I am intrigued to discover that on the latest CIA Life Expectancy (LE) tables the USA is ranked 45th (or 29th on the UN country list of LE). Here in the USA, the high tech medical country, yet we only rank 45th. I have to ask myself why only 45th if we are so advanced in our state of the art of medicine? The only answer I can come up with is that nutrition must be a key factor in LE. Nutrition is an area were the USA falls down, junk food, prepared foods, and rich desserts are the eating habits of today. With our fast food diets our medical industry is left to combat our ill eating habits. Obesity and diabetes are becoming bigger daily. The health industry can only do so much and at some point we the individual have to take charge of our own eating habits and nutritional intake.
Perhaps we should look at the leaders Andorra, Macau, Japan, San Marino, Singapore and Hong Kong (4 of the 6 from Asia with 3 from S.E. Asia). What do they eat? We should start looking at their eating habits and model our own habits after them.
If we look further at the table you will see that at the bottom of the list are African countries that have LEs of only 40+ years. Can you imagine an LE of 40? This is no better than it was in the USA back in the 19th century. Why is it that in this prosperous world we can’t improve the LE in Africa? Why can’t we teach them and give them technology to improve their food delivery?
Food safety is an issue that can help to improve our lives and particularly in the African countries. However food safety cannot counter the effects of junk food. It is time for us as a nation to raise the bar and become aware of our health habits and eat proper nutritional foods. Let’s reach for a new level of excellence.
Japan Gyoza saga continues, were they tampered with? by whom? Chinese? Japanese?
Yu Xinmin of the Ministry of Public Health says there is little chance that the methamidaphos was put into the product in China. Chinese officials are now leaning toward the conclusion that the gyoza was tampered with, but where? In a normal export transaction the product would be packaged in its final presentation, in this case at Tianyuan Foods, and then stuffed into a reefer container, doors closed and sealed. The seal would not be broken again until it arrives at its final destination, in this case Japan. Thus if the normal protocol was followed it would lead one to believe that the product must have been contaminated in Japan.
Japanese authorities have a different view or conclusion. After testing the methamidophos in Japan they say it is of inferior quality and not pure, therefore it is not from Japan. If the methamidophos is not of Japanese origin then from where? It appears to be a vicious circle with nothing concrete to draw a conclusion.
Of noted interest is that China in 2007, before the incident of the Gyoza, had made a decision to ban the use of methamidophos in agriculture production, manufacturing and transporting of the pesticide. This took effect January 1, 2008. This is good news for us exporters because methamidophos has been a problem in Asia for years (although it is allowed on broccoli and cauliflower in the USA). The question remains which pesticide the farmers will use in lieu of methamidophos, will it be legal in the USA or Japan or …
(Each country has their own list of acceptable pesticides and tolerances.)
China is facing one of the worst seasons in recent years. Abnormal weather is raising havoc for farmers and for the frozen vegetable industry. It is the coldest weather in the past 50 years with many provinces facing snow and freezing conditions. 18 provinces in China have been impacted by the weather this year.
Individual crop conditions listed below:
Leaf Vegetables – prices have doubled compared to previous years.
Root Vegetables/Beans – Strong market demand due to lack of leaf vegetables. Prices unworkable for frozen factories. Japan cannot afford high raw material cost for their fresh market.
Celery – Normal price RMB750 – 800 per metric ton. Today RMB1250/mt
Green Pepper – Normal price RMB2000/mt. Today RMB2700 – 2900.
PeaPods – Normal RMB3000 – 3500/mt. Today RMB8000 – 9000/mt.
Sugar Snap Peas – Normal RMB3500 – 3800/mt. Today over RMB6000/mt.
Water Chestnuts (peeled and delivered to factory) Normal RMB2500 – 2900/mt. Today RMB3300 – 3900. We are predicting that the price will rise even further to the RMB4500 – 5000/mt range because total harvest quantity is 35% of last year, strond demand in local market.
Other factors impacting price:
Pesticide cost 20 – 30% higher than last year.
Fertilizer cost is 85 – 100% higher than before because of high oil cost.
Field Workers – early 2007 paid RMB15/8hours (no need to supply food and transportation. Now after new labor regulation and manpower situation in China RMB30/6.5 hours with food and transportation.
Watch John Z. Blazevich CEO of Contessa Premium Foods being interviewed (see below) by Fox News Stuart Varney and Dagen McDowell on being the first Green Frozen facility in the World.
Stuart Varney tries to make a mockery of Blazevich and being green. Varney must be living in another planet being so ignorant about green and its potential benefits not only for us but for our children’s children.
Their is an old Indian saying that we should not be thinking of the consequences of today but look forward 7 generations.
Why are China frozen vegetables going to be more expensive this year?Â
We would like to share with you some of the reasons why we can expect increased pricing from our China suppliers of frozen vegetables. Below is a list of 5 reasons why pricing will increase this coming year:
Raw material costs have risen sharply. The China CPI has been increasing with the food leading the way. In particular food oil, rice, pork, poultry and eggs have all increased by double digits in 2007. We are currently witnessing high prices in the raw materials of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots in China, with prices over 50% higher then normal for this time of year.
Packing material cost have increased from the printers by 10 – 30% because of oil cost, labor cost, etc.
Labor cost will increase more this year. One of our suppliers says that labor cost have increased by 100% over the past three years. Also of importance is during the last CCP (Communist Party Of China) meeting in October one of the key issues was “Peoples Living Standard”. They will focus on improving living standards, workers working conditions, and work time. In some areas of China the minimum pay for the factory workers was increased in October of 2007 by 100RMB per month per worker.
The RMB continues to appreciate against the dollar. Some China banks are estimating that the RMB will increase to 6.3 to 6.8 RMB to the dollar in 2008.Â
Interest rate cost have been increasing as the China government trys to cool the economy. The current rate is 7.85% with more increases being predicted in the near term.
Also of major concern are the rumors that the China government will cancel the tax refund for vegetable exports. If this happens it would have a dramatic impact on frozen vegetable pricing.
I recently found an interesting website from Australia that compares the nutrient value of frozen, canned and fresh vegetables. They went to the Coles and Woolworths stores and bought the best fresh vegetables, and the top selling frozen and canned brands. The test covered the following vegetables – corn, green beans, carrots, spinach, broccoli and tomatoes. The fresh and frozen vegetables were steamed for 10 minutes and the canned was heated before testing. They tested for Vitamin C, beta-carotene and lycopene (tomatoes only). The tomatoes were only tested for canned and fresh.
The results are all over the place. Frozen was best for green beans, and spinach. Corn was a toss up with convience perhaps the deciding factor. Carrots all three had about the same level of vitamin C but fresh and canned were the clear winners for beta-carotene. That leaves broccoli were fresh was the clear winner with frozen having 92% less vitamin C then fresh.
This is only one small sample test done in Australia and is cannot be consider conclusive. The results are interesting and I would like to see more testing for the same nutrients and more.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and most will have the traditional turkey but what about vegetables? Some of the best vegetables one can have for Thanksgiving are sweet potatoes, cranberries, pumpkin and acorn squash all good cancer fighting vegetables (check out the ACS website, click here). All the above vegetables are good year round and the sweet potato is loaded with extra good nutrients.Â
Remember to enjoy your vegetables this Thanksgiving.
It was not long ago that everybody was taking about the impact of ethanol on the food chain as many farmers started to produce corn for ethanol production. It had an immediate impact on supplies and perhaps today we still hear about the impact it is having on the dfood supply.  Will the food inflation from reduced acreage be short lived?Â
Todays article in Bloomberg is quite interesting and worth a read (Ethanol Bust Makes Loser of Bush, Gates, Archer Daniels Midland ). It seems nobody knows if the ethanol production is gain for energy or a loss for energy. What ever one thinks it looks like it is a loser for the moment.
A bill is in congress to amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to safety for food and drugs imported into the United States (H.R. 3610 introduced by John D. Dingell D – Mich.).
Of key interest to U.S. importers of frozen vegetables are:
If passed it would go into effect not later than 2 years from enactment of this section.
Persons importing would voluntarily agree to abide by the new standards.
Â
Guidelines:
  Develop guidelines for food safety programs
  Documentation of processing (in essence mirror of a HACCP program).
  Certification of facilities
  User fees for imported product
  Restrict FDA regulated products to only enter ports with FDA labs
These are a few of the main points of the proposed bill. (See The Library Of Congress THOMAS for the bill introduced in September 2007 and search for - hr 3610)
Developing guidelines for food safety should be easy because it would most likely replicate a HACCP program. Certification of facilities will be a cumbersome task. Who will do it? Will it be outsourced? How long would this take? Just looking at China their would be over 1.5 million facilities for food and drug. User fees are just another form of taxation on importers and will be viewed as a barrier to free trade. Restricting the ports will be another difficult task, of the 300 ports only 13 have FDA labs which only 4 of those are equipped to process food. This too will be considered a barrier to trade. How much will this cost you and I the consumer?
Is this a step in the right direction? Yes and no. Food safety is of critical importance for us and all people of the world. If the importers are working with facilities that have programs in place and have 3rd party audits performed, then is it necessary to pass legislation? We have always stated, that as importers you must know your supplier.Â
Will the same restrictions apply to domestic facilities?
Entries (RSS)