Food manufacturers across the European Union (EU) may pay more for their ingredients because of new EU rules requiring farmers to undertake additional work to get the same subsidies, while the cost of fuel and fertiliser is also rising.

“I think you will see that the industry will, at least initially, eat some of the price increases,” predicted Gunnar Kvistgaard, director of Denmark-based 1A Food Consulting.…

Sub-Saharan Africa has natural resources that aids the development of renewable energy, it has lots of sun, plentiful wind, and much potentially sustainable biomass. With the development of small-scale affordable renewable energy technologies, such systems have been promoted by major aid agencies keen to prevent deforestation and excessive reliance on fossil fuels, that – even where they are plentiful, have not usually led to widespread economic development.

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.…

The European Union (EU) has at last, after five years of debates, finalised a country-by-country reporting directive designed to force multi-nationals to reveal publicly what profits they make, and taxes they pay, in each country of operation. The goal is to stop multinationals hiding behind consolidated group financial reports that conceal when they might pay taxes in low tax jurisdictions where trading may be light.…

THE FINNISH can manufacturing industry has been growing, with new production coming online in the past 10 years to diversify a sector that is able to draw on effective access to raw materials and a highly skilled workforce.

Both Rexam (now part of Ball) and Poland-based Canpack operate efficient Finnish can-making plants.…

The increasing decriminalisation and legalisation of cannabis as a recreational and medicinal substance has encouraged the liberalisation of hemp as a fibre crop, whose use in some jurisdictions had been restricted because of laws against the plant’s chemically-active ingredients.

This is starting to change, most notably in the USA, which used to have severe anti-marijuana laws, but which now has 18 states that have legalised recreational cannabis use.…

INTRODUCTION

Textile and clothing companies are well aware of two major trends driving sales in the industry – sustainability and digitisation. One is driven by the need to adopt sustainable manufacturing processes and materials, to boost sales amongst environmentally conscious consumers and reduce financial and regulatory costs associated with pollution and carbon emissions.…

While the Arab world certainly has a political culture of its own, there are many universal human truths that its politics shares with the rest of the globe, even if – perhaps – tensions can be more intense in this region than others.…

Cryptocurrency innovation is moving fast, with AML/CFT-oriented financial institutions and law enforcement struggling to keep up as criminals exploit the system through newer technology such as decentralised finance and anonymous privacy coins.

The use of cryptocurrencies is surging, and is increasingly being adopted in more, often unregulated, markets.…

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.…