Search Results for: Belgium

Customer willingness to pay a premium for the natural health qualities of honey appears to be outweighing price hikes for the natural sweetener amid falling production levels as beekeepers have battled catastrophic colony losses.

This has reduced worldwide bee numbers, prompting fears that confectioners might adapt production methods to replace honey with other naturally occurring sweeteners, such as stevia.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally confirmed an order that the Belgian government should not have allowed three airlines to benefit from reduced fees when flying to and from Brussels Airport. The Commission said the benefits broke European Union (EU) state aid rules.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to hold a special meeting with European Union (EU) ministers and food safety authorities over the ongoing scandal about fipronil-contaminated eggs to gather information on how to manage such crises in future. The EU executive will stage the meeting on September 26, it told just-food today, allowing time for more information to emerge.…

CLAIMS by the Belgian authorities today (August 9) that the Netherlands knew about eggs contaminated with the toxic insecticide fipronil as early as last year are false, the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA – Nederlandse Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit) has affirmed.…

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.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) economic partnership agreement with Japan – its sixth most important trading partner – struck yesterday (July 6) at an EU-Japan Summit in Brussels, will benefit the EU meat industry greatly, experts say.

EU agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan has hailed it as “the most significant and far-reaching agreement ever concluded in agriculture.”…

DAIRY robots might seem like science fiction, but their use has increased dramatically in Europe over the last 20 years. Ireland’s Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre (Teagasc) predicts 20% of cows will be milked automatically by 2020, with other reports citing a 50% rate in northwest Europe by 2025.…

Singapore will review its 80 bilateral agreements on avoiding double taxation to ensure they do not help companies avoid paying tax where relevant business activity took place. This follows its signing the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD)-sponsored Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.…

European Union (EU) banks are to be forced to bring in fraud prevention measures to protect their customers under regulatory technical standards (RTS) due to come into force by early 2019.

These will say when banks have to undertake ‘strong customer authentication’ (SCA) where customer identities are checked using two or more elements, including something a client knows (like a password), they hold (such as a mobile phone and number) or is part of their body, such as a fingerprint.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it is spending EUR17.3 million on five projects promoting innovative gas-related infrastructure projects in Europe. The money will come from the European Union’s (EU) Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), a funding programme designed to create economic growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment.…