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Growing online sales of tobacco products within the European Union (EU) are boosting industry revenues, despite increasing sales restrictions, including some outright bans on internet purchases of tobacco products. The German market and consumer data platform Statista foresees 2.5% of the total USD170 billion [EUR160 million] sales generated by the tobacco sector – all products – within 2023 will come from online sales, meaning USD4.25 billion [EUR4 billion].…

Portugal’s milk production sector has been shrinking, with long-standing vulnerabilities worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has increased feed and energy costs. Even though contraction has been halted in the past six months by rising milk prices, the industry remains fragile and vulnerable to economic headwinds.…

The European Parliament’s (EP) reputation as a mostly harmless and clean international democratic assembly has taken a serious knock through the ‘Qatargate’ scandal. Keith Nuthall reports.

Belgium’s federal police, working with Belgian prosecutor Michel Claise, have uncovered what they claim is a serious network of graft, where the natural gas-rich Gulf state of Qatar is alleged to have subverted elected European Union (EU) officials.…

The European Union (EU) may this year complete a long-negotiated trade agreement with the South American Mercosur bloc, including major knitwear manufacturer Brazil and wool exporter Argentina. EU trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis has said the ratification of a deal that was agreed in principle in 2019 should move a step closer “relatively soon”.…

Popular culture has long considered Monaco the perfect ‘sunny place for shady people’, as per the Lawrence Rothman song, and judging by the latest Moneyval assessment of this Mediterranean principality, this characterisation holds some truth regarding AML/CFT.

The European FATF-style body said in a report issued in January (2023) that Monaco’s AML/CFT effectiveness was low on supervision, investigation and prosecution.…

Alcohol-free beverages have come a long way since the 1970s when they were targeted at vehicle drivers worried about losing their licences. But with a decrease in per-capita consumption of alcohol among many higher-income markets, many consumers who normally drink alcohol are becoming “sober curious” – looking for non-alcoholic alternatives, according to Andrew Greenhill, an assistant professor for microbiology and fermentation technology at Federation University, Victoria, Australia.…

Biomass is under threat as the leading source of renewable energy in the European Union (EU) under controversial proposals to cap use of primary woody biomass and end subsidies by the end of 2026. Bioenergy Europe figures (1) show that 69.6% of biomass energy feedstock used in Europe comes from woody biomass, which are forestry and wood industry residues with the remaining feedstock sourced 18.3% from agricultural biomass and 12.1% biowaste.…

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has updated its Principles for the Regulation and Supervision of Commodity Derivatives Markets, the first major overhaul of this core guidance since 2011. IOSCO said the changes were designed “to provide a resilient framework for the regulation and oversight of the commodity derivatives markets”, taking account of recent market developments and international events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.…

The European Union (EU) is edging towards a digital Euro, one of several jurisdictions worldwide developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), but what anti-money laundering controls would need to be built into the system and how can this be balanced with data protection and privacy considerations?…

Until social unrest in November forced China’s communist party dictatorship to abandon its tough Covid-19 controls, its packaged food retail sales looked healthy and seemed in decent shape to produce solid revenue in 2023. Data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed that the cumulative retail value of grain, oil and food products produced in China were worth Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY903.2 billion (USD130 billion) in the first half of 2022, up 9.9% year-on-year (1).…