Search Results for: Brazilian

BY MARK ROWE

SEQUENCING the human genome has brought widespread interest and the potential for treatment of diseases, but confectionery industry researchers are increasingly applying this technique to key components in the food chain. One of the most high-profile sequencing programmes gathers pace this year, as Mars continues the sequencing of the cocoa genome, a project it is working on with the US department of agriculture’s subtropical horticultural research substation and IBM.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED Nations and Brazil are helping a small west African country fight against its exposure to organised drugs crime by funding and helping manage the construction of a new police academy. Since a civil war in the late 1990s, Guinea-Bissau – a former Portuguese colony – has seen weak governments under attack from international narcotics rings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) regulatory approval has been granted for two Brazilian financial groups taking over major Brazil meat companies JBS SA and Bertin SA. The European Commission gave competition law clearance for the purchase by J&F Participações S.A.…

BY GEORGE STONE

GHANA, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are Africa’s latest upstream hotspots as major energy firms seek new provinces outside of regional heavyweight oil producers Nigeria and Angola. But jockeying for position has already led to friction between governments and the industry.…

BY GREGORY MELUS

THE BRAZILIAN textile industry is confident it can overcome any ill effects from its government placing World Trade Organisation (WTO)-authorised retaliatory tariffs on more than 222 US products. These will be applied to US textile imports, including threads, yarns, cotton, polyester fabrics, and finished products ranging from handkerchiefs to crocheted blouses, in response to US cotton subsidies which have been deemed too high by the WTO.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

CIGARETTE MARKET

With a population of 192 million, Brazil is among the top 10 cigarette markets in the world. In 2008, 91.09 billion sticks were sold, valued at US$8.58 billion according to Abifumo, the Brazilian tobacco manufacturers association.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SEIZURES of generic medicines in transit through German and Dutch ports (that prompted complaints from the Indian and Brazilian governments) have now sparked criticism from Oxfam. It and Health Action International Europe said in a report: "The EU’s [intellectual property] policies are increasing the cost of medicines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT is a mind-bending question. How on earth, given the complexity and variety of available biofuels, their feedstocks and manufacturing processes, can their relative ‘green-ness’ be measured efficiently? But, to the delight of mathematicians and technical consultants the world over, this toughest of queries has to be answered.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed giving Brazil additional annual import quotas for its sales of sugar in the European Union (EU) to take account of the expansion of the EU through the accession of Romania and Bulgaria. The Commission wants 550,000 tonnes of extra Brazilian raw cane sugar imported annually for refining.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, LUCY JONES and KEITH NUTHALL

INTRODUCTION

CLOTHING and textile production and trade subsidies are under pressure today, as they have not been for many years. There has been a steady trend towards liberalisation in the sector worldwide, stemming from the abolition of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) in January 2005 and with it, then end of restrictive quotas for imports for the WTO’s 152 member countries.…