried out by Australia’s Perth-based Curtin University, Murdoch University, also in Perth, and the University of Adelaide.

Researchers from the three universities tested 26 widely available medicines and found that more than 90% of them contained ingredients not listed on the products’ labels.…

The 2016 outlook for the US paints and coatings industry remains positive, with experts predicting growth thanks to a resilient US economy, a strong performance by the manufacturing industry, and notable new trade agreements.

According to IBISWorld, a global market research company, the US paints and coatings industry bounced back quickly from the financial economic crisis beginning in 2008.…

With fast fashion demands growing and China’s costs rising, sourcing closer to home is certainly becoming a more commonly considered option for brands, speeding up clothing and textile supply chains, being particularly beneficial for smaller producers, according to experts. Companies sourcing locally can have faster turnaround times, potentially better relationships with suppliers, and greater quality control.…

AT a time when the world is regularly sickened by the web-cast beheadings and civilian bombings by Islamic State (IS), it is perhaps hard to recall when Lebanon Shia militant Hizbullah group was regarded as maybe the world’s most notorious international terror group.…

India plans to infuse USD440 million every year into its nuclear power sector to finance an ongoing programme of new projects, according to Arun Jaitley, the country’s finance minister.

“[The] government is drawing up a comprehensive plan, spanning next 15 to 20 years, to augment the investment in nuclear power generation,” Jaitley told the Indian parliament on February 29.…

Uranium suppliers are increasing their focus on India’s rapid nuclear power development programme and plans to build a nuclear fuel stockpile. The Indian government has set an expansion target of generating 14,600 megawatts (MW) a year from nuclear power plants in India by 2024.…

Counterfeit knitwear and garments are flooding the country’s markets, according to accountants Grant Thornton and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and clothing industry concern is growing about the role of north Indian knitwear hub of Ludhiana.…

China food manufacturing major the Want Want Group, has invested Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY700 million (USD107 million) in a factory that will be the company’s biggest.

Spokesperson Zhu Jiwen said this new “model plant” is also “the group’s biggest investment in the mainland.”…

Chinese tourism is changing the locations where cosmetics are sold internationally – and also changing how corporations are marketing to a savvier and better travelled breed of Chinese consumers, according to a detailed research report by a Hong Kong investment bank.…

Australian and New Zealand confectionery and ice cream manufacturers have been broadly supportive of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that was finalised towards the end of 2015, recognising the potential for securing export sales in lucrative Asian markets. That said, there is some caution, given the TPP delivers more potential for America’s juggernaut of a confectionery sector to roll into local stores.…

If there is one region in the world that could benefit from a rationalisation of corporate governance structure, it is surely Asia, with its shifting sands of complex company ownership structures. Globalisation has only increased the size of subsidiary/parent relationship webs.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is incorporating the latest guidance from the European auto industry into its plan for rolling-out connected cars across the European Union (EU), drawing on advice from manufacturers favouring swift, coordinated deployment. A key, stressed a report published in January by the Commission, the EU’s executive, is for the installation of ‘cooperative intelligent transport systems’ (C-ITS) allowing vehicles to communicate with other vehicles, other road users, traffic signals and roadside infrastructure.…

CHINA’S central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBC), has issued a new anti-money laundering and terror finance reporting requirements for all financial institutions inside the country. The rules come into force July 1. They cover banks, brokers, foreign exchange, online and mobile payment systems and insurance companies, who will have to file reports to the central bank, via their headquarters or via representative institutions, if a client requires daily cash transactions exceeding Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY50,000 (USD7,261) or a larger amount of USD10,000’s worth in foreign currency.…

PROGRESS made by Bangladesh’s knitwear sector in improving its health and safety standards will come under scrutiny this spring, through the Bangladesh Sustainability Compact. A second stock-taking meeting of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), European Union (EU) and United States-led ‘Compact for Continuous Improvements in Labour Rights and Factory Safety in the Ready-Made Garment and Knitwear Industry in Bangladesh’ was to be held on January 28.…

THE NUMBER of mainland Chinese tourists visiting Hong Kong and Macao is set to fall sharply, and while Chinese travellers are becoming more enamoured with longer-haul destinations such as Australia and the US, worries over safety is weakening demand for visiting France.…

India’s market for male grooming products will grow at an annual rate of 22% in the next five years, with social pressure for men to look good increasing, along with rising per capita income and rapid urbanization. So says ‘Men’s Grooming Market in India 2015-2020’, a report by Research and Markets, released in September (2015).…

Thanks to the introduction of a tax incentive scheme launched by the government of Trinidad & Tobago, auto converters and dealers in the country are increasingly talking up Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a clean auto fuel for vehicles on the twin island Caribbean state.…

Innovative protective coatings have always been marked on their ability to deliver a function with excellence. However, there is real marketing gold where companies can demonstrate that coatings deliver a range of protective functions at the same time, such as waterproofing, insulating, and protecting aesthetics.…

The Money Laundering Bulletin has assessed the impact of western financial sanctions on Russia – looking at the impact on anti-money laundering regulation – but what of the compliance demands on financial institutions?

These sanctions are complex, showing how governments can increase the risk of making honest citizens and organisations break the law by imposing complex financial regulations.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled it will be probing the possible abuse of bilateral double taxation treaties forged by European Union (EU) member states with non-EU countries, to detect tax avoidance.

The Commission has opened a formal investigation into how Luxembourg has taxed McDonald’s, assessing concerns that it allowed the US fast-food giant to avoid paying tax on its EU royalties in the Grand Duchy.…

A year after the Russian rouble suffered its worst single-day drop in exchange rate value in 16 years, Russians are more cautious about buying cosmetics and are showing a tendency to downgrade to cheaper products or seek out sales items. Experts are expecting increased competition in these lower cost segments in the coming years, as well as growing consumer interest in local brands and natural cosmetics. …

MALAYSIA’S Audit Oversight Board (AOB) has revoked the registration of an audit firm for the first time since the regulator was established by the Securities Commission Malaysia in 2010.

It has scrapped the registration of Wong Weng Foo & Co, managing partner, Wong Weng Foo and partner Abdul Halim Husin, from December 2.…

The rise of hipsters and the appeal of the bearded lumberjack look, dubbed ‘lumbersexual’, in recent years has led to a rapid growth in beard and moustache care products sector worldwide. Specialty products such as beard oil and conditioners, as well as tools such as beard brushes, have become necessities for many men with facial hair.…

Much remains to be decided between Argentine and Chinese nuclear bosses over the fuel element to the USD12.8 billion proposed construction of two reactors by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). 
Argentina contracted the CNNC in February after a tender to help build the 800 megawatt electrical (MWe) Atucha 3 pressurized heavy water reactor, with construction work scheduled to start in 2016, although with discussions continuing on the plan, this might slip to 2017.…

The conflict in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of Crimea has had significant ramifications for both countries’ oils and fats industries. These are sizeable sectors in Russia and Ukraine, and the industries – and consumers – have certainly felt the impacts of these often traumatic geopolitical events.…

Uruguay’s meat exports are rising, with growing production, aggressive promotions and wide access to global markets boosting sales despite a slump in Russian sales. Exports of offal, meat and byproducts increased 8.2% to USD659 million in the year through May 9, compared with USD609 million year-on-year and rose 16% in volume terms to 171,401 tonnes from 147,868 tonnes over the same period, according to the country’s National Institute of Meat (INAC – Instituto Nacional de Carnes).…

AUSTRALIA’S poultry industry has told Papua New Guinea (PNG) that a ban on Australian raw poultry imports citing Campylobacter contamination cannot be justified. This is especially so, argues Australian Chicken Meat Federation executive director Andreas Dubs, given the “bacteria is found on chicken meat in all countries” and most likely in PNG’s own local produce.…

China has become New Zealand’s second largest market for beef and the largest for its lamb in the 12 months ending March 31, 2015, the Meat Industrial Association (MIA) of New Zealand has told GlobalMeatNews. In that time, 11% of New Zealand’s overseas beef sales by volume went to China, while 53% was exported to the US.…

AFTER a difficult few years brought about by a global economic recession, Portugal’s footwear and clothing industries is growing and underpinning the country’s business recovery.
Last year (2014) the country’s shoe exports hit a record high of around 89 million pairs sold overseas, bringing in EUR1.8 billion (USD2.06 billion) in receipts according to the Portuguese Association of Industrial Footwear, Accessories, Leather Goods and Substitutes (APICCAPS), helping a country still recovering from crippling government austerity measures.…

Sustainability improvements in the Asian outsourced clothing and textile sector are far from being the sole preserve of China. In Cambodia, Tonlé, a sustainable garment-making firm based in Phnom Penh, obtains 90% of its fabric from factory cut-out and 10% through sustainable suppliers to make a zero-waste clothing line.…

IF a global poll was made on which countries are the world’s worst offenders for online piracy, Australia would probably be far from the top of the list. But the international media sector is worried about the amount of online piracy being undertaken in Australia and is taking action.…

While many economies in Africa are growing fast, there is a consensus amongst accountants that the continent has to build its business reporting and administration to make sure this growth is sustainable. Indeed, the third African Congress of Accountants (ACOA), staged in Port Louis, Mauritius, from May 11 to 14, heard that this essential work is needed now, even as some countries remain marred by severe socio-political unrest, economic instability, poverty, famine and disease.…

The Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring), Moscow’s financial intelligence unit (FIU), has singled out individual and commercial customers using Russian banks from 41 countries for special transactions reports. Among these countries on the “blacklist” are the U.S., Canada, the European Union (28 states), Australia, Norway, Iran, Syria, Sudan, New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico Switzerland, North Korea and Zimbabwe.…

THE POLISH, Scottish, Austrian and Belgian meat sectors are significant winners in the latest announcement of European Union (EU) marketing financing designed to help food companies seize more sales within and outside the EU.
They will benefit from multi-million Euro sales and marketing programmes, 50% funded by the EU, announced yesterday (Tues April 21).…

AUSTRALIA’s push to re-define its agricultural produce under a unified name -‘True Aussie’ that signifies products are clean, green and safe – is helping the countries meat exporters, claim industry leaders.
In Japan alone 50% of Australian beef packs sold at retail now carry this logo, Meat and Livestock Australia International Business Manager in Japan, Andrew Cox told GlobalMeatNews.…

THE MIDDLE Eastern halal meat market is anticipating significant growth in the next few years, driven by rising populations and rising consumer awareness about food content. However, the lack of a common global halal standard is hindering the market’s potential, given that the region is heavily dependent on imports from non-Muslim countries.…

In 2008, the then-emerging Chinese dairy market was delivered a devastating blow by the ‘melamine scandal’. It was triggered by New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra’s local partner Sanlu fraudulently adding melamine, a raw material used in the production of plastics, into its dairy products in order to pretend higher protein content.…

THE NORTH American technical textiles industry has always been at the cutting edge of the global sector and today, companies are creating innovative products that offer high performance for less cost, integrating electronic capabilities, and offering greater durability.
For instance, New York-based V Technical Textiles Inc is delivering to its customers a new line of technical textiles called VTT Etchtex, announced last year.…

THE PERSONAL care product sector in the European Union (EU) has had to work hard to comply with the 2012 biocidal products regulation, which will have significant implications for the use of preservatives in cosmetics. Manufacturers of biocidal products need to be have their active ingredients registered for assessment by September 1 (2015) for them to be used in the EU.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission may block or impose conditions on a planned acquisition by US-based Cargill of the industrial chocolate business of its American rival Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). The European Union (EU) executive’s directorate general for competition has opened an in-depth investigation into the deal, to assess whether it could damage the availability of reasonably priced supplies of this key confectionery input.…

Indonesia is pushing to expand its domestic vaccine manufacturing, so that the domestic market is covered with vaccines in Indonesia’s regular immunisation schedule. The country’s state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma is at the centre of these efforts, and has been expanding exports so that 60% of its production (NOW?…

The China Meat Association (CMA) is calling on the Chinese government actively support the beef and lamb sector, Gao Guan, the association’s deputy secretary-general, has told globalmeatnews.com. Speaking in his Beijing office, he said: “Our association has been advising the government to encourage consumers to eat more beef and lamb,” he said, rather than the more commonly consumed pork and chicken.…

Australians have some of the highest meat per capita consumption rates in the world and consume 121.2kg of meat per capita/year according to data from the Food & Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). This is nearly three times the global average of 42.2kg per capita/year and slightly higher than countries with similar demographics and culinary traditions like the United States, Canada and Britain.…

Bangladesh’s demand for cotton is booming, creating significant opportunities for international suppliers of cotton, according to textile industry experts at the opening of Bangladesh’s first Global Cotton Summit (March 20-21) in Dhaka. Muhammad Ayub, president of the Bangladesh Cotton Association (BCA) said at the conference that in the last decade, demand of cotton in Bangladesh has risen from 3 million bales to 5.5 million bales.…

The Australian government has raised bureaucratic and regulatory hurdles that impede foreign investors from sinking money into the country’s agribusinesses, leaving the local dairy sector torn between the desire for growth and respecting Australia’s need to secure its food supplies.
Foreign money flowing into Australian rural businesses “has got to be investment that serves our national interest.…

For more than a decade, smart coatings have been on the cusp of revolutionising much of the way in which paint industry goes about its business. The number of products that have made it from the lab to the open market remains relatively few, but growing.…

ADDITIONAL pressure is being placed on Macao anti-money laundering (AML) authorities to reduce the illicit flow of money between the Chinese special administrative region (SAR) and mainland China. This month (February 2015), officials from mainland China’s ministry of public security (effectively the police force) have this month been meeting Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) officials to set up a system that monitors transactions through UnionPay (China’s state-owned card payment clearing company) in Macao.…

A BREAKTHROUGH project that could return all olive oil waste back to the olive oil production cycle by turning it into onsite energy could bring significant profit margin improvements to the industry, while reducing its environmental impact. 
The European Union (EU)-funded pilot project Biogas2PEM-FC, based in Andalucía, southern Spain, uses  “valourisation” techniques to deal with waste, as opposed to the traditional method of “depositing or using physical, physicochemical or biological methods for detoxification, which is costly,” explained Per Ekdunge, the Swedish fuel cell technology company PowerCell’s vice  president and chief technology officer.…

AN INTERNATIONAL regulatory cooperation pilot involving medicine regulators sharing real time assessments about generic medicines is now in full flow. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is leading the initiative, building on the European Union’s (EU) experience of cooperation between national regulators.…

A BOOM in Australian live cattle exports to Vietnam look set to continue this year, thanks to favourable currency conditions; the depletion of the Vietnamese herd by exports to neighbouring China; and increasing demand for fresh quality beef from Vietnamese consumers.…

PLASTIC banknotes have been in circulation since their introduction in Australia in 1988 and their use is expanding. Counterfeiters beware. Alan Osborn, in London; Kitty So, in Ottawa; and Lee Adendorff, in Byron Bay, Australia, report.

FAKING banknotes is considerably more difficult on plastic than on cotton-based paper, and while printing technology improvements may aid forgers, central banks seem happy to avail themselves of the competitive advantage.

Low cotton prices and land scarcity may impede a long term cotton production expansion plan launched by the Vietnamese government in 2010, an industry expert has told WTiN.com.

Vietnam is a global powerhouse in textile, garment and apparel manufacturing, but it relies heavily on cotton imports, with only 1% of the cotton used in the country produced domestically, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).…

As they looks at the rewards of shale gas production seen over recent years in the US, European producers are edging closer to commercial shale gas production. However, it faces a wide range of challenges, and the debate within Europe over shale gas is intensifying.…

INTELLECTUAL property regulations proposed during the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations could hinder access to medicine in developing countries, a law professor at the University of Sydney, Australia, who specialises in trade agreements and intellectual property (IP) issues has told Manufacturing Chemist.…

JAPAN’S textile sector, including technical textiles, has long enjoyed a reputation for producing innovative and high-quality products that meet – and surpass – consumers’ needs. Over the years, companies from across the industry, ranging from low-tech spinning operations to the manufacturers of cutting-edge technical textiles, have invested heavily in their research and development divisions and their personnel to stay ahead of the competition.…

CHILDREN’S books topped Australia’s best-seller list during Christmas and New Year, according to Nielsen BookScan Australia. Australian author Andy Griffiths topped the list with ‘The 52-Storey Treehouse’, which sold 232,900 copies up to December 27, firmly reaffirming the author as the country’s most popular writer for young minds.…

Malaysia’s finance ministry has released a comprehensive plan to boost the strength of the accountancy profession in the country. Drafted by a special committee to strengthen the accountancy profession (CSAP), the policy is designed to ensure Malaysia has sufficient numbers of professional accountants and reform the profession’s governance.…

NORWAY’S ministry of agriculture and food has established a working group that will examine the advantages for both producers and consumers of replacing the traditional method of surgical castration system for pigs with a vaccine based alternative.

Preliminary research conducted in Norway for the ministry and the national meat industry association Kjøttbransjens Landsforening (KLF) contends that the vaccine method offers a comparative, if not superior solution to combating boar taint and delivering high quality meat.…

2015 will be an important year in southeast Asia, with the launch of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC) in December. But analysts question whether the region’s non-ferrous metal giant Indonesia is ready to integrate its industry with those of its neighbours.…

The European Commission has announced its approval of Anglo American’s purchase of sufficient additional equity in South African manganese ore and manganese alloy company Samancor to secure shared control with BHP Billiton, Samancor’s current controlling shareholder. Brussels’ competition directorate general had reviewed the deal using its powers to block or impose conditions on takeovers that have a significant European impact.…

Plastic banknotes have been in circulation since their introduction in Australia in 1988 and the consensus so far seems to be that they do an excellent job of a key requirement – reducing counterfeiting. It may be that forgers will gain more expertise in time – faking is considerably more difficult on plastic than on cotton-based paper – but the initial reports from larger countries that have taken this route, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have persuaded the UK’s Bank of England to follow them.

THE EUROPEAN Medicines Agency (EMA) has released guidance on the maximum amount of three phthalates that should be allowed in pharmaceuticals, because of safety concerns. These plasticisers – diethyl phthalate (DEP), polyvinyl acetate phthalate (PVAP), and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) – can be used to make medicine capsules.…

Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the continuing conflict in the east of Ukraine overshadowed international events last year. But Russia’s cosmetics industry has proved resilient and even maintained ties with Ukraine.

Despite the concerns and challenges, the forecasts for the calendar year 2014 are buoyant.…

CHINA’S huge cosmetics market remains a battleground for the world’s multinational personal care product players and they are still more than holding their own against local manufacturers and brands, especially in higher end segments.

The country’s overall cosmetics and personal care product market was worth Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY274 billion (USD44 billion) in 2013, according to data provided by market analysts Euromonitor International.…

Plastic banknotes have been in circulation since their introduction in Australia in 1988 and the consensus so far seems to be that they do an excellent job of a key requirement – reducing counterfeiting. It may be that forgers will gain more expertise in time – faking is considerably more difficult on plastic than on cotton-based paper – but the initial reports from larger countries that have taken this route, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have persuaded the UK’s Bank of England to follow them.

CLOTHING industry leaders in the USA met on Wednesday (Nov 5) in New York and considered whether America’s mid-term elections on the previous day had made securing agreement on the critically important Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) more difficult.

With the opposition Republicans taking control of the US Senate, and consolidating control of its House of Representatives, the task of President Barack Obama in securing special rights to ratify a deal got harder.…

Nobody has yet made a wholly compelling claim that for all the resources being devoted to fighting money laundering, regulators, law enforcers and businesses are winning the battle against it. Indeed, there is no consensus that the anti-money laundering (AML) establishment is even approaching the challenge in the right way by relying so heavily on the private sector.…

WITH just over 12 months to the launch of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC), experts anticipate that the European Union-style economic union will promote trades in industrial minerals.

The 10 ASEAN nations have been moving towards a more cohesive approach to minerals trading for many years.…

Rising incomes and a continued tightening of food safety enforcement is boosting demand in China for commercial packaged oils, with consumers moving away from the bulk oils that have dominated past markets.

Overall, while year-on-year growth in global oils and fats production has averaged 3% in each of the past two years vegetable oils sales in China will rise an average 16% per year in the period 2014-2018.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) seems to have sparked a regulatory trend with its REACH chemical control system, with more and more countries in Asia adopting REACH-inspired chemical management laws. Thus textile finishing units, companies and suppliers will have to pay increasingly close attention to chemical regulations in Asia-Pacific countries such as China and South Korea.…

DOCUMENTS obtained by Confectionery Production from the European Union (EU) indicate that Ukraine has lost up to USD126 million’s worth of confectionery export sales to Russia this year, because of Russian trade restrictions.
EU briefing papers note that Ukraine has been complaining to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since October 2013 about alleged “unjustified barriers to trade caused by the measures of the Russian Federation, in particular, on Ukrainian confectionery products.”…

Marcus Derwin, the new managing director at Australia’s largest privately-owned milk processing company United Dairy Power (UDP), has said the company will continue to trade, despite its parent entering receivership. This follows financier Rabobank forcing UDP’s parent company, Hong Kong-owned Five Star United Foods, into receivership on November 10.…

AS companies and government organisations implement more stringent fraud detection programmes, they are recruiting the best and brightest anti-fraud experts. Universities in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia are responding to demand for anti-fraud expertise by offering fraud prevention classes in accounting, criminology, and business degrees.…

Multilateral talks over Iran’s nuclear power programme have partly and temporarily eased certain sanctions against the country. Yet while businesses worldwide are keen to get into the lucrative Iranian market to offer all kinds of good and services, the overarching sanctions regime put in place by the United States, the European Union  (EU) and the United Nations still remains, as do the risks of doing business with Iran, considered one of the world’s riskiest jurisdictions.…

By the end of next year, the increasingly wealthy 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc aims to establish its own European Union-style common market for its combined population of 600 million.
Experts say that the new ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is expected to deepen cohesion and liberalisation within a regional market that has already made significant strides in removing trade barriers that can impact tobacco product sales.…

KENYAN knitwear exporters maybe the biggest knitting sector winners from a comprehensive trade deal struck between the European Union (EU) and the East African Community (EAC), which was finalised on October 16. It should boost trade between the two regions – including of yarns and knitted or crocheted clothing and fabrics.…

For international dairy exporters, India remains an attractive destination, but they face serious challenges related to supply chain and distribution networks. “For an international company to come in and start from scratch, [it] has to struggle with the portfolio, procurement and distribution,” said Siva Nagarajan, managing director of Mother Dairy Fruits & Vegetables Ltd, owned by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB): It would take at least 10 years to build such a network, he told just-food.…

Two years ago Brazil was so worried that its main airports would not be ready for the 2014 World Cup that its government froze plans to build and renovate 270 airfields nationwide. Now that the football fiesta is over and the concessions running key hubs has delivered good results, South America’s powerhouse looked set to start focusing on airports and airfields in smaller cities, especially those that are not state capitals.…

An international Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT) was launched September 1 to step up the fight against online fraudsters in the European Union (EU) and beyond.

Housed in the Netherlands-based European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), J-CAT is a six-month pilot scheme to coordinate international investigations.…

Tiny Paraguay is now the world’s eighth top beef exporter says US government figures, ahead of meaty superpowers such as Argentina (11th), but their aim is to be number five by 2020 and have 20 million head of cattle available in that year alone.…

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) will cut its budget by 10% per cent of its operating costs and plans on revamping its research programmes, amidst grumbles from the industry about its funding arrangements. Job losses amongst its 248 staff are anticipated.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is currently assessing the impact of Russia’s ban of beef, pork and poultry meat imports from the bloc, which was announced today by the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in response to sanctions over the situation in Ukraine.…

When Adrian Bressan started working in the Australian knitwear industry 50 years ago, there were hundreds of competing factories in Australia – but today, his A&B Knitwear, in Melbourne is one of only few left. “With all the cheap imports, the other knitters closed down,” Mr Bressan said.…

Product lifecycle management (PLM) systems help apparel companies share information more efficiently and plan for future lines more accurately as time-to-market shrinks.

Software such as the WFX Cloud PLM helps speed up companies’ processes from product concept and design to delivery at stores, said Jatin Paul, CEO of WFX (World Fashion Exchange).…

 Australia’s cotton industry is anticipating a significantly reduced yield in the 2014/15 harvest if the ongoing drought in the country’s cotton-growing regions does not ease.

Adam Kay, CEO of peak industry body Cotton Australia, told just-style.com that if the very dry conditions continued, preliminary forecasts were for a total harvest of around 2.5 million bales in the 2014/15 season, compared to the nearly 4 million bales harvested in 2013/14.…

The European Commission is poised to intervene in Europe’s fruit and vegetable markets following Moscow’s food embargo and may withdraw supplies of vegetables to avoid a collapse in prices, a Commission spokesman told just-food.com

Roger Waite, a spokesman for the Commission, said the measures would be proposed within days and could also include free distribution of vegetables to charitable groups.…

Taiwan’s main airport, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, is to undergo a major expansion, increasing its annual passenger capacity from 32 million to 60 million by 2030. Located halfway between the capital Taipei and the island’s industrial heartland along its western coast, the airport is planned to become the centerpiece of the government’s highly ambitious Taoyuan Aerotropolis project, which with an estimated investment of Taiwan New Dollar TWD600 billion (USD20 billion).…

THE BAN imposed by Russia at the beginning of August on dairy products from the European Union (EU), US, Canada, Norway and Australia will cause disturbances on the European and world markets, the European Dairy Association (EDA) warned the European Commission on August 13.…

European Union (EU) meat production is projected to start growing in 2014, according to the European Commission, as Europe’s economic recovery solidifies. This could be up 0.7% year-on-year for beef, veal, pigmeat, poultry, sheep and goat meat. However, exports might fall for pigmeat and poultry, with Russian import bans especially causing problems for pigmeat.…

THE USA is a key market for Australian beef and lamb exports and its importance is growing: Australia’s beef exports by volume to America shooting up by 53% in the first half of 2014, [calendar year] compared with the same period in 2013” making America its largest beef export destination so far, Meat & Livestock Australia chief economist Tim McRae told globalmeatnews.com.…

For nurses coming to work in Britain from overseas, a key requirement is always going to be proficiency in English. A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) spokesperson noted that under European legislation the NMC “is not allowed to ask EU [European Union]-trained EU nationals to demonstrate language competency as a requirement for registration in the UK.”…

INDIAN knitwear manufacturers are hoping for a major growth impetus because of industry-friendly policies being rolled out by the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government. “We are very optimistic about the new government,” Naval Saraf, proprietor of Super Knit Industries, a sock manufacturing company in Mumbai told Knitting International.…

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has issued the full version of new global guidance for governments swapping financial data to tackle tax evasion. The Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters urges governments to collect detailed account information from financial institutions and to exchange this automatically and annually with other jurisdictions.…

SIX months after new European Union (EU) rules came into force regarding air passengers carrying liquids, aerosols and gels (the trade acronym is LAGs) in hand luggage at EU airports, business seems to have improved for personal care product duty free retailers.…

SINGAPORE and the United States have negotiated an agreement that will force Singaporean financial institutions to declare money held in the city state by American citizens and residents. The deal will help Singapore comply with the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which says all financial institutions outside the USA must regularly submit such information to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).…

Extreme weather events in 2013 were plentiful in the Asia-Pacific region – increasing demand for high performance coatings. Typhoons and cyclones brought devastation to parts of the central Philippines with typhoon Haiyan, while India was hit by Phailin, the second strongest tropical cyclone to strike the country since accurate meteorological records began.…

THE UNITED States’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is to go into force on July 1. Aimed at curbing tax evasion by US citizens around the world, foreign financial institutions (FFIs) are required to report on US account holders, but over 200,000 FFIs and 123 countries have not yet signed up.…

When India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept the just-concluded general elections riding on the slogan in Hindi ‘achche din aane wale hain’ – which means good days are coming soon – Indian garment exporters agreed.

With Modi’s BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) government assuming power on May 26, the new textile minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar’s statement that he wants to project ‘Brand India’ abroad and boost garment exports has given exporters confidence that government help will be offered.…

KAZAKHSTAN’S promising beef industry is trying to create its own breeder herds, with a plan to import as many as 10,000 Angus and Hereford cows from the US and Australia, KazBeef Ltd  LLC director general Beibit Yerubayev told globalmeatnews.com.

This is all part of efforts to make the central Asian country a beef exporting powerhouse, building from its current 5,000 tonnes of annual beef and beef products exports.…

A DISPUTES panel has at last been formed at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to consider whether Australia is breaking WTO rules by insisting since December 2012, under the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011, that all tobacco products must be sold in plain packaging.…

There is nothing better for a financial professional to oversee the transformation of an innovative company from a small scrapper to a big player – and ACCA qualified Australia-based Paula Kensington knows how this feels.

She is CFO of Rubik Financial – a Sydney-based provider of banking software – whose revenue since the end of 2011 has increased by 200% and its share price multiplied, driving market capitalisation exceeding Australian dollar AUD150 million (USD140.39 million).…

US-based Baker & Taylor and Canada-based Whitehots Inc have agreed to cooperate in offering Canadian libraries and schools a one-stop, cloud-based platform to acquire and distribute print and digital material. “What was missing in the [Canadian] market was a Canadian company that was able to sell both print and digital materials to Canadian public and school libraries,” said Russ Culver, CEO of Whitehots.…

INSIDER trading –and enrichment by officials – is a key reason why the Shanghai stock exchange remains stuck in a funk, underperforming in China’s overall economy for most of the past decade. “They [bureaucrats] are promoted on political criteria, not commercial…they don’t always have shareholders’ interests at heart,” explained Michael Komesaroff, principal of Urandaline Investment, an Australia-based consultancy working on outbound investment deals involving Chinese state-owned firms.…

THE EUROPEAN Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) yesterday (Tuesday) proposed new standards for flight recorders and underwater locating devices for European Union (EU)-registered aircraft. The aim is helping emergency and rescue services find and recover a plane and its flight recorders if it crashed into the ocean.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Avition Organisation (ICAO) is pushing hard for a global aircraft tracking system in the wake of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370. But, while recommendations on aircraft tracking solutions will be issued later this year, binding standards may still be some way off.…

A 15% year-on-year growth in the exports of Indian apparel in the financial year ending March 2014 has been caused by the diversification of export markets and stricter compliance standards by Indian factories, just-style has been told. “We are diversifying into the markets like Japan, Australia and Latin American countries,” Chandrima Chatterjee, director (economic and consultancy) of the Apparel Export Promotion Council of India told just-style.…

The European Commission has approved the use of ethyl lauroyl arginate (E-243) as a preservative in most heat-treated meat products in the 28-country European Union (EU). But the Commission has retained a ban on its use in emulsified sausages, smoked sausages and liver paste.…

THE NEW Japan-Australia Partnership Agreement (JAEPA) agreed on April 8 allows unprecedented access to Japanese markets, but it’s not necessarily only the Australian meat producers who will profit.

This deal lowers the tariffs for frozen beef to 19.5 per cent (a cut of 19 percentage points) over an 18 year period, and for chilled beef to 23.5 per cent over 15 years (down 15 percentage points).…

IT took wholesaler Gerard Munday about six months to get over the impact of the new plain packaging laws for tobacco products, introduced in Australia in December 2012. “At the beginning it was confronting. Suddenly all looked the same and without colours or brands receiving stock, filling shelves and selling products took much longer than before”, said Munday, owner of the independent Patterson Road Wholesalers, in Melbourne.…

GROWTH in the global nonwoven consumer wipes market is set to slow over the coming years, although a number of trends are encouraging brands and manufacturers in particular product segments such as baby wipes and anti-bacterial surface care products. Meanwhile, a growing range of innovations are emerging focused on producing flushable wipes.…

NEPAL pashmina fibre is “exotically delicate, weightless and the finest natural insulation fibre of the world,” according to the Nepal Pashmina Industries Association’s (NPIA) general secretary Vijoy Kumar Dugar. This reputation has helped Nepal producers carve out a niche markets for pashmina knitwear and traditional shawl exports.…

THE EUROPEAN Medicines Agency (EMA) and Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) will henceforth share full assessment reports on marketing authorisation applications for orphan medicines intended to treat rare diseases. A cooperation agreement between the two regulators “will reinforce collaboration and work-sharing between the two regulatory authorities and will contribute to accelerating access to new medicines for patients with rare diseases in Europe and in Australia,” said an EMA note, which added: “Global collaboration on orphan medicines and rare diseases is particularly important in view of the small number of patients…and…the limited number of studies performed to benefit patients regardless of where they live.”…

Apparel and textile companies must consider a variety of complex factors when looking to switch suppliers, especially to a new manufacturer, such as assessing the risk of delivery delays and receiving products of poor quality.

Software specifically geared towards apparel and textile production can now help companies track these changes, anticipate issues caused by the shift, and help integrate new suppliers within the supply chain, while tracking their progress.…

THREE dimensional (3D) technology – while well established in many other industrial sectors like aerospace, architecture and industrial design – is still relatively new to the fashion industry. Analysts are describing it as ‘disruptive’ technology, capable of transforming the way apparel companies do business, from prototyping and pattern making using 3D models to the creation of 3D digital catalogues and a range of customer centric services based on 3D body scanning and sizing.…

SYDNEYSIDERS are proud of Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith, the Australian aviator who in 1928 made the first trans-Pacific flight from the United States to his home country, but they are less impressed, though, with the airport that carries the pilot’s name.…

THE COSMETICS and beauty product sector in Sri Lanka has recorded a gradual growth in the past few years, with help from the government boosting local manufacturers, according to industry experts.

While being a small sector in comparison to the country’s heavy industries, there are almost 4,000 cosmetics and beauty care products sold on the local market, according to the Cosmetics, Devices and Drugs Regulatory Authority (CDDA), a government agency regulating the sector, operating under the health ministry.…

REPRESENTATIVES from Europe’s sugar industry want sugar to be excluded from the current free trade negotiations between the United States and the European Union (EU). Speaking at an EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) briefing in Brussels, Oscar Ruiz de Imaña – the deputy director general of the European Association of Sugar Producers (CEFS), warned of the uncertainties in the sugar markets on both sides of the Atlantic.…

THE SINGAPORE Parliament has beefed up the powers of the country’s accounting regulator, especially over corporate service providers. MPs passed an accounting and corporate regulatory authority (amendment) bill, which will insist corporate service providers be registered as filing agents, able to help companies with their establishment, legal advice, regulatory filings, office hosting and secretarial services.…

BANGLADESH’S readymade industry expects a 10-15% growth in exports for the current fiscal year ending June, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) acting president Mohammad Hatem has told just-style.

The first eight months of the fiscal year fetched a “morale- boosting” 16.68% rise to USD16.13 billion compared to last year’s USD13.83 billion.…

THE LVMH Group has strengthened its position in the luxury clothing segment by acquiring a majority stake in one the world’s most exclusive luxury brands, Italy’s Loro Piana. All relevant regulatory approvals were secured by December 2013, including the unconditional merger clearance by the European Commission.…

Vietnam’s languishing cotton development master plan could be given a new lease of life if a new government bio-safety certificate programme takes off this year as planned, opening the way for farmers to grow genetically-modified (GM) high yield pest resistant cotton.…

The use of smart phone and tablet apps looks set to become increasingly important in the coaching sector over the coming years. New apps are emerging designed to help coaches and clients during sessions; apps that offer clients a ‘coach in your pocket;’ and a range of self-coaching apps.…

THREE of the world’s biggest marine coatings markets – China, South Korea and Japan – have a lot in common even though they face diverse market conditions across Asia, according to market analysts. China’s shipyards will power growth in the Asia-Pacific marine coatings market, but it is the major international coatings companies and their China-based joint ventures that remain in prime position to benefit, according to new research from consultancy Frost & Sullivan.  …

A study by Australia’s premier scientific body the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has argued that Australian beef production could grow in value by Australian dollars AUD200 million (USD182.6 million) in a select area of northern Australia by using mosaic irrigation.…

CANADIAN meat exporters have welcomed a Canada-South Korea free trade agreement announced yesterday (March 11), saying it will boost trade and help them compete for sales in South Korea’s often wealthy markets.

“The absence of an FTA [free trade agreement] with Korea was causing substantial and growing prejudice to the Canadian pork industry due to the tariff rates since all of our key competitors in South Korea have FTAs in place,” said Jean-Guy Vincent, chair of the Canadian Pork Council.…

Australian chicken production and consumption is expected to continue its steady growth over the next five years and will account for nearly a third of total meat production in the country by 2019 according to a recent report by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).…

Despite the political turmoil that has rocked the country and a lull in trade relations over livestock exports, Australia is keen to boost exports to Egypt, according to market watchers. “Egypt is a market we would really like to access again,” confirmed Rob Gillam, ex-president of the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Australia.…

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) scientific committee has sounded an alarm about potential health concerns regarding the use of nano-silver in clothing – the substance often used as an antibacterial in knitted socks.

The EU’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks has noted studies indicating that “nanosilver exposure leads possibly to genotoxicity, changes in activity of the immune system and an accumulation of silver in spleen, liver and testes.”…

MONEY laundering through global shell companies could be better tackled with simple and inexpensive measures rather than revisions of complex anti-money laundering (AML) procedures, according to a senior Australian academic. “We don’t need more rules, we need better enforcement of existing rules,” said Prof Jason Sharman, co-author of ‘Global Shell Games: Experiments in Transnational Relations, Crime, and Terrorism’, due for release in April 2014.…

NEGOTIATIONS for a renewed International Agreement on Olive Oil are intensifying in Madrid. The agreement runs out at the end of this year and its member jurisdictions, of which the European Union (EU) is the biggest, are working to forge a new agreement by December.…

AUSTRALIA’S Lynas Corporation Ltd raised industry eyebrows late January by expressing confidence that lanthanum demand will grow robustly through to 2020, and at the same time declaring that it will not accept new orders for the light rare earth below USD15/kilogramme (kg). …

New Zealand has recorded bumper beef exports to Saudi Arabia and Indonesia in the first four months (October 2013 to January 2014) of the meat export year, according to figures from industry body Beef and Lamb New Zealand (BLNZ).

Saudi Arabia took 861 tonnes of New Zealand beef in the first quarter of 2013-14, continuing on last year’s gains.…

Nearly 18 months since Australian exporters voluntarily suspended sheep exports to Bahrain, the CEO of the Australian Live Exporters’ Council Alison Penfold has told globalmeatnews.com that Australian exporters are keen to resume trading: “Bahrain is a market we value very highly.…

With the need for checking the safety of supply chains being a growing concern, software providers are updating their products to help apparel and textile companies monitor their manufacturing and distribution partners. The technology helps brands organise their supplies, as they become increasingly involved in ensuring outsourcer factories are safe and compliant with national and international standards.…

EVEN if the European Union (EU) has set energy targets for 2020 and the European Commission has proposed new ones for 2030, the investors still lack the confidence that they need to put their money into energy generation projects in Europe.…

Personal care product multinationals have long been known for their eagerness to invest in China, even during the recent global recession. That is why the decision by two renowned PCP companies to retreat from China in the past month is so remarkable.…

One key supplier to the Chinese market that has all the advantages – in terms of market access, business connections and cultural awareness is Hong Kong’s cosmetics and personal care product sector. Its reputation for quality and the special administrative region’s proximity to mainland economic powerhouse Guangdong helps.…

SOURCING in Asia has been a merry-go-round for many buyers in recent years. As the era of low-cost Chinese manufacturing draws more or less to a close, several countries have leveraged their low cost labour to capture a significant volume of the world’s lower end knitwear manufacturing, while others have sought to extend their reach into higher value-added manufacturing by investing in infrastructure and training.…

SOURCING in Asia has been a merry-go-round for many buyers in recent years. As the era of low-cost Chinese manufacturing draws more or less to a close, several countries have leveraged their low cost labour to capture a significant volume of the world’s lower end knitwear manufacturing, while others have sought to extend their reach into higher value-added manufacturing by investing in infrastructure and training.…

AUSTRALIAN beef and veal exporters have been buoyed by data from the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) showing record export numbers for the industry in 2013. The country exported nearly 1.1 million tonnes of chilled and frozen beef and veal in 2013, up 14% from the 963,779t achieved in 2012.…

Australia and South Korea concluded negotiations for a free trade agreement in December last year that could see tariffs for Australian pharmaceuticals slashed by as much as 8 percent. Under the agreement Australia’s fourth largest trading partner South Korea will eliminate tariffs for Australian manufactured goods including pharmaceuticals and vitamins over the next 7 years.…

AUSTRALIA’S live cattle exports posted strong growth in 2013, with an 18% year-on-year increase in the 10 months from January to October. According to figures from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), Australia exported 650,830 head of cattle during this period, with nearly half (314,879) absorbed by the Indonesian market, Australia’s most import livestock export destination.…

Canada’s higher education sector has welcomed a comprehensive strategy released by the Canadian government for recruiting more foreign students into its institutions.

Announcing a new International Education Strategy on Wednesday (Jan 15), the country’s international trade minister Ed Fast accepted that Canada could profit more from the lucrative global international student market.…

Indian buffalo meat exports to Vietnam have doubled in volume and tripled in value within a year as Chinese traders use the southeast Asian country for channelling their meat trade to bypass an official ban on direct imports, globalmeatnews.com has been told.…

MEAT industry association Australian Pork Limited (APL) has told globalmeatnews.com that Australian piggeries are well on the way to an almost total elimination of sow gestation stalls by 2017. It says that an estimated 65% of pigmeat enterprises in 2014 are already phasing out using cages to restrict a sow’s movements during pregnancy.…

BRAZIL-based textile industry conferences in 2014 will focus on innovation, with the country’s fabric sector seeking to trade up to higher end products.

Fairs such as Première Vision, have been growing in size. The bi-annual event was staged this month in São Paulo from January 21-22, with a follow up meeting from November 4 to 5.…

A country famed for its beautiful traditional ‘batik,’ Malaysia is also home to a highly specialised textiles industry and these niche skills may prove vital for the country’s numerous finishing factories in what is shaping up to a challenging year. Economists are predicting a general slowing of the Malaysian economy, with average real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the next five years estimated in Q4 2013 at 3.4%, revised down 0.2% from Q4 in 2012 (slightly slower than the Asian average of 3.7%), according to the Ifo Institute for Economic Research/International Chamber of Commerce’s World Economic Survey of business experts published in November last year.…

With their combined population of just under 9 million, the south Pacific island territories, excluding New Zealand, are a set of small and hard to reach markets – so it is maybe no surprise that only a handful of companies tap their paint and coatings demand.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

A country famed for its beautiful traditional ‘batik,’ Malaysia is also home to a highly specialised textiles industry and these niche skills may prove vital for the country’s numerous finishing factories in what is shaping up to a challenging year.…

BY JENS KASTNER

With their combined population of just under 9 million, the south Pacific island territories, excluding New Zealand, are a set of small and hard to reach markets – so it is maybe no surprise that only a handful of companies tap their paint and coatings demand.…

FOR years, Switzerland’s success as a global financial center has rested upon the rock-solid foundation of banking secrecy, a guarantee of discretion as solid at the Matterhorn.  The Swiss proudly declared banking secrecy to be part of the country’s DNA, a practice formally established in the 1930s when Nazi Germany was on the rise and which helped shield individuals against abusive states. …

AN INTERNATIONAL higher education conference has underlined the major progress made in building links between the universities of neighbouring countries in Latin America. But it also highlighted the significant remaining challenges facing Latin American higher education if it wants to be truly integrated with tertiary institutions worldwide.…

Most of north India’s steel mills are running at less than 50% capacity due to poor power supply and rising input costs, according to a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Accenture management consultants.

The ‘Indian Steel Industry – An overview and growth prospects in north India’ report said the power outages “are resulting in production losses and forcing many mills to work only single shifts.”…

INCREASINGLY stringent regulations governing the cold chain transport of medicines for human use are tipped to become a major driver for the uptake of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology by pharmaceutical suppliers in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to a recent report published by industry analysts Frost & Sullivan, America and Europe currently divide the biggest slice of market share in the global market for cold chain RFID.…

AUSTRALIA’S livestock export traders have said they want to ensure that their lucrative export business with Indonesia is not damaged by fallout from a diplomatic row over spying.

This follows outrage from the Indonesian authorities over revelations that Australia had tapped the phones of its President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and close collaborators in 2009.…

WINNERS AND LOSERS

RETAIL

WINNERS

ASOS

Fashion retailer ASOS showed online convenience and price are still a winning combination with shoppers. The UK-based online retailer continued its impressive trajectory this year, announcing pre-tax profit had reached GBP54.7m (US$88.3m) for the year ending 31 August, compared to GBP40m in the same period of last year, with retail sales jumping 40% to GBP753.8m, up from GBP537.9m last year. …

THE LAST few years have brought significant changes to the apparel sourcing landscape in Asia. The era of Chinese low-cost apparel manufacturing is well behind us, and several countries have stepped up to claim their part of the manufacturing pie.

Apparel industry analysts say that although China’s dominance continues, a clear segmentation in Asia is now taking place.…

WHILE Australia’s healthy economy is the envy of most countries in the world, and obviously this boosts the personal care product industry in the country – there are concerns that retailers and brands are over-charging consumers. Indeed, Australian consumers are paying as much as 50% more for the same cosmetics as United States and European consumers, according to a recent investigation by Australia’s consumer organisation Choice.…

ZHU Jiandi and Gu Wenxian could be the two most travelled accountants in China. The frequent flying duo – chairman and managing director, respectively, at BDO China Shu Lun Pan – were in the southwesterly megalopolis of Chongqing recently to rally local staff to a company goal of making the office a bridgehead for expansion throughout the southwest and west of China.…

AN INTERNATIONAL higher education conference has underlined the major progress made in building links between the universities of neighbouring countries in Latin America. But it also highlighted the significant remaining challenges facing Latin American higher education if it wants to be truly integrated with tertiary institutions worldwide.…

WHILE American textile producers fear the potential impact of the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) regional free trade agreement, it is smaller and medium-sized Vietnamese producers who really need to be worried. That is the view of

Chris Walker, marketing manager for Thai Son S.P.…

In Australia a pack of Marlboro costs Australian dollars AUD15.95 (USD15.02). For that smokers get 20 cigarettes in a drab olive-grey packet displaying large pictures of gangrenous feet or rotting teeth. In December 2012, the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act made Australia the first country worldwide to remove all branding and design from cigarette packets, dedicating 75% of the surface to health warnings.…

Bharat Coking Coal Limited, India’s main supplier of coking coal to the country’s steel industry, has announced plans to increase production 10-fold, reducing the country’s dependence on expensive imports.

“By 2017, we will be able to provide 11 to 15 million tonnes of washed coal annually,” Ashoke Sarkar, Bharat’s technical director told Steel First.…

THE SIGHT of wind turbines in an offshore oilfield is nothing new. Operators in the Gulf of Mexico have for years used small wind turbines on oil and gas installations to power SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) computerised systems to keep fields operating.…

CHINA’S beef prices have been soaring as wealthier consumers consume more meat, and switch to beef from pork. But there are more fundamental issues at stake, not least the collapse in local herd numbers.

A supply shortage has meant whole sale beef prices pushed to a “critical juncture” of Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY60 per kilogramme in the second half of 2013, according to a report entitled ‘China Livestock Research and Investment 2013-2017’ produced by the Beijing-based China Suppliers Institute (CIS) – http://www.hyzsyjy.com,…

AUSTRALIAN beef exporters are nervous about a decision by the Russian government – confirmed directly to globalmeatnews.com – that it is planning to lift the existing ban on imports of US beef. It has been banned since this February (2013), with the official reason being the use of beta agonists in US beef production – and since then, Australian exports of high-end (chilled, not frozen) high value beef exports to Russia over the last 10 months have soared.…

ALTHOUGH Colombia’s pharmaceutical sector has enjoyed growth over the past few years, new price controls could disrupt the sector’s expansion if they are poorly planned, industry representatives claim.

Their concerns focus on the reaction to maximum price controls on medication recently approved by the government.…

Major food companies serving the Chinese diary industry have told just-food how they see great opportunities emerging from oncoming China government reforms, many expected to be proposed next year.

One policy with a significant impact would be easing China’s long-standing one-child policy.…

POLAND has become one of the hottest destinations in Europe for commercial real estate investment as investors look to capitalise on the country’s continued economic stability and potential for growth. Given the financial fragility of many other European Union (EU) states, this 38 million population country, which avoided recession during the credit crunch, is increasingly regarded as a key commercial property market.…

AUSTRALIA’S pharmaceutical sector hopes that the country’s new centre-right government will make good on its plans to increase Australian medicine exports. Manufacturers are optimistic about the new government’s plans to increase export capacity and competitiveness in specialist high-value manufacturing, research and clinical trials.…

BARELY a year in office, China’s new government under President Xi Jinping has made more moves towards economic reform than the previous administration in its 10 years in power. Mr Xi has promised to reboot China’s economy by paring back regulations as well as the preferences enjoyed by the state-owned sector, which monopolises many industries, including finance.…

THAILAND’S new tax incentive scheme, due to take effect in just over a year, is provoking mixed reactions from tax experts and foreign investors.

As the country looks to move away from low-cost, low-value, environmentally damaging manufacturing industries towards those that might foster a sustainable, knowledge-based economy, Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) has drawn up a new investment promotion policy that will go into effect in January 2015.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian confectioners can look forward to increasing their trans-Atlantic trade once a new free trade agreement between the EU and Canada comes into force, probably in 2015.

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), announced on October 18, will remove most tariffs for confectionery and sweet bakery products imposed by both sides on each other’s exports.…

PRODUCERS of confectionery mixing machinery around the world continue to improve their machines, but generally opt for incremental improvements in sanitation and multi-purpose functions rather than creating entire new products.

Dutch confectionery equipment producer Tanis Confectionery, plans to unveil new mixing technology at Germany’s Interpack processes and packaging trade fair in May, Leo Tanis, CEO of Tanis Confectionery told Confectionery Production.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted to reduce the support the European Union (EU) gives to the traditional biofuel sector, backing European Commission proposals to amend the renewable energy directive (2009/28/EC). MEPs agreed that the law should insist that first-generation biofuels (from long-standing sources, notably food crops) should not exceed 6% of EU energy consumption in transport by 2020, compared to the 10% target for all biofuels in the existing legislation.…

THE MALDIVES may best be known a tropical paradise with rare beauty, but this south Asian archipelago is also a hotbed for terror financing and money laundering, analysts fear. The country is now attempting to strengthen weak anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws that have created a “magnet effect for foreign organisations to pour money into local extremist groups,” warned Jean-Charles Brisard, US based terrorism financing expert and former chief investigator for the 9/11 families’ lawsuits against Al Qaeda financiers.…

MEXICO’S new president Enrique Peña Nieto, who came to office in December 2012, promised a less militaristic fight against the country’s increasingly violent drug trade, so his government’s implementation of a new anti-money laundering (AML) law will be watched closely.

Past president Felipe Calderón launched a severe military-led crackdown against the country’s drug cartels towards the end of 2006, around 80,000 people have since been killed in drug-related violence since.…

COAL might be regarded as the oldest energy source going, but it is still currently the world’s largest long-term source of electricity. It fuels around 40% of global electricity production, according to the UK-based World Energy Council, a United Nations (UN) accredited body representing some 3,000 private and public-sector member organisations across 90 nations.…

RESULTS from a study by researchers at the Queensland University of Technology’s AusSun research lab in Australia may help develop ‘super sunscreens’ to repair sun-damaged skin. The study, funded by advocacy organisation Cancer Council Queensland, exposed 57 participants to mild ultra-violet spot burning.…

Had you wanted Mike Khaffaf, owner and director of High Quality Painting on Sydney’s affluent North Shore, to come and paint your house four years ago, you would have had to wait at least six weeks for his services. Now, he can “start next Monday.”…

TWO of the world’s largest fertilizer suppliers will face investment cuts after Sweden’s four largest national pension funds decided to sell their holdings over purchases of phosphate rock in the disputed Western Sahara region.

The decision to sell stock in Canada-based PotashCorp and Australia-based mining company Incitec Pivot came on the recommendation of the funds’ joint Ethical Council, which keeps tabs on allegations of environmental and human rights violations among the portfolios of the A1, A2, A3 and A4 funds.…

PETRONAS, Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas (O&G) company, plans to increase the country’s O&G production and resource addition at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.5% over the five years 2013 through 2017.

This target follows Petronas’ announcement in January 2013 of plans to spend MYR186 billion (USD56.7 billion) on the country’s O&G sector over the next five years, and to increase significantly its production activities for both hydrocarbons.…

Sandy Grant, CEO of Australia’s Hardie Grant, has told The Bookseller that he has bought British publisher Quadrille not only to fully participate in an increasingly global marketplace but to also fight the predators in the book market.

“Years ago I was told if your business is going to be cannibalised you should do it yourself.…

THE WIDESPREAD disruption to European air-travel caused by the dramatic large-scale volcanic eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in March 2010 has prompted close assessments of air traffic control procudures in countries with significant seismic activity.

The 2010 disruption was a costly experience for airlines and air-passenger traffic.…

A team of Japanese scientists has developed a coating that makes use of rare earth elements to change its colour at different temperatures.

Yasuchika Hasegawa, a professor of materials chemistry at Hokkaido University, has been working on a project that he terms his “chameleon light emitter” for more than two years and is presently in discussions with a number of Japanese companies about collaborative projects to determine the best applications for the new technology.…

When Australia’s recently deposed Prime Minister Julia Gillard decided to announce that there was to be a challenge in the ruling Labor Party on her leadership, she did it in a one-to-one interview with Sky News Australia – and not with ABC 24 News, Australia’s publicly-funded, round-the-clock news channel.…

*An equally owned joint venture of Nine Digital, a division of Nine Entertainment Co., Seven Media Group, both Australian, and British Sky Broadcasting;

*Owns and operates Sky News Australia, Australia’s and New Zealand’s leading pay TV 24-hour news channel, available in more than 2.5 million homes and locations across both countries;

*Launched its news service on February 19th 1996, becoming the first Australian produced television news channel;

*Delivers content across all digital media platforms, including 3G mobile, podcasts, SMS and online, producing a wide range of digital news services, including Sky News Australia, Sky News New Zealand, Sky News Now for mobiles, Sky News Podcasts and Sky News Online;

*Began broadcasting Sky News Active, its on-demand interactive TV news service in 2004.…

PHARMACEUTICAL companies supplying Timor-Leste will have their distribution networks within this island country strengthened through a USD17.7 million healthcare system improvement grant from the World Bank, Australia and the European Union (EU). A World Bank communiqué said the money would fund a ‘National Health Sector Strategic Plan – Support Project’, to run until 2015, which builds on a USD20 million healthcare improvement project that was funded by the bank and Australia alone.…

Although it has been the subject of intense speculation over recent years, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tagging has fulfilled many of the predictions made by industry forecasters more than 10 years ago, when pilots of wide scale deployment by giant department store retailers began.…

The 9.5MW J920 FleXtra gas engine formally installed in May this year by the municipal utility Stadtwerke Rosenheim, in Bavaria, Germany, ticks off a number of important innovations. The largest gas engine yet developed by the Austrian company GE Jenbacher, the unit is seen by the company as an illustration of the role distributed energy is now playing in Germany’s ‘Energiewende’ – the country’s policy to halt all nuclear power by 2022 and replace it with natural gas, renewable energy, and greater use of energy efficient technologies.…

A much anticipated meeting of the Chinese leadership in October may offer the clearest timetable yet for the internationalisation of China’s currency, the Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY). Full convertibility of the Chinese currency is a stated goal of government here but progress has sometimes been slow, though suggestions from economists in Beijing indicate the currency may be fully convertible by 2017.…

AFTER 10 hard years of negotiations, Croatia finally became the European Union (EU)’s 28th member state on July 1, a move that will inevitably open its financial and related services markets to major EU companies and partnerships. One key issue for European financial professionals has been, and will be, the extent to which Croatian business and government is clean.…

APPAREL and textile manufacturers looking to streamline their supply chains can benefit from product lifecycle management software, which can make communications and risk management processes linking suppliers and retailers more efficient and accurate.

“There’s a lot of new technology that’s been introduced in the last few years that helps manage that supply chain – everything from the finances, the logistics, quality, design, right through into merchandising,” said Robert Cammilleri, senior account executive of business development at US-based safety consulting company, UL (Underwriters Laboratories Inc).…

PERSONAL care product market in the Middle East can be divided into two current trends: sales in the affluent Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are booming, while on the other side of the region, in the Levant, markets are feeling the effects of the Syrian conflict, with the loss of tourists and low consumer confidence impacting bottom lines.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament (EP) public health and environment committee, which is handling the draft tobacco products directive (TPD), went a step further from the European Commission on July 10, when it voted to introduce a “positive list” of approved ingredients to be used in tobacco products.…

THESE are brighter days for oil and gas technology entrepreneurs as investors ranging from business angels through venture capitalists, private equity firms and the corporate venture wings of exploration and production (E&P) majors show renewed appetite to back bright ideas with global applications.…

THE CHANGES made in 2012 by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to global anti-money laundering and terror finance guidance might have been agreed by consensus, but governments are responding in a wide variety of ways. Some jurisdictions considered to be leaders in anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) practice are taking time to respond, while others have taken advantage of the new recommendations to revamp their AML laws and regulations.…

A PUSH by the G8 group of the world’s seven most industrialised nations plus Russia to improve extractive industry transparency and openness can help industrial minerals companies manage the payments they make in developing counties, as they will only have to follow one set of rules, according to Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh.…

INDIA’S largest dairy brand Amul is expanding beyond India for the first time by planning to launch its first offshore production facility in the United States. In a joint venture with a local dairy in upstate New York, in Waterloo, between Rochester and Syracuse, Amul will produce specialised products for the sizable Indian community living on the east coast of United States.…

The privatisation and expansion of the Brazilian airport sector has proved to be a significant opportunity for the American civil aviation sector, which has been vying for opportunities in Brazil’s air navigation, airport and airport-related services. These opportunities are set to increase with the United States Trade and Development Agency’s (USTDA) having brokered a US-Brazil Aviation Partnership, signed last April and now being rolled out in earnest.…

WASTE -to-energy gasification is a game changer, experts say, because it offers renewable and low carbon heat and power, security of supply and short delivery times when energy prices are high.

Advanced thermal gasification, as opposed to combustion – burning waste in an incinerator to produce energy, is “clean, safe, very efficient, and being of a moderate scale is acceptable to local communities, because nobody wants a huge incinerator in their back yard,” stressed George Willacy, the chairman of Refgas UK, a Flintshire-based specialist in gasification fuelled by waste and biomass.…

may be a big concept, but the road to making personal care product packaging greener is made of small incremental steps that can both provide green marketing benefits and reduce costs.

Recent innovations include reducing the size of containers, while maintaining the volume of product they hold, alongside innovations in using renewable resources and keeping packaging waste out of landfills.…

SUSTAINABILITY may be a big concept, but the road to making personal care product packaging greener is made of small incremental steps that can both provide green marketing benefits and reduce costs.

Recent innovations include reducing the size of containers, while maintaining the volume of product they hold, alongside innovations in using renewable resources and keeping packaging waste out of landfills.…

INDONESIA’S mining industry is richly endowed with natural resources. United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports stress how the country ranks among the world’s leading producers of tin, copper and nickel, with sizeable reserves of other key ores such as bauxite, gold and silver.…

Drinks packaging design has always been about communicating with consumers – whether it is broadcasting a brand image or delivering information. And with new technologies aiding communication in many ways, interaction is a key theme with international beverage packaging designers today.…

the wall for multinationals using current international tax laws to reduce their fiscal exposure. Speaking at the eighth meeting of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development) Forum on Tax Administration, hosted by Russia’s federal tax service from May 16-17, experts noted that public anger was building over cases such as the low level of taxes paid by Google, Amazon and UK energy company NPower.…

CUBA turned tobacco enthusiasts’ and international observers’ heads earlier this month when it filed its first ever complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against Australia’s tough tobacco plain-paper packaging restrictions.

The communist Caribbean island joined the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Ukraine in challenging Australia’s 2012 law which requires all tobacco products be placed in generic packages featuring graphic health warnings, but not brand logos.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) recent decision to impose antidumping duties on imports of bioethanol from the United States is triggering fears that trade remedy measures may become the new tool of choice for protecting domestic biofuel producers from foreign competitors.

EU ministers decided on February 18 to impose a definitive (long-term) antidumping duty of Euro EUR0.63 cents per metric tonne on US bioethanol imports in response to a complaint from the European Renewable Ethanol Association (ePURE).…

THE INDIAN government is to create a national Veterinary Emergency Response Unit, charged with protecting the country’s huge livestock population during natural disasters, such as floods, fires, droughts and earthquakes, a New Delhi conference has heard. “We are going to train the students of Indian veterinary colleges in disaster management techniques so that they can rush to save livestock whenever a disaster strikes,” S Abdul Rahman, President of the Commonwealth Veterinary Association, told globalmeatnews.com. …

THE INCREASING complexity of today’s electronic communications can cause operators a real headache – how to manage all the devices, all the apps, all the networks…

They are faced with the unfortunate reality that while the methods of delivering comms services are proliferating with new smart phones, OTT services and apps coming on line almost daily, the guts of the network designed to deliver them remains rooted in the 20^th century.…

ETHICAL sourcing in the garment and textile industry is a key consideration – not just because it is the right thing to do, but because consumers are keen to know how their clothes and accessories have been produced. But one key question is who sets the parameters of what is ethically sourced?…

THE EVER-CHANGING sourcing equation is a challenge to the global garment and textile industry supply chain. There is talk of moving production back home to western countries – bringing it closer to market- but its viability is being questioned. Meanwhile in Asia, where the majority of clothes are currently produced worldwide, the sourcing landscape is changing, experts say.…

THE ANNUAL conference of the European University Association (EUA) has debated how rankings systems need to become more sophisticated benchmarks as the higher education system worldwide becomes more internationalised.

Speaking to University World News after last week’s event in Ghent, Belgium, Ms Lesley Wilson, the EUA’s Secretary General, said that while “everyone has a different view” about rankings, they need to deliver sophisticated benchmarking systems with which institutions will be able to compare themselves against other learning bodies.…

A REGULATION aimed at ensuring the rollout of broadband networks across the European Union (EU) is achieved more cheaply and swiftly has been proposed by the European Commission. It tries to force member states to ensure new buildings are broadband ready, while telling incumbent telcos to give access to their physical networks to broadband service providers.…

Money laundering takes place in the arts world and much of it at auctions, only the arts world doesn’t like to talk about it much. And anti-money laundering (AML) experts understand the methods used. At a Paris conference held last February (2012) by the Syndicat National des Antiquaires (the French national union of antique dealers) the director of the l’Institut de Criminologie de Paris, Philippe Conte, explained how launderers would put a work up for auction, to be bought by an accomplice in cash using dirty money.…

A STEEP rise and then within a few years an equally steep fall in the exports of goat meat from India has exposed failings within the country’s supply chain, say industry experts. According to Mansoor Nadeem Lari, managing director of Abdullah Fresh Foods in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a recent 500% collapse in the Indian goat meat exports has been sparked by rising domestic prices.…

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has recommended that its rich country members harmonise their clinical trials rules, to promote international collaboration and help streamline regulations. It has issued principles for trial rules it wants adopted by its 34 member governments, which include many European Union countries, the USA, Canada, Australia and Mexico.…

IF there is one crime condemned worldwide it is the sale and smuggling of counterfeit medicines. Sometimes close copies and sometimes dangerous substances – this crime kills on a grand scale.

Counting the number of its victims accurately is difficult, because of the subversive nature of the trade, but some think-tanks have tried.…

INCREASED competition and a weakened global economy have not dimmed expectations for Vietnam-based knitwear exporters, with two major trade deals looming, able to guarantee duty free exports to the US and the European Union (EU). They will also remove non-tariff barriers impeding trade, boosting optimism amongst established exporters of quality Vietnam-made knitwear.…

AMERICA’S Save Our Industries Act, also known as the SAVE Act, which would give a range of Philippines-made apparel duty-free access to the US, looks increasingly likely to be implemented. And the Filipino clothing and textile sector is happy. The bill, first introduced to the US Congress in 2009, is to be re-introduced to Congress this month for the third time.…

PART 1 – THE RAPID EVOLUTION OF MULTI-CHANNEL

The apparel retail world has been altered profoundly by technology over the last few years, and the fashion industry knows that to succeed marketing and sales must be undertaken though the many new channels that are now available. …

AUSTRALIA is set to become the world’s second largest exporter of raw cotton, with exports to jump by 11% to a record 1.1 million tonnes in the year ending July 2013, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) has predicted.…

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has highlighted its increasing focus on emerging markets, as the battle among global dairy companies for a share of markets in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America hots up. Just-food’s Jonathan Dyson spoke to Fonterra CFO Jonathan Mason as the company released its latest half-yearly results.…

THE WORLD’S first marine phosphate extraction project, offshore from Walvis Bay, in Namibia, is to be underpinned by demand from an unexpected agricultural revolution in what is the most arid country in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the driest on earth.…

IN Britain clinical research costs a whopping GBP8 billion or more annually, making up third of all research and development expenses in the economy, says the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) group. But clinical research nurses (CRN) who play a crucial role in such work, are in short supply.…

WHILE Alaska’s mining industry has seen impressive growth in output through 2012, with high commodity prices for gold and silver in particular boosting exploration and production, experts predict a relatively flat performance in 2013.

At the lowermost rung of the value ladder is coal, a sector adversely impacted by both slack global demand and increasing competition from alternative fuel sources.…

THE NEXT 12 months will be crucial in the positioning of Greenland as a major source of rare earth metals (REM). A general election on March 12, could give a pro-independence, pro-mining party a renewed mandate in the Danish island’s autonomous government.…

TRANSLITERATION and translation have become inescapable challenges for financial institutions and other companies striving to comply with international sanctions.

Precise identification of a sanctions target named in a foreign language is often difficult, but is essential for efficient screening of transactions that should be controlled or blocked in line with blacklists issued by national authorities (and the European Union (EU)), and those based on the comprehensive list issued by the United Nations (UN) Security Council.…

NEPAL’S ready-to-wear garment sector wants to diversify its target markets away from a past reliance on America, prompted a slump in exports, which have fallen by more than half over the past five years. The Garment Association Nepal (GAN) general secretary Ashok Kumar Agrawal blamed decreasing demand from American consumers and told just-style the industry is hoping to “diversify export markets to Australia, Canada and Japan, making use of duty free privileges while increasing exports to the EU,” where they enter duty free under the Everything But Arms deal.…

NOONE has been hanged for fraud in England since 1811, but not every country is so advanced:  today the death penalty is still applied for people convicted of fraud in China, Iran and North Korea among others. And even below the ultimate sanction, deterrents to committing fraud can look frightening in many countries of the world.…

CHINESE investors in London’s property market are becoming increasingly important players, and the signs are that the flow of Yuan into the UK capital could keep growing. Michelle Zhang, who heads up the China desk at DTZ London, said: “CIC [China Investment Corporation] would be viewed as the most active Chinese investor and now have a number of prime London property holdings;” she highlighted the Chinese sovereign fund’s recent GBP245 million purchase of Deutsche Bank headquarters Winchester House, from KanAm, undertaken alongside Invesco.…

A WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel has been established to rule on whether US bans on Argentine beef imports are legal under global trade laws. Argentina’s government says the restrictions are illegal under the WTO’s general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT) and the WTO agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary measures.…

THE LEADERS of India’s 160-million plus Muslim community that dominates the country’s meat trade is complaining of persistent harassment by Hindu hardliners.

Zafarul-Islam Khan, president of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM), a Delhi-based religious organisation AIMMM, told globalmeatnews.com that on the pretext of saving cows, deemed sacred by Hindus, activists harass people working in buffalo abattoirs.…

IN the economic gloom that pervades most of Europe today, it is good to hear some success stories and Germany’s information technology and telecommunications sector is one: German exports from this sector amounted to Euro EUR22.2 billion for January-September 2012, an increase of 3.5% on the same period in 2011, according to the industry federation Bitkom.…

THE ENERGY sector has been left guessing whether there will be a robust future international climate change agreement after the latest global diplomatic meeting on the subject in Doha, Qatar. Delegates attending the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change were tasked from November 26 to December 7 with solving two key issues: devising a post-Kyoto Protocol agreement that will kick in from 2020; and also devising a holding agreement for countries wanting to reduce emissions from the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol this December until the new agreement comes into force.…

Mossi & Ghisolfi, an Italian petrochemical multinational with headquarters in the northern city of Tortona, has commenced operations at a second generation bio-ethanol demonstration plant that uses rice straw and the common giant cane ‘Arundo Donax’ as a feedstock.

The plant is located in Crescentino, about 120 km southwest of Milan in Italy’s Piedmont region.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has put forward an action plan aimed at creating a lasting remedy for Europe’s troubled olive oil sector which has suffered a near-calamitous loss of profitability in recent years. Unveiled last June, the plan follows a sequence of temporary and not wholly successful boosts to the sector in the form of injections of private storage aid between October 2011 and May last year.…

AFTER months of speculation about the future of Poland’s nuclear program, the New Year has brought an encouraging sign of progress.

On January 9, PGE EJ 1, the special purpose vehicle handling the construction of Poland’s first of two planned nuclear power plants, announced the result of a public tender to select a contractor to assess possible sites, looking at a shortlist of three.…

COUNTERFEIT cash can be a most useful tool for money launderers. When made properly, high value notes can be moved around the world and spent without recourse to banks, credit card operators and other financial institutions.  And with the increasing sophistication digital counterfeiting technology, this criminal industry is today a truly global enterprise: high quality banknotes can be faked almost anywhere in the world.…

The Danish government’s spokesman for Greenland affairs has confirmed Denmark’s parliament is prepared to vote on whether to allow the Arctic autonomous territory to mine uranium. This follows November’s authorisation by the Greenland government of a review, which could lead to it supporting mining of the world’s fifth largest uranium deposit at Kvanefjeld, southern Greenland, which is controlled by Australia-owned Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd (GME).…

ETHIOPIA’S potential as a source of industrial minerals is beginning to be realised, with a growing number of exploration and mining projects underway, and rapidly increasing foreign investment.
To date, its Ministry of Mines has granted 72 industrial minerals exploration licenses – 61 to foreign companies, eight to Ethiopian/foreign joint ventures, and three to local companies; and 52 mining licenses – 28 to foreign companies, 17 to Ethiopian/foreign joint ventures, and seven to local companies.…

DECLINING demand from the USA and European Union (EU) for Bangladesh knitwear has not dampened the world’s second largest clothing exporter from aiming high. Rather, Bangladesh is planning to more than double its current knitwear exports, to USD20 billion by 2020, seeking out new markets.…

THE UNITED States government has unveiled details of proposed flexibilities it wants to introduce into the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement which will allow importers to buy scarce clothing, textiles and yarns from outside the bloc.

Speaking at a New York conference yesterday (Wed, Jan 9), Kim Glas, deputy assistant secretary for textiles and apparels of the US Department of Commerce stressed proposals that may appease concerns of US garment and clothing importers concerned about restrictive ‘yarn forward’ rules in the draft TPP.…

THE CREATION of a harmonised customs system within the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by 2015 should be better exploited by its regional clothing and textile industry through better vertical integration, a conference was told this week.…

WHILE Australia’s government has pushed forward aggressively in terms of tobacco control, with the world’s first law prohibiting all brand imagery and promotional text on tobacco products’ packaging, despite criticism at home and abroad.

Paul Mazoudier, a former corporate lawyer in Sydney, chairman of several large Australian corporations and an avid smoker, was not impressed by his first box of plain-packaged cigarettes.…

BY MARK ROWE

For decades the car industry in the developed world has expanded remorselessly. But a recent flurry of academic papers has come to the conclusion that the West (and other rich countries such as Japan and Australia) may have hit a plateau known as ‘peak car’.…

UNTIL now, much of Russia’s exploitation of lucrative Siberian gas and oil deposits has targeted the western sectors of this vast region, rather than the central heartlands or the distant east. The reasons are clear enough, as the abundant fields of western Siberia have fed strong demand from Europe.…

SOUTH Africa’s paint and coatings industry is expected to increase in value from 560.0 million in 2009 to USD712.47 million in 2016, according to market analysts Frost & Sullivan. But the sector has faced tough times since the global financial crisis hit in 2008, and is only now recovering from the recession that hit South Africa as a result, and that recovery has been slow.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

Significant questions about the re-elected US Administration’s readiness to stand up for American textile interests in the upcoming negotiations for expanding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal are looming in the wake of President Barack Obama’s re-election. Important decisions will be needed soon about the terms for including Vietnam in the TPP and its associated yarn forward rule of origin.…

BY MARK GAO, IN BEIJING

A less than flattering catch-call has lately become attached to China’s Communist Party elite: ‘Luoguan’, literally "naked officials", refers to officials whose spouses and children have migrated to another country, spending Chinese money abroad, some of it dirty, or transferred illicitly.…

BY MARCAS GAO, IN TIANJIN

The chief of one of China’s most ambitious beef processing companies has told globalmeatnews.com how his plans are being frustrated by a shortage of cattle, even as demand for beef surges in the country’s urban centres.…

BY HELEN CLARK, IN HANOI

Investors often hold their noses about corruption in emerging markets. But countries such as Vietnam attract even more investment if they were cleaner. Helen Clark reports from Hanoi.

VIETNAM in the past 12 months appears to have embarked on a house-cleaning exercise, with police arresting a series of executives for a range of financial offences.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, IN MONTRÉAL

DELEGATES at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)’s 12th Air Navigation Conference have approved a comprehensive plan for sustainably increasing airport traffic management capacity, taking account of developing technologies.

Based on ICAO’s system of block upgrades, delegates backed a focus under the current technology-based Block 0 to reform wake turbulence categorisation, with approach procedures optimising GNSS-based performance-based navigation (PBN) approaches and making traffic flow improvements through arrival and departure runway sequencing management.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI

IT may seem odd that the development of natural gas and oil fracking in the United States might create wealth for farmers in the arid Indian state of Rajasthan, but it is the case. Seeds of guar or cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba), a common vegetable in India, are in demand from America’s growing fracking industry.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, IN CALGARY

A SHORTAGE of nurses in Canada following several years of health care restructuring and hospital downsizing could mean an abundance of opportunities for British professionals, who are willing to make the hop across the pond.

"In certain regions of the country there’s an acute shortage of medical doctors, nurses and other practitioners, and those shortages will only grow as our population ages.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN the European Union (EU) set up the world’s first carbon trading market in 2001, the Emissions Trading System (ETS), advocates heralded a new dawn: carbon pollution could be brought under control in a way that benefited the environment while not damaging industrial interests.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI

INDIA will become the largest exporter of beef in the world in 2012, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has concluded in its latest report ‘Livestock and Poultry-World Market and Trade 2012’. The fact creates a rather ironic situation as cows are considered holy by India’s majority Hindu population and killing them can actually lead to a seven years prison sentence.…

BY CONNLA STOKES, IN HO CHI MINH CITY

As one of the world’s fastest-growing accountancy bodies, ACCA is attracting more finance and management professionals in Asia eager to get to the top. This is certainly the case for Shanghai, China-born Katherine Wu.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON

Professor Guido Rasi, executive director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), has told Manufacturing Chemist of his concerns about the availability of medicines in the European Union (EU).

Speaking in his office at EMA headquarters in London’s Canary Wharf, Professor Rasi said EMA wanted "to see what role we can play and what counsel we can give in respect of the problem of the (drug) shortages."…

BY MARIANI DEWI

BRANCH campuses of established western universities can be major prizes for emerging market higher education systems – but attracting these institutions is not easy, even for economically dynamic countries such as Malaysia.

There are still only six branch campuses in this south-east Asian country.…

BY ROB STOKES

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has castigated France and Australia for failing to prosecute local businesses bribing foreign officials since criminalising these acts in 2000 under the OECD convention of combating bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions.…

BY DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS

THREE years ago, the Group of Twenty (G20) finance ministers and central bank governors stated the organisation’s intention was to "rationalise and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption".…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

CLOTHING labels worldwide are usually a standard read, with fibre names such as ‘cotton,’ ‘nylon’ and ‘polyester’ – apparel compositions which remain generally constant from season to season. When it comes to luxury textiles and apparel, however, there seem to be more evolving trends in terms of fibres used – along with more dynamic changes in supply and demand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S developed countries are enthusiastically or moderately implementing the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) anti-bribery convention, so that 52.3% of world exports are sold by countries opposing graft. So says the latest Transparency International report that says the leading established economic players are now leading by example: with the USA, Germany, Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark all praised for actively implementing the convention.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

UTILITIES in Australia and the European Union (EU) could soon be allowed to buy and sell carbon units from each other’s emissions trading system (ETS). A proposed mutual recognition arrangement between the Australian government’s ETS and the EU-ETS is expected to benefit industries on both sides of the globe and to lower carbon prices long-term.…

NEW Zealand used to be known as an exporter of raw materials and food – butter, wool, lamb – but in recent years, its government has been trying hard to boost local entrepreneurs by streamlining business regulation. Ken Warren, the country’s chief accounting advisor to New Zealand’s government, has been front-and-centre in these reforms, providing officials and politicians with the necessary data to make bold decisions.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE WORLD has been fighting money laundering in more or less the same way for a quarter of a century now and many of those in the thick of the battle are starting to wonder, frankly, whether the game is worth the candle any more.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

DESPITE the global recession, and volatility in the dairy market as a whole, the international butter industry is anticipating long-term growth. Used as a spread, a condiment, or as an important ingredient in baking and cooking, demand for butter has been a significant constant in the global food industry.…

BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

The China Alcoholic Drinks Association (CADA) has petitioned the country’s Ministry of Commerce to open up dumping and subsidy investigations against imported wines from the European Union (EU), arguing EU exporters have been behaving anti-competitively.

China spent USD1.27 billion on imported bottled wines in 2011; up 94% from 2010, with wines from France, Australia and Spain the most popular, according to China Customs.…

BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

Chinese textile and clothing manufacturers are expecting to struggle for business in the rest of 2012, with the worsening Euro crisis dampening demand in key export markets and improving sourcing rivals from neighbouring countries becoming increasingly competitive.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

CANADA’S federal food inspection agency has released a new set of standards for biosecurity in beef products, which will aim to minimise the spread of endemic and infectious foreign diseases while strengthening the Canada’s beef industry.…

BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

THE BEIJING University of Agriculture (BUA) has welcomed the success of a groundbreaking project to develop a more robust domestic meat and livestock industry by using cloned animals China’s first two genetically modified Qingchuan calves carrying adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein were recently born at an experimental base at the university.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, IN CAPE TOWN

SOUTH Africa has deposits of rare earth elements (REEs) to rival that of Australia, and the country is poised to take advantage of this increasingly strategic resource, according to Mintek, the government’s mineral technology organisation.…

BY KITTY SO

THE ANTI-COUNTERFEITING Trade Agreement (ACTA), a multilateral treaty designed to strengthen anti-copying laws worldwide, has been rejected by the European Parliament, which means it will not apply in the European Union (EU).

MEPs accepted concerns that the treaty was too vague, and hence open to misinterpretation, opening the door for court rulings that might overly restrict freedom of speech and commercial innovation.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

INTERNATIONAL travel in the last decade has become exponentially more secure, with countries all around the globe having reformed their systems to cope with transnational crime in a post-9/11 world – largely, through the increased collection, processing and legislation of passenger information.…

BY ANDREW GREEN, IN KAMPALA

Uganda is undergoing a higher education boom. The result of introducing universal primary education in 1997 and universal secondary education a decade later is a surplus of students looking for a university placement. Uganda’s 30 public and private universities offer 50,000 spots for qualified secondary school graduates.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; MICHAEL KOSMIDES; AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE DEBATE about whether compulsion or voluntarism best aids energy efficiency is one of the oldest in the electricity sectors: do we save more energy by being ordered to switch off the lights; or by being advised our bills will fall if we do?…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

Fast fashion has had a fundamental impact on the apparel industry in the space of just a few decades, with global fashion giants such as Zara and H&M demonstrating a previously unthinkable production speed, with the ability to get a garment from concept to store in less than 12 weeks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Commission and Greenland have signed a letter of intent that could increase the role of European Union (EU) mining companies in the development of the autonomous territory’s considerable mineral resources.

EU industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani and development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs have struck a deal with Greenland Prime Minister Kuupik Kleis over future EU involvement in exploration and exploitation.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

NANOMATERIALS have been finding their way into cosmetics and personal care products for years now, but until recently, the term meant different things to different manufacturers – and almost nothing to consumers. It is not until the European Commission came out with a common European Union (EU) definition for nanomaterials last October – materials whose main constituents have a dimension of between 1 billionth and 100 billionth of a metre (or 0.000000001 metre) – that cosmetics companies finally gained a clear guideline under which to define certain properties of their products.…

BY ANDREW MARAMWIDZE, IN GABORONE

Australia-based mining company Discovery Metals Limited’s share price has increased in line with the company’s progress in developing the first copper-silver mine in Botswana’s Kalahari Copperbelt, a major mining conference in the country’s capital Gabarone was told today (26/6).…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WHILE cities such as Milan, Paris, New York City, and London have historically been seen as the global ‘fashion hubs’ – acting as meeting spots for high-end designers, fashion shows, luxury retail outlets and fashionistas – the rise of fast fashion has been diffusing that concentration a bit; making cutting-edge trends more accessible to the rest of the world.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT; AND MARK GAO, IN ISTANBUL

MOST states in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) have mulled developing nuclear power over the past decade, from Morocco to Egypt, and Jordan to Saudi Arabia, but only the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is coming close to embarking on the nuclear option thus far.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A TRIAL of using a biofuel blend in groundhandling equipment has been launched at Brisbane Airport’s domestic terminal in Australia by Virgin Australia. The company is burning fuel comprising 20% biofuel (from locally sourced tallow and used cooking oil) and 80% standard diesel to operate a baggage tug and push back vehicle.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Commission and Greenland have signed a letter of intent that could increase the role of European Union (EU) industrial mineral companies in the development of Greenlandic mineral resources, including rare earths.

EU industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani and development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs have struck a deal with Greenland Prime Minister Kuupik Kleis over future EU involvement in exploration and exploitation.…

BY MARK ROWE

FOR products that are marketed for their ability to sooth and generate the feel-good factor, the sustainable sourcing of cosmetics ingredients causes plenty of headaches for manufacturers and suppliers. The industry is in a period of transition, in which several of the world’s multinationals are engaging in a step change in how they go about sourcing the oils they need, and the public wants.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI

India’s domestic supply of coking coal should be brought under the control of the country’s steel ministry instead of the coal ministry, the chairman of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has told a major New Delhi conference.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN GREECE AND GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI

MINERAL experts in Greece and Nordic countries have agreed with the verdict of the European Geosciences Union’s recent annual meeting in Vienna that the European Union (EU) should exploit rare earths reserves in Nordic countries and Greece to improve its supplies.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN AREQUIPA, SOUTHERN PERU

PERU’S Inkabor, one of the world’s leading borates producers, is significantly increasing its product range as it capitalises on growing demand in several key sectors, senior managers told Industrial Minerals. Speaking at its Rio Seco boric acid and borax plant in Arequipa, southern Peru, Flavio Magheri, Inkabor managing director, said that Inkabor’s sales grew by 15% in 2011, with 10% growth forecast for 2012.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI

INDIA is planning to create a special fund to enable its dominant state-owned miner to acquire overseas coal mines to compensate for severe domestic coal shortages that are hurting the country’s power, steel and other industrial sectors.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

AS a British nurse, the opportunities to work in other countries are eased by professional agencies helping foreign nurses relocate. Yet, US nursing sector experts fear their country may be overlooked by internationally-educated nursing candidates planning on relocating because long of wait times for working permits and visas.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

ALGAE have been heralded as the universal raw material of the future for biofuels, agricultural feed, nutritional supplements, biochemicals and cosmetics. They gobble up CO2, can clean up waste water, and many will thrive in seawater when the fresh variety is usually limited to the sunnier climes where algae can be grown more cheaply.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN the European Union (EU) set up the world’s first carbon trading market in 2001, the Emissions Trading System (ETS), advocates heralded a new dawn: carbon pollution could be brought under control in a way that benefited the environment while not damaging industrial interests.…

BY KARRYN MILLER, MJ DESCHAMPS, LEAH GERMAIN AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE BYELECTION victories in Myanmar/Burma by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her political allies have loosened the tough trade sanctions that have thus far hampered efforts to develop the country as a new sourcing hub for knitwear and other clothing products.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN the European Union (EU) set up the world’s first carbon trading market in 2001, the Emissions Trading System (ETS), advocates heralded a new dawn: carbon pollution could be brought under control in a way that benefited the environment while not damaging industrial interests.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PLASTICS companies in the European Union (EU) storing potentially dangerous chemicals on their premises will have to by 2015 abide by tougher management standards preventing industrial accidents. This is because the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council of Ministers have struck an agreement on the contents of a new law – the Seveso III directive – that will include new safety rules for chemical-using businesses.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

ALGAE have been heralded as the universal raw material of the future for biofuels, agricultural feed, nutritional supplements, biochemicals and cosmetics. They gobble up CO2, can clean up waste water, and many will thrive in seawater when the fresh variety is usually limited to the sunnier climes where algae can be grown more cheaply.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN AND MARTIN FOSTER, IN TOKYO

MOLYCORP Inc, the key United States rare earths producer, has welcomed a new partnership between the US and the Japanese government that seeks to diversify the global supply for rare earth metals. On April 30, President Obama met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to discuss the development of a joint critical minerals and development project – an alliance between the two countries, where they will share new technology used in the production and recycling of rare earths.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD AND JONATHAN DYSON, IN LIMA

SOME of world’s most coveted fibres, Vicuña, Guanaco, Alpaca and Llama, all hail from rugged Andean region in South America. Vicuña fibre, known locally and in the trade as the "gold of the Andes" and "the fabric of the gods" is a key part of the global high-end luxury market for rare and superfine fibres.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE USA’s Under-Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sánchez has told just-style he is optimistic about the impact on the American textile and clothing sector of new bilateral trade deals struck by the Obama administration with South Korea, Panama and Columbia.…

BY MARK ROWE

THERE is a scenario that environmentalists, climate change experts and the renewable oils industry have quietly dreaded for some time: what if – as you painstakingly push for a shift away from fossil fuels – another source of fossil fuels, a new kid on the carbon block, fronts up?…

BY KARRYN MILLER

IF any two countries could be deemed vulnerable to Chinese dominance of rare earth supplies, it surely has to be east Asia’s high tech exporters par excellence Japan and South Korea. From smart phones to electric cars, these two Asian nations continue to drive technology forward, but with rare earths an essential component of many electronic goods, these Tokyo and Seoul are scanning the region for new sources of these key minerals.…

BY MARTIN FOSTER, IN TOKYO

AN AMERICAN government minister told a Tokyo-based seminar on the strategic implications of shortages in rare earth that consumer nations faced the need to reduce and over the near to medium term.

US energy secretary Steven Chu said that in the short term it is important to develop technologies to reduce rare earth use, and that rare earth elements should be "used as sparingly as you can."…

BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

WHILE China is desperately in need of nurses – 1.9 million to be exact, according to the nation’s ministry of health – the opportunities for overseas healthcare providers who are not ethnically Chinese are limited, as the government requires all nurses working in China to be able to pass a national test in Mandarin.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a high level industry-public sector advisory group tasked with increasing innovation and research boosting Europe’s raw material production. This ‘European Innovation Partnership’ (EIP) on raw materials will be established this year and will organise raw material research and development projects, drawing on existing research funding budgets.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

PAKISTAN Steel Mills (PSM) has started stabilising its production after receiving 55,000 metric tonnes of coal from Australia and could make further improvements if it regularly received raw material, a spokesman for the country’s sole mega steel facility said.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

DESPITE recent rumours in Russian media that 7-Eleven, the US-based international chain of convenience stores, would be expanding into Russia, the company has denied the claims.

"There is no basis of foundation about 7-Eleven developing in Russia," a spokesperson for the company told just-food from its Texas, USA, headquarters.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

RIGID plastic packaging is usually designed for optimum stiffness and impact performance, but its strict requirements for durability have traditionally ruled out the most eco-friendly materials in its manufacture – however, that is all about to change.

With global demand for it rising alongside increasing environmental awareness, many manufacturers and retailers are moving towards greater sustainability, integrating both effectiveness and environmentalism in their rigid plastic packaging.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT; AND HELENA FLUSFELDER, IN JERUSALEM

IT is not often that a country that has serious energy security issues gets to choose about whether it wants an energy export industry – but the State of Israel is in this relatively happy situation.…

BY GEORGE STONE

THE MARATHON United Nations climate talks in Durban, South Africa, that resulted on December 11 in an agreement to kick-start a fresh round of negotiations to secure a new treaty on global carbon emissions, will spark a host of critical accounting and auditing questions.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIA’S steel industry is facing major overcapacity within next two years – with the situation already weakening the profit outlook of local companies, according to India’s leading rating agency, ICRA.

In its November report ‘Margin Outlook for Indian Steelmakers Weakens’, Moody’s associate ICRA projected a capacity addition of 25 million tonnes – or a 30% increase – in Indian steel production over the next 18 to 24 months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

Talks between Mexico and China at the World Trade Organization have failed to resolve a dispute over Mexico’s claims that China is illegally subsidising its textile and apparel producers, the Mexican government has told just-style. A spokesperson for Mexico’s ministry of economy said the two days of WTO consultations did not result in a settlement, opening the way for Mexico to request a WTO dispute panel to rule on its claims.…

BY WANG FANGQING

WHILE soybean oil still remains the main cooking oil of choice used in China, the country’s manufacturers have recently been experiencing a shift – with a growing demand for diversity in terms of cooking products in large and small cities.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INTERNATIONAL luxury fashion brands are trying to tap India’s fast growing westerns-style clothing ready-to-wear market and at the same time improving their sourcing chains for luxury fabrics.

At an October (11) conference – ‘Dialogue on Luxury – Making India a Source and Destination of Luxury’ – held in New Delhi, big brands Altagamma, Burberry, Salvatore Ferragamo and Jimmy Choo announced their expansion plans in India and discussed strategies to make their Indian business more profitable.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

WHILE business coaching is still in its nascent stage in India, it is increasingly becoming a practice that is very much sought after by talented professionals: "[Business coaching] is seen by executives as a perk and a leadership development initiative," said Dr Ajay Nangalia, managing director of Bangalore-based leadership firm Global Coach Trust.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

WHILE Australia may be the leading producer of wool in the world, very little of its output is knitted and sold in the local market; in fact, 90% of the country’s wool is actually consumed in the northern hemisphere, according to Marius Cuming, spokesperson for Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) – a not-for-profit company involved in the research, development, and promotion of Australia’s wool industry.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

IN the event of a mining accident, first responders trying to rescue trapped miners are usually thrown into dangerous – and sometimes deadly – situations. With this in mind, robotics engineers worldwide are beginning to develop both remotely controlled and autonomous machines to help eliminate some of the dangers of mining operations and rescues.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE GREEN picturesque land of New Zealand has recently gained some new human scenery: new stadiums and roadways, and an estimated 95,000 additional flag waving visitors: the 2011 Rugby World Cup (RWC) is now underway. By the first kick-off between New Zealand’s All Blacks and Tonga on September 9, at a revamped Eden Park stadium in Auckland, the country’s central and local governments had already spent approximately New Zealand dollars NZD500 million (USD411 million) on the event.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE

AUSTRALIA is fast developing into a global force for natural gas, cementing its reputation as a source of valuable materials, such as iron ore, coal, gold, silver, uranium, aluminium, nickel, lead and zinc. In 2010, Australia became the fourth largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) gas – trading 18.38 million tonnes (Mt) in total – according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2011.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Medicines Agency (EMA) and the USA’s Food & Drug Administration have concluded their cooperation under a Good Clinical Practice (GCP) Initiative since September 2009 has been a success. Its main objective has sharing information on inspections and GCP-related documents of common interest and staging collaborative inspections.…

BY SERAJ ELALEM and DAVE YIN

LIBYA: Universities face transformation after armed struggle

Seraj Elalem

Full report on the University World News site

LIBYA: Universities face transformation after armed struggle

Seraj Elalem

WITH the fall of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the higher education sector in Libya can look forward to a freer future, where universities have more control over their curricula and hopefully better funding.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LITTLE more excites the international auto industry more than the search for an alternative to fossil fuels, and an American company is now looking seriously into the idea of using a heavy element thorium to generate locomotive power.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AUSTRALIA and the European Union (EU) have struck a new wide-ranging nuclear energy cooperation agreement, replacing a more narrow 1981 deal focused on transfers of nuclear material. That was due to expire in 2012, and EU ministers have now approved its replacement – an agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, DAVE YIN and WANG FANGQING

A GOOD deal of excitement has been created by the announcement this week in the UK academic journal Nature Geoscience that significant deposits of rare earths have been found in the Pacific Ocean floor.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

In 20 years’ time, consumers might be looking back on today’s beverage market and laughing at the fact that people were once buying drinks just because they were thirsty.

"We’re going to start seeing a whole lot of new, nutritional ingredients popping up in our drinks soon – functionality will be the biggest theme in 20 years," said Tom Pirko, president of California-based international food and beverage advisory firm Bevmark LLC.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a Euro EUR1.5 million study into concerns that European Union (EU) animal welfare and food safety rules could harm the global competitiveness of EU meat and other livestock sectors.

Brussels has asked research teams to bid for a major study comparing compliance costs for EU and non-EU country meat producers.…

BY MARK ROWE

CO-GENERATION (or combined-heat and power – CHP) plants operate using a variety of technologies: gas turbines, fuel cells, Stirling engines, gas or diesel engines and combined cycle gas turbines. According to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) – the European Union’s (EU) scientific and technical research body – natural gas is currently the preferred fuel across Europe for co-gen, with combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) and gas turbine plants expected to become the predominant future technology for large-scale units.…

BY BARBARA BIERACH and WOLFGANG MUELLER

THE SYDNEY 2000 Olympic Summer Games have been hailed as "the best ever", even outside Australia – and a rosy reputation seems to surround the commercial development of the legacy sites as well.

According to the Sydney Olympic Park Authority the Sydney Games are "internationally recognised as a leading example of urban renewal".…

BY MARGUERITE-JEANNE DESCHAMPS, MINI PANT ZACHARIAH and WANG FANGQING

While sales of alcohol in pubs and bars in North America, Europe and the UK have seen a steady decline since the global economic downturn, experts are saying the shift from on-trade to off-trade sales of alcohol has not really had a financial impact on the alcoholic beverage industry as a whole.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE OZONE layer, which has oft been called the ‘Earth’s sunscreen’ has been depleting for years over the southern hemisphere; but now, with a recent report by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) that major depletion in the ozone layer has been found over the northern hemisphere, Europeans might be more inclined to trade in their tan lines for suntan lotion this summer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers and MEPs have been asked to approve a new permanent passenger name record (PNR) agreement between the EU and Australia. This would replace an existing 2008 provisional agreement, whose authorisation has been delayed by European Parliament privacy objections.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE OZONE layer, which has oft been called the ‘Earth’s sunscreen’ has been depleting for years over the southern hemisphere; but now, with a recent report by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) that major depletion in the ozone layer has been found over the northern hemisphere, Europeans might be more inclined to trade in their tan lines for suntan lotion this summer.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE

Abu Dhabi-based airport systems integration provider Bayanat Airports Engineering and Supplies has signed a strategic partnership agreement to become the exclusive United Arab Emirates (UAE) sales representative for Adacel, an Australia-based specialist in advanced air traffic control simulators and automated ATM systems.…

BY MINI PANT ZACHARIAH

REPORTS of an end to the much-speculated majority stake acquisition bid by Mumbai-based personal care and edible oils company Marico of Bangalore-based biscuit maker Unibic Biscuits India Pvt Ltd could have been premature.

Contacted by just-food, both companies refused to say the deal was off the table.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE BIGGEST change in liquid cargo shipping practices in recent years has been the growth in the use of flexitanks where commodities are carried in plastic sacks inserted into standard 20ft International Organization for Standardization (ISO) metal containers.…

BY BILL CORCORAN

INTERNATIONAL petroleum group Shell says it remains committed to continuing seeking permission for shale gas mining in South Africa’s Karoo desert, despite the government placing a moratorium on all fracking applications in the area. The country’s minerals minister Susan Shabangu revealed late April her department had halted both existing and new fracking bids until the technique, used to extract gas from deep underground, had been studied.…

BY MARK GODFREY

THE HEADLINES said it all. Chinese newspapers have recently been heavy with editorials and op-ed pieces largely favourable to nuclear power: among them ‘This Is Not the End of Nuke Power’ a half-page op-ed in the China Daily, the preferred conduit of China’s official thinking to foreign diplomats and executives.…

BY MARK GODFREY

IF uranium suppliers are looking for reasons to feel confident that China will continue its hunt for nuclear fuel supplies worldwide, they should remember how deeply the country is invested in this process. Indeed, it has been a sign of how hungry China has become for uranium that even private firms in this officially communist country are being allowed to hunt for overseas uranium assets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project is plotting a standardisation of Chinese traditional medicine, so it can gain greater acceptance in Europe. The GP-TCM project has been allotted Euro EUR995,100 in Brussels money, with researchers from China, 13 EU member states, Australia, Canada, Norway, Thailand and the USA assessing the status of these medicines worldwide.…

BY MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN and PAUL COCHRANE

IT may be no coincidence that football (or soccer as it is known by north American readers) is generally regarded as corrupt by law enforcement agencies and has chosen to stage two of its next major spectacles – the 2012 European championships, and the 2018 World Cup, in Ukraine and Russia.…

BY MARK GODFREY

IT is a sign of how hungry China has become for uranium that even private firms here are being allowed hunt for overseas uranium assets. New to the uranium market, Sichuan-based conglomerate Hanlong Energy joined a string of state-run procuring companies late last year when it invested US dollars USD5 million in Australia’s Marenica to dig for uranium in Namibia.…

BY MARK GODFREY

CHINA may soon add its own voice to a global accounting scene dominated by the big four, Chen Yugui, head of the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CICPA) has told Accountancy Age. In an exclusive interview in Beijing, he explained: "Internationally and nationally we don’t think it’s a good phenomenon that the big four take a dominant position, as it will harm the sustainability of the profession."…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

For some it was a total disaster, for others a bump in the road, but the recession left no part of the clothing and textile retail sector unscathed. World Trade Organisation (WTO) statistics from 2009 show that while globally important manufacturing jurisdictions such as China and the European Union (EU) suffered 11% and 15% drops respectively in clothing exports, countries such as India, Vietnam and Bangladesh lost just a couple of percentage points and in India’s case, exports remained stable.…

BY EMMA JACKSON and KARRYN MILLER

IN October 2010, new olive oil standards came into effect in the United States for the first time since 1948, and Australia’s first olive oil standard ever is in the works. These new standards are meant to bring the two countries closer to international olive oil purity standards mandated by the Codex Alimentarius and the International Olive Council (IOC) to which Europe and other traditional olive oil-producing (and consuming) countries already adhere.…

BY LEE ADENDOORF, ALYSSA MCMURTRY, MAKKI MARSEILLES, and KEITH NUTHALL

GLOBAL olive oil manufacturing is on a roll, with the International Olive Council (IOC) saying 2009-10 world production was 3.02 million tonnes, a season-on-season increase of 354,500 tonnes (+13%). This would be the second best olive oil production year ever, next only to the record of 3.17 million tonnes produced in 2003/04.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, and EUGENE VOROTNIKOV

A PROPOSED joint venture under discussion between Japan’s Toshiba Corporation and Russia’s Techsnabexport (TENEX) is expected to focus supplying low enriched uranium, not only to Japan but to third-party markets, Fuel Cycle Week has been told.…

BY BARBARA BIERACH

Nowadays it is not easy to contact estate agents and landlords in the Queenslandmetropolis of Brisbane, after severe floods hit Australia’s third largest city. But once you do get Paul McLean on his mobile he sounds rather relieved: "We were lucky, only one member of our staff lost their home," says the CEO of the Australian branch of Savills, the global real estate service provider.His…