Search Results for: japan

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will spend Euro 870,000 over two years in helping Polish meat producers and processors export to the USA, Canada, Japan, China, India and other big non-European Union (EU) markets. As usual in these cases, Brussels is funding 50% of planned marketing programmes, matching financing coming from nation governments or private sources.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London

EUROPEAN manufacturers have been given the go-ahead to use explosive chemicals as igniters for airbags after a new European Union (EU) law had threatened to put them out of business. The new legislation drawn up by the European Commission in Brussels last year (2005) was principally aimed at the fireworks industry and laid down new regulations to ensure safety in handling, storage and transportation binding across the 25 member countries.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

JAPAN’S key fish farming sector is being promised improved efficiency in sales and distribution, with work beginning in February on a state-of-the-art wholesale fishmarket, scheduled for operation on reclaimed land alongside Tokyo Bay by 2012.

The new Koto Ward market, yet to be named, will take over the functions of Tsukiji, the world’s largest market for fish, including farmed species.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

IT may be in its infancy, but European scientists have high hopes for new research into more effective ways to store hydrogen, and particularly in how it can be applied to next-generation fuel cell systems for vehicles, research that could have global implications.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

WORK is scheduled to get under way in February on building a gleaming new seafood and fish wholesale market on a man-made island in Tokyo Bay. The Japan capital’s municipal authorities claim it will get products to market faster, attract more buyers and increase profit margins for traders.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

IF there are those who doubt whether the time, effort and resources invested in tracking down lost or orphaned sources of nuclear radiation is well spent, the tragic case of Alexander Litvinenko demonstrates only too clearly why this work is crucial.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has exempted from its standard free trade rules for a further six years countries involved in the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme combating ‘blood diamond’ sales.

Its current waiver was to expire December 31 and protects trade restrictions undertaken by participating countries preventing rough diamonds being exported to non-signatory states.…

SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH, in Lahore

PAKISTAN’S paint sector – one of its largest industries – has shown an impressive growth over the last few years, mainly because of boost in housing and construction activities.

Unfortunately, being one of the more unorganised sectors in the country, with many small manufacturers, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact number of paint producing units, production and sales data, but figures available from government agencies reveal the industry achieved 25-30 % growth in last five years, with an impressive spurt of 15-20% growth in the financial year ended June 2006, which could be sustained in the medium-term if the housing sector continues growing at its current pace.…

BY MARK ROWE

CONFECTIONARY production is a never-ending battle to balance the ‘feel-good’ factor of products such as a chocolate and cakes with increasing consumer demands for healthy living and enhanced nutrition, according to a leading food scientist.

Dr Johan Ubbink, a senior research scientist and department group leader at the Nestlé Research Centre for Food and Life Sciences in Lausanne, Switzerland, acknowledged that, while chocolate cake would never be the healthiest thing you could eat, research was embracing new technologies that could mitigate the negative effects of confectionary.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

ON October 9, North Korea carried out its notorious nuclear test in a mine shaft some 240 miles to the north of Pyongyang. The North Korean government proclaimed the test to be successful and an "historic event."…