News
A water war in Asia cannot be ruled out
Asia can build a harmonious, rules-based water management system. But it needs China to get on board. Tensions over water are rising in Asia—and not only because of conflicting maritime claims. While territorial disputes, such as in the South China Sea, attract the most attention—after ...
SCIEX summarizes 2016 food safety milestones and provides a peek into 2017 trends
The past few years have been tumultuous in the food industry. Unfortunate food safety incidents eroded consumer’s trust in the food supply chain, and we saw food governing bodies step up to implement new regulations and update old practices. The China milk scandal and the ...
Duty-free soybean imports get state nod
The government on November 24 approved a three-year, tariff-free soybean import plan to ease domestic shortages on the condition that importers promote soybean farming and pay more for domestically grown soybeans. Deputy prime minister Prajin Juntong, who chaired the vegetable oil committee meetings, said importers ...
One ministry allows yellow vine, one stops it
While one government ministry gave approval to a Chinese company to collect yellow vine in Koh Kong province, another ministry told the provincial governor on November 24 to halt the construction of processing facilities for the vine, according to letters obtained on November 24. The Ministry ...
Gov’t rice loans find few takers
It has been over two months since the government made available a $27 million emergency loan package to the beleaguered rice sector, yet only 5 percent of the funds have been disbursed. Officials from the state-owned bank in charge of issuing the loans claim the ...
Rice cooperatives still held back by marketing
Lao rice cooperatives have made good progress in terms of their rice production efforts but marketing and sales deficiencies are still causing problems for the co-ops. Agricultural officials and representatives from model cooperatives in the provinces of Xayaboury, Khammuan, Savannakhet and Vientiane are currently meeting ...
Cargill invests $50m in Thai facility
US-based Cargill is investing US$50 million to expand its poultry-processing operations at its facility in Nakhon Ratchasima province. The expansion will create 1,400 new jobs and add to the more than 13,500 people the company currently employs across 14 locations in the country. Cargill will engage ...
VN fruit sent to tough markets
Việt Nam exported nearly 10,000 tonnes of fresh fruit to difficult markets such as the United States, Canada, South Korea and Japan in the first 10 months of this year. This export volume doubled figures from the whole of last year. According to director of the ...
Cambodia’s prized rice falls short at awards
Cambodia’s Phka Rumdoul variety of fragrant rice, which won the World’s Best Rice award for three consecutive years from 2012 to 2014, narrowly missed its fourth crown at this year’s awards held in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand last week. Thailand’s own Hom Mali – ...
Cashew industry sets standards
The Việt Nam Cashew Association has set standards for cashew processing to nudge the industry towards cleaner production and ensure consistent quality. The standards, announced at the eighth Việt Nam Golden Cashew Rendezvous in Đà Nẵng last week, cover input materials, technical requirements and equipment involved ...
