Search Results for: Russia

BY MARTINA MARECKOVA

WITH Russia’s economy booming again after a deep recession caused by the global financial crisis, its consumers are again indulging their strong taste for luxury clothing, especially of famous international marques. And Russians also like to travel, and when they do – they shop – with some assessments suggesting they set aside twice as much time for shopping as do American tourists.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL

SYSTEMIC advantages given to biofuels in the European Union (EU) through tax breaks and subsidies could take a knock this year, with the European Commission examining their indirect contribution to greenhouse gas production.

Brussels already takes account of their direct effect, through production and use emissions, and land use changes on fields used to grow feedstocks: only biofuels with a proven 35% emissions advantage over fossil fuels qualify for environment-linked tax breaks and handouts, under the EU’s renewable energy directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BILATERAL civil aviation deals struck with Russia by Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden are being challenged legally by the European Commission. It fears the agreements enable Russia to charge punitive Siberia over-flight fees to these countries’ airlines at a variety of rates.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

Switzerland food manufacturer and retailer Coop has been given permission by the European Commission to assume full ownership of Germany-based food wholesaler transGourmet (NOTE – CORRECT SPELLING). Coop has shared control with German retailer REWE. transGourmet claims to be Europe’s second largest cash-and-carry and food service company – turning over Euro EUR5.8 billion in 2009, employing 21,000 staff.transGourmetwholesales…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PREPARATORY work for mining a major cobalt-copper deposit in Russia, could be funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD). The bank has released plans for an equity investment of US$21 million in Isle of Man-registered Imperial Mining Holding Limited, whose subsidiaries explore base and precious metal resources in Russia and Mongolia.…

BY MARIYA PETKOVA, BY ALAN OSBORN, BY PAUL COCHRANE, BY LEE ADENDOORF, BY MAKKI MARSEILLES AND VÉRONIQUE NARAME

THE EGYPTIAN political crisis could hardly have happened at a worse time for the European food industry, struggling to contain the significant increases in commodity prices of 2010.…

BY SAMI HALABI

THE KNITTING industry in Turkey is undergoing a paradigm shift as its business model moves from one that relied on margins to one that is dependent on quantity. The economic downturn of late 2008 and 2009 left the industry in a situation with stock orders down to a minimum and the industry having to adapt to a new market dynamic.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

JAPAN is being accused of trying to write its own official asbestos testing system into an international standard, because it knows it does not work and so will get its government off the hook for asbestos exposure cases.…

BY MARK GODFREY

FINANCING is the crunch issue in Armenia’s newly announced plans to build a new unit at its Metsamor nuclear power plant. The VVER (water-water energetic reactor) 1000 reactor to be built in a 50/50 joint venture with Russia’s Atomstroyexport will, according to Armenian government sources, be operational by 2018.…