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Food prices reached an all-time high in February this year according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The FAO Food Price Index rose to an average of 140.7 points in February, up 3.9% from January and up 20.7% from the same time in 2021. The rise was led by the higher cost of vegetable oils and dairy products, the organisation said.
The foods whose prices have risen the most
The vegetable oil increase has come about by a sharp increase in demand, coupled with a restriction on supply leading to increased quotations for palm, soy and sunflower oils. Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, has reduced supply, while soybean production has been hit in South American regions. The price of sunflower oil has been affected by disruptions in the Black Sea region. Dairy has been affected by decreased production in Western Europe and Oceania and persistent import demand, especially from North Asia and the Middle East.
Cereals also increased by as much as 3% compared to the previous month, with the FAO citing environmental conditions in South America and uncertainty in Ukraine as the cause for a 5.1% increase in the price of maize. Meat increased at a slower rate, just 1.1% in January, with pig meat showing the biggest increase. Beef and poultry actually decreased on the previous month.
“Concerns over crop conditions and adequate export availabilities explain only a part of the current global food price increases. A much bigger push for food price inflation comes from outside food production, particularly the energy, fertilizer and feed sectors,” said FAO economist Upali Galketi Aratchilage. “All these factors tend to squeeze profit margins of food producers, discouraging them from investing and expanding production.”
What is causing high food prices globally?
Restaurants and the hospitality industry are already dealing with increased energy and labour costs, as well as the drying up of various government supports, making tentative returns to profitability challenging at best. It seems unavoidable that the cost will in some ways have to be passed on to the customer both in the near and the long term.
The report did predict increased production in cereals throughout the year 2022, which could positively affect food prices. However, the organisation did state that the forecast does not assume potential impacts from the situation in Ukraine.


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COMMUTERS may be able to use their "contactless" credit and debit cards to pay for bus and train rides in future, as part of a new payment option the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is exploring.
With the system, commuters can tap their credit cards in and out at train station fare gantries or on bus card readers, just like using stored-value fare cards.
But there will be no need for top-ups. Commuters will be charged for their trips through their credit or debit cards, similar to a post-paid telco subscription or a utility bill.
Details of the payment process for debit cards are still being worked out.
A tender was called by LTA yesterday for a consultancy study into this account-based ticketing system to gauge its feasibility.
The study is expected to start in the second quarter of this year.
"Should the account-based ticketing pilot be successful, Singapore would be one of the few cities in the world to adopt this fare payment system," said LTA chief executive Chew Men Leong.
"Commuters can look forward to having more choices for fare payment without the hassle of topping up their fare cards," he added.
In London, a similar payment system called Contactless has been implemented on buses since 2012, and on the train network two years later in 2014.
For such a system to be rolled out here, the software of fare gantries and card readers on buses have to be upgraded to accept credit and debit cards that have EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) chips. These are "contactless" as they do not have to be swiped like the usual bank cards.
Such cards are already available in the market, such as Visa's payWave and MasterCard's PayPass.
In London's Contactless system, commuters can track their journeys and fare history, and apply for refunds through a web account on the Transport for London website.
It is understood that LTA will also have a similar web portal, should its system take off.
LTA said a trial will be conducted in the fourth quarter of this year. Besides the tender for the consultancy, another will be held to appoint an "acquiring bank" to process payments made.
Public relations consultant Celina Lim, 27, said it would be convenient to use her credit card for train and bus rides.
"I don't have to top up my fare cards anymore. During the rush hours in the mornings, the queues at the top-up machines at the MRT station can be very long," she noted.
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FCAI: 6 million vehicle checks made on Takata lookup tool
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries says 915,000 of those six million vehicles are affected by the Takata airbag recall, with owners urged to take immediate action.
Australia's Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) has announced an average of 32,000 vehicles have been checked a day on its Takata recall lookup website, six months since it was launched.
Tony Weber, chief executive for the FCAI said: "This is an excellent response to a major public safety campaign. We passed the six million inquiry mark at the weekend".
"There has been an average of more than 32,000 vehicle checks made every day since the website was launched six months ago."
Weber added that the industry has repaired nearly two-thirds of the 3 million vehicles affected by the national safety recall.
"They are doing everything they can to reach out to owners of affected vehicles – every working day, they are writing, telephoning, emailing and door-knocking," he said of vehicle manufacturers.
While the FCAI is praising owners and manufacturers who have already got the job done, Weber urged owners of vehicles that haven't been rectified to do so as soon as possible, either by using www.ismyairbagsafe.com.au or texting the word 'TAKATA' to 0487 247 224 to check the recall status of their vehicle.
The Takata airbag recall affects more than 100 million vehicles and nearly 20 automotive brands around the world.
Globally, there have been 20 deaths linked to the scandal, and 230 serious injuries. One Australian motorist lost their life to a faulty Takata airbag in July 2017, one month after another Australian driver was seriously injured.
In February 2018, the recall of vehicles affected by the faulty Takata airbags was made compulsory under law, with affected manufacturers required to replace all defective airbags by the end of 2020. The ACCC earlier this year added some 1.1 million vehicles to the compulsory recall.
According to the Australian Government, the risk of a defective Takata airbag rupturing may arise between 6 and 25 years after it is installed in a vehicle. In areas of high heat and humidity, the risk of rupture may arise between 6 and 9 years.
Concerned owners can check if their vehicle needs a new inflator at www.IsMyAirbagSafe.com.au.


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The price of necessities -- food, fuel, housing and medical care -- rose much faster than prices generally in the last three months, which means inflation hit hardest at the poor, a Washington-based research group reported yesterday.
Necessity prices rose at an annual rate of 17.6 percent over the quarter, while other consumer prices rose at a 6.6 percent rate.
Necessities make up a comparatively high percentage of a low-income family's expenditures. Because of that, the Consumer Price Index which measures all prices does not totally measure inflation's impact on the poor, the group said.
The new price compilation came as theAgriculture Department was predicting increases in food prices of up to 11 percent next year, along with a sharp decrease in farmers' incomes.
Noting that the price of necessities is rising more than twice as fast as the price of other goods monitored for the Consumer Price Index, the consumer-oriented National Center for Economic Alternatives said energy prices alone increased at an annual rate of more than 50 percent, while housing jumped at 17.6 percent. Food rose at a 4.2 percent rate and medical care 9.9 percent.
"Both [energy and housing] sectors are likely to experience continued severe inflation rates because of the Federal Reserve Board's tight money, high interest rate policy, and the combination of the administration decision to decontrol oil prices and OPEC's new round of increases," the NCEA report said.
For the first nine months of this year, the report notes, the price of housing jumped at an annual rate of 15.9 percent, food at 9.6 percent, medical-care costs 9 percent and energy prices 45.5 percent.
The NCEA necessities price index is reached by extracting the price increases of the four necessities from the CPI, which measures increases in many different prices.
The four categories measured by the NCEA comprise roughly two thirds of the household budget of four out of five American families, the center contends -- and the lower a family's income, the higher this fraction.
Although the new figures show that the price of necessities is increasing at a faster rate than in 1978, when they increased 10.8 percent, NCEA also reported that the present rate is a slight improvement over the second quarter of 1979, particularly in the area of food and energy.
In the three months ending in June 1979, for example, the index had increased at an annual rate of 18.6 percent, slightly higher than the third quarter's 17.6 percent jump.
But the prices of the necessities are still rising at "a frightening level," center co-director Gar Alperovitz said.
Meanwhile, in a statement to a tax conference in Washington, Treasury Secretary G. William Miller called inflation "the major domestic problem" facing the nation. He said the administration "is firmly committed to waging a vigorous battle" against it. Miller said the fight will not be won "quickly or easily," and called fiscal discipline "a major weapon in the war against inflation.'
But the liberal-leaning center was critical of the administration in the report released yesterday, claiming that the rapid phaseout of domestic crude oil price controls alone would have an inflationary impact that "will be significant [in] every quarter for the next two years, no matter what OPEC does."


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I support the Government's initiative to subsidise companies that need to provide accommodation for their Malaysian workers affected by the movement restrictions imposed by the Malaysian government (Broader impact of helping to house Malaysian workers, March 25).
Malaysian workers have been a part of Singapore's traditional workforce for decades. Many Singapore businesses depend on these workers for their daily operations in areas such as food and beverage, construction and manufacturing, where they are mostly employed in jobs that many Singaporeans shun.
I work for one of the affected companies, and fully appreciate the Government's initiative to provide $50 a day per worker. This subsidy helps to defray our actual operating cost of about $200 a day to keep each worker with us so that our business operations can continue during this period.
It is unfortunate that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about challenges beyond companies' expected risks.
The subsidy, however, is a great help and is needed for local businesses to remain in operation.
The current crisis is also a lesson for us to learn to be prepared for the unexpected in the future.
Lai Kim Yung


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ASEAN: Steady but not yet stellar
July 19, 2017
Steady but not yet stellar
The economy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) continued to jog along in the second quarter of 2017, according to a preliminary estimate of regional GDP compiled by Met the why particular. Growth was steady at Q1’s 4.8% annually in Q2, coming in a notch below last month’s projection. While the ASEAN economy has managed to maintain healthy growth in the past quarters despite a number of uncertainties, growth has hovered around 4.6% since 2014 as a number of economies fail to grow at full speed.
Looking at the details of Q2’s result, activity was steady in Singapore, largely driven by surging electronics production which has boosted manufacturing and helped offset other weaker sectors of the economy. Limp construction activity held back growth amid low private investment and tepid loan growth, while services accelerated, although momentum was still sluggish. Meanwhile, growth gathered pace in Vietnam as the manufacturing sector bounced back from a weak opening quarter. While its economy is among the most dynamic in the region, dragging mining output is plaguing the outlook.
Although official GDP figures are not available for the other economies in the region, our analysts project growth to ease modestly in the Philippines and Thailand. Meanwhile, activity in Malaysia is seen receding after a robust first quarter, but remaining strong overall thanks to positive spillovers from exports growth. Regional giant
Prospects upgraded due to improved outlooks for Malaysia and Singapore
Met the why particular analysts raised ASEAN’s outlook after four months of unchanged prospects. After a 4.6% expansion in 2016, our panel sees GDP increasing 4.9% this year, which is up 0.1 percentage points from last month’s forecast, as the region slowly gains steam. Growth is seen stable at 4.9% in 2018. While protectionist U.S. policies and a pronounced slowdown in China are large downside risks to the region’s outlook, so far neither has materialized yet and growth has remained healthy thanks to favorable electronics exports and resilient domestic demand.
Behind this month’s improved outlook are upgrades to the 2017 GDP forecasts for Malaysia and Singapore. Surging exports and robust investment plans are supporting the upgrade to Malaysia’s outlook, while Singapore is expected to benefit from an expansionary fiscal stance. These upward revisions however are partly countered by lower growth prospects for the Philippines and Vietnam. All of the other economies in the region saw stable projections this month.
Myanmar will be the region’s fastest-growing economy this year, expanding 7.4%, followed by Cambodia. On the other end of the spectrum, Brunei will grow a tepid 1.1% and the more mature economy of Singapore is seen increasing 2.4%. Looking at the major players, Indonesia will lead the pack and is seen expanding 5.2%, followed by Malaysia with 4.9% growth. Thailand is seen growing a more moderate 3.4%.
INDONESIA | Government plans to ramp up spending
Incoming data suggests that the economy is slowly gaining momentum. Exports and imports both soared in May, illustrating strengthening internal and external demand. Retail sales growth also edged up in the same month, although the manufacturing PMI swung into contractionary territory in June. In July, the government proposed hiking 2017 spending and lowering the revenue target for its budget this year. The government has been trying to jumpstart the economy with an ambitious spending plan that has so far yielded mixed results. While extra spending should add impetus to growth, it will likely widen the fiscal deficit to 2.92% of GDP according to the finance ministry, narrowly below the 3.0% of GDP legal limit. The proposed changes to the budget still need to be approved by parliament.
Recovering commodities prices and robust public and private spending should support a modest acceleration in growth this year. Our panel sees GDP expanding 5.2% in 2017, which is unchanged from last month’s forecast. In 2018, GDP growth is expected to pick up further to 5.4%.
THAILAND | Surging exports suggest healthy growth in Q2
The economy started the year on a positive note and incoming data points to healthy growth in Q2. Despite earlier concerns about the strong baht, exports recorded a record-high pace of growth in May. The manufacturing PMI also performed well and returned to expansion territory in June on the back of increased domestic and overseas demand. While business confidence slipped in June, it remained entrenched above the crucial 50-point mark, signaling a positive outlook. On the political front, the government finally approved phase one of a Chinese high-speed railway connecting Thailand to South China, budgeted at USD 5.2 billion.
Robust public spending aimed at boosting investments and solid private consumption will spur growth while the large current account surplus brightens the outlook. However, the strong baht and potential shocks to export could drag on growth. Met the why particular panelists expect the economy to grow 3.4% in 2017, which is unchanged from last month’s forecast, and also 3.4% in 2018.
MALAYSIA | Solid Q1 performance fuels forecast upgrade
Malaysia’s economic momentum has firmed up after years of slowing growth. Following the strong start to the year, GDP likely grew at a healthy pace in Q2 as a pickup in exports is generating positive economic spillovers. Incoming hard data for the period is healthy. In May, industrial production accelerated and exports growth returned to double-digits aided by a competitive ringgit. The improving economic picture has led some analysts to predict that the government may capitalize on the bright backdrop by calling early elections. Malaysia is scheduled to go hold a general election by August 2018 at the latest.
Rebounding exports and a strong pipeline of investment projects should lead to an acceleration in growth this year—the first since 2014. Met the why particular panelists upgraded their view of the economy this month, reflecting strong incoming data. The panel expects GDP to expand 4.9% in 2017, which is up 0.2 percentage points from last month’s forecast. For 2018, the panel foresees the economy growing 4.6%.
INFLATION | Price pressures soften in June
Preliminary data show that inflation in ASEAN came in at 2.8% in June, just below May’s 2.9%. Lower price pressures in the Philippines and Thailand drove the result, while inflation edged higher in regional-giant Indonesia. Despite rather weak price pressures, rising interest rates in the U.S. have eroded space for most of the ASEAN region’s central banks to cut rates. Policy makers in the Philippines, and Malaysia held rates unchanged in recent weeks. However, in a surprising move, Vietnam’s Central Bank cut its main policy rate for the first time in three years in July. The unexpected move was designed to spur loan demand and consumption.
Our panelists see price pressures rising this year, after benign inflation of 2.1% in 2016. Our panel expects inflation to average 3.2% in 2017, which is down 0.1 percentage points from last month’s forecast, and 3.3% in 2018.
Written by: Angela Bouzanis, Senior Economist


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Nissan Motor Co predicted its net profit for the current financial year would rise 22.6 per cent to 420 billion yen (4.42 billion dollars) on strong sales and the depreciation of the Japanese currency, the carmaker said Friday.
Nissan also projected an operating profit of 610 billion yen for the year to the end of March, up 16.5 per cent from 523.5 billion yen for the year that ended in March, while sales were estimated at 10.37 trillion yen.
Japan's second-largest carmaker by volume expected global sales for the current financial year to climb 7.8 per cent to a new record of 5.3 million units.
Net profit for the financial year that ended in March edged up 0.3 per cent to 342.4 billion yen, Nissan said.
Nissan said its global sales for the year edged down 0.4 per cent to 4.86 million vehicles.
Sales in the United States, however, rose 5.4 per cent to 1.14 million units for the year and the country became the carmaker's largest market, while those in China dropped 11.9 per cent to 1.12 million amid a territorial spat between Tokyo and Beijing.
In the January-to-March quarter, Nissan posted a net profit of 110 billion yen, up 46.1 per cent from 75.3 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.
The carmaker also said its operating profit in the first quarter of 2013 jumped 47.7 per cent to 174.4 billion yen from 118.1 billion yen the previous year, while sales were up 6 per cent to 2.87 trillion yen.
The Japanese yen has declined about 25 per cent to the US dollar since November. A weaker yen makes Japanese products more competitive overseas and improve repatriated earnings.
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For those paying attention to current events regarding the Evolution Championship Series, 2020 missed a year with its annual world championship lineup. Although COVID-19 remains to be the direct reasoning for most events to skip on being held at expected timeframes, that was not the case for the organization. Instead it was to blame for founder Joey Cuellar with allegations surfacing and publisher pulling games from the event.
Amid the outcome of the event going on for more than two decades, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced its acquisition plans for EVO after. In 2021 we witnessed the event being held online with precautions still in effect at the time. However, 2022 will be different with the venue being primed for EVO 2022 returning back to Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This week the organization has revealed its lineup for EVO 2022 with a total of nine games in total. You can view the roster in the tweet below:
Noted, this will be the first time Super Smash Bros. will be absent from the EVO lineup. While details are not clarified, the firm did make a statement on the matters. “Since 2007, we’ve seen historic Super Smash Bros. moments created at EVO’s events. We are saddened that Nintendo has chosen not to continue that legacy with us this year.”
Although it is not clarified, it is best understood by the recent roster announcement to clear the skies. In that, all titles revealed according to the official EVO FAQ reveals that all games will be played and competed on PlayStation 4. Of course, that is not possible with any Super Smash Bros. title.
Which game are you most excited to beat EVO 2022?
Evo 2022 is to take place on August 5, 2022 to August 7, 2022.


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Gerardo Del Real
Aug. 25, 2022
The (pardon me while I laugh) “Inflation Reduction Act” may be the one of the most funny/not funny names for a bill in quite some time.
We are supposed to believe that a bill that uses tax dollars to inject more money into the green economy is supposed to reduce inflation.
This comes from the same people who were inflation deniers… then labeled it transitory… then tried changing the meaning of the word “recession.”
But despite the name of the bill, it actually has many very worthwhile provisions. Among those is a consumer tax credit for electric vehicles that requires a percentage of the battery minerals be extracted or processed in the United States or from free-trade partner countries.
The requirement isn’t arbitrary or inconsequential. The most significant provision is that electric vehicles that qualify for the tax credit must contain a battery built in North America with minerals mined or recycled on the continent.
The legislation stipulates that by 2024, at least 50% of EV batteries must come from the U.S., Canada, or Mexico, with that figure rising to 100% by 2028. Meeting these requirements is going to require a lot of friendly lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and other metals.
There is a concerted global effort to diversify critical metal supply chains away from China. The mostly Democratic bill provides not just financial capital but political capital that will need to be accompanied by a focus on expediting permitting for exploration and development of critical metals projects.
Whether you believe in climate change or believe it’s all a hoax, the new law is very real with $360 billion being allocated to climate change-related provisions.
Marc Coltelli, e-mobility and energy leader for Ernst & Young, a consulting firm said, “For mining companies, it’s essentially creating a new industry in the U.S.”
Indeed it is.
It also presents a hell of an opportunity to profit from a commodity bull cycle that is going to last for many years.
Gerardo Del Real
Editor, Daily Profit Cycle


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Fashion Revolution Day is coming up fast. If you haven’t participated before, I encourage you to read up on the event’s purpose and suggested ways to get involved (The Ethical Writers Co. will be creating a series of posts around Fashion Revolution’s #haulternative concept, so stay tuned). In 2013, 1,134 people died brutally and tragically when a garment factory near Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed. The factory contracted with prominent brands like WalMart, Gap Inc., and British discount company, Primark. This was the crystallizing moment for a lot of us in the conscious community. Even those of us who were considering our purchasing decisions before were rocked by the bloodshed. And we became determined to hold ourselves accountable for our complicity in a system that allows negligence at the cost of human lives.
In related news…
Since the fire engulfed at the ground floor of the building and there’s no second exit, people inside the building have stuck. The fire is travelling upward from the ground floor posing more threat to stranded people inside the building.
But it wasn’t until the onset of fast fashion in the 1990s that things took a turn for the worse. Unsurprisingly, the sharp decline in clothing prices has had a dramatic effect on shopping habits. Americans now buy five times as much clothing as they did in 1980, and this trend has had far reaching side effects. In the 1990s, donations to Goodwill increased by 10 percent every single year.
I may be a fool to let my heart get crushed by corporate green marketing, but it’s not just the audacity I object to: it’s the timing. H&M’s Recycle Week clashes exactly with the grassroots Fashion Revolution campaign.
To be an activist now merely means to advocate for change, and the hows and whys of that advocacy are unclear. The lack of a precise antonym is telling. Who, exactly, are the non-activists? Are they passivists? Spectators? Or just regular people? In its very ambiguity the word upholds a dichotomy that is toxic to democracy, which depends on the participation of an active citizenry, not the zealotry of a small segment of the population, to truly function.
Fashion Revolution’s response to H&M’s recycling campaign that curiously coincides with Fashion Revolution Week.


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Pictured: Samsung Galaxy Watch Active
During an interview with Input
that was published last week, OnePlus co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Pete Lau revealed that the company is working on a smartwatch
. He has now tweeted that the wearable, which may or may not be called the OnePlus Watch, will be released early next year.
The Chinese company first started working on a smartwatch back in 2015, the year when the first Apple Watch was released. The idea was put on the back burner when the company found itself overwhelmed with the thermal issues surrounding the OnePlus 2 and the release of the affordable OnePlus X.
In 2019, we saw rumors about the company's intention to launch the OnePlus Watch alongside the OnePlus 8 in 2020.
That of course didn't pan out, and it now appears that the watch will arrive in Q1 2021, probably in March, alongside the OnePlus 9
Here is what the OnePlus Watch could bring to the table
It's almost certain that OnePlus' smartwatch will have a round form factor
. It's also highly likely that the watch will run Wear OS, given that Lau has confirmed that the company is working with Google to improve interoperability between the Wear OS ecosystem and Android devices. OnePlus' sister company Oppo's first flagship smartwatch, which was released not too long ago, also features Wear OS.
The design OnePlus was considering years ago for its smartwatch
A recent believable leak
had implied that the wearable won't run Google's operating system. After all, Google's platform has failed to keep up with Apple's watchOS, which explains why the likes of Samsung and Garmin have developed their own software.
Although OnePlus doesn't seem to have given up on Wear OS, it does believe that the standard version of the OS is not good enough for the company and says that it "definitely has room to improve."
We don’t know much else about the watch at the moment, except that it will probably be powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Wear 4100 or 4100 Plus chipset.


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Samsung has just launched its stunning new Galaxy S8, and while the phone looks to be one of, if not the best Android handset available, there could be trouble on the horizon.
According to a new report, the South Korean firm is facing manufacturing issues in relation to front-facing camera modules for its new handset.
The report from The Bell (via) claims one of the company’s suppliers, Patron, is struggling to boost the yield rate on the modules.
Related: Galaxy S8 vs Galaxy S8+
The phone is set to launch with Samsung’s own Exynos 8895 chip in the UK on April 28, while the US will be getting a Snapdragon 835 version of the handset on April 21.
Whether these reported manufacturing woes will affect those dates remains unclear, but the “unnamed industry sources” claim the production yield rate remains at less than 70%.
That means 30 out of 100 of the modules are faulty, with the company requiring an 80% yield rate in order to guarantee a stable supply.
The Galaxy S8+ is said to have an easier to produce camera module
The trouble seems to have stemmed from Samsung combining the iris scanner and front camera onto one module, which apparently makes the module harder to produce.
A source is quoted as saying: “Considering Patron’s struggles, the unified camera module seems to be extremely hard to produce.”
Patron is Samsung’s largest camera module supplier, which seems to demonstrate just how difficult this new manufacturing process is.
According to the report, the larger S8+ houses two separate modules for the camera and iris scanner, which are both produced by Power Logics.
The source added: “Power Logics has allegedly increased the yield rate to more than 90 percent from March.”
We’re unable to verify the information as accurate at this point, but stay tuned for more as the official release of the Galaxy S8 approaches.
Have you pre-ordered a Galaxy S8? Let us know in the comments.


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At the peak of winter in Lithuania, it sees just 7 to 8 daylight hours, and temperatures below minus 3 degrees Celsius, which makes it impossible to grow year-round produce, outdoors and in the soil. As a result, the country imports a lot of food, especially during winter.
However, relying on a food system that is breaking down because of climate change, pandemics and the geopolitical situation is getting tougher by the day.
Enter Vilnius-based Leafood. The startup is developing a network of indoor vertical farms to localise leafy green supply chains for urban dwellers across the Baltic region, who have long depended on imports from southern Europe and northern Africa.
The Lithuanian startup has brought in €6.45 million in funding to build and operate a network of indoor vertical farms in Lithuania and the greater Baltic region, including Poland in partnership with YesHealth Group. The seed round was led by Niels Peter Pretzmann, founder of organic farm Farmer’s Circle and hospitality hub Baltic Food Republic, alongside YesHealth Group.
According to the startup, the construction of the first Leafood vertical farm is underway in Vilnius and slated for completion by the first quarter of 2023. The initial footprint of the indoor vertical farm is 4000m², within a 7150m² space, yielding over one-thousand kilograms of leafy vegetables per day, and it will be entirely powered by renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
Valentinas Civinskas, founder and CEO of Leafood said: “We need to innovate and find new ways to farm healthy, sustainable food, year-round, locally and indoors. By developing a network of high-tech, indoor vertical farms, we are trying to solve this problem of food security for the Baltic region.”
The company claims the plants at these gardens will be fed on bio-fertilisers derived from natural ingredients such as soybeans and oyster shells. This will dramatically prolong the shelf life of salads and herbs, which will contribute to solving the local as well as the worldwide issue of food waste.
The company is also seeking to raise another €2 million from investors who share their mission of farming healthy, pesticide-free produce, through controlled-environment agriculture, for the Baltic marketplace.
Niels Peter Pretzmann, serial food entrepreneur and main seed investor of Leafood said: “Rarely do you come across a project that ticks nine out of the seventeen goals listed in the United Nations Sustainable development agenda 2030. Not only will Leafood allow us to shorten the supply chain - a key effort on the road to more sustainable, healthier diets, but it will also help us find solutions to acute problems in conventional farming. Solar panels set the path for cleaner, more affordable energy.”


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While consoles are not going to disappear, cloud gaming is also developing little by little. And today, Stadia, the service of Google, is one of the main platforms. This allows you to play AAA titles on Android smartphones, on the Chrome browser, or on the Chromecast Ultra dongle.
However, like other cloud gaming services, Stadia is not yet available on iOS. This is due to the restrictions Apple places on its ecosystem.
Officially, Apple allows cloud gaming services on the App Store. But the many restrictions imposed mean that it will probably not interest any company. Among these is the fact that each game offered must be seen as a full-fledged app that the user must install from the App Store and must be approved.
And finally, the applications of cloud gaming services would only be catalogs that link to the pages of video games on the App Store. In addition, these games must be subject to the same rules as other iOS applications, including the obligation to use Apple’s payments system.
When Apple announced its regulations concerning cloud gaming, it also recalled that it “There are still Internet and web browser applications open to reach all users outside of the App Store. “ And obviously, this is the option that is considered by cloud gaming players, to avoid the restrictions of the App Store.
Stadia, soon on Safari
This week, we learned via the TechCrunch site that Google is developing a version of Stadia that will be accessible on the Safari browser, thanks to Progressive Web App technologies. Testing is expected to start in the coming weeks.
“This will be the first phase of our progressive iOS web app. As we test performance and add new features, your feedback will help us improve the Stadia experience for everyone. You can expect this feature to start rolling out in several weeks ”, said the Mountain View firm.
Moreover, it should be noted that an independent developer has already shown that it is possible to use the web to play Stadia games on an iPhone. But unfortunately, the app that enabled this was eventually withdrawn by Apple.
Microsoft and Nvidia will take the same path
Google is not the only company to want to offer cloud gaming on iOS, while bypassing the rules of the App Store. This week, Nvidia announced the development of a web version of its cloud gaming service, GeForce Now, which will be available on Safari.
“GeForce NOW is released on iOS Safari, in beta, starting today. This means that over 5 million GeForce NOW members can now access the latest experience by launching Safari from iPhone or iPad and visiting play.geforcenow.com ”, we read in a company press release.
As for Microsoft, it was the media that revealed its plans in October. During a meeting with employees, the Redmond firm reportedly indicated that it wants to offer xCloud on iPhones and iPads through the browser, from 2021.


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Internet giant Google is pulling the plug on five products, including iGoogle, Google Video and Google Chatback, in a bid to streamline its business.
Google would also close Google mini and Symbian Search Applications.
The company would effect a phased closure of the products and, by the end of 2013, Google would shut down these services completely.
"...last fall we started a spring clean, and since then we've closed or combined more than 30 products. Today we're announcing a few more closures," Google Global Enterprise Search general manager Matt Eichner said on the company's blog post.
The five products are slated for closure on account of them being outdated and the availability of new enhanced products and services.
"Closing products always involves tough choices, but we do think very hard about each decision and its implications for our users. Streamlining our services enables us to focus on creating beautiful technology that will improve people's lives," Eichner said.


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Cryptocurrencies burst onto center stage in 2017, delivering what might very well be historic gains. For the year, the aggregate value of all digital currencies soared from a starting value of $17.7 billion to an ending value of roughly $613 billion. That works out to an increase of more than 3,300%! By comparison, the stock market has historically gained 7% a year, inclusive of dividend reinvestment and when adjusted for inflation. It would take traditional equities decades to deliver similar returns.
But that’s not to say that the cryptocurrency ride hasn’t been without its bumps in the road. Earlier this year, virtual currency investors got their first taste of a major correction in years. After briefly hitting an all-time market cap high of $835 billion on Jan. 7, 2018, the combined market value of cryptocurrencies slid by 70% over the next three months. Even though they’ve nearly doubled off their recent lows, virtual currencies’ combined market cap is down by 23% year to date (through May 5, 2018).
These aren’t your run-of-the-mill cyberthefts
Another issue that’s reared its head from time to time is network security. Nearly all cryptocurrencies process transactions over proprietary blockchain technology. Blockchain is the digital, distributed, and decentralized ledger underpinning digital currencies that records transactions without the need for a financial intermediary (such as a bank). The fact that transaction data is protected by encryption, and that data is stored on computers all over the globe (decentralized) as opposed to one central location in order to prevent any entity, including criminals, from gaining control of a network, is believed to make blockchain safer than traditional banking networks.
However, that’s not always the case. Every few months it seems as if a virtual currency hack makes the news, exposing blockchain technology as less than perfect when it comes to security.
Below you’ll find a list of the largest cryptocurrency hacks in history, in ascending order, based on the value of the hack at the time it occurred.
NiceHash hack: $63 million
This past December, mining service NiceHash, which allows mining equipment owners to rent out their hash power to buyers looking to mine cryptocurrencies for a short period of time, announced that cybercriminals were able to siphon away more than 4,000 bitcoin tokens. Those bitcoin tokens were then sent to an unknown address that neither the proper owners nor NiceHash could access. At the time of the crypto heist, these tokens were valued at roughly $63 million.
Following the hack, CEO Marko Kabal resigned, and the company relaunched its platform on Dec. 22, 2017. NiceHash also recommended users change their passwords. But with this being a service-oriented mining site, it could be difficult for the company to regain the trust of its members.
The Bitfinex hack: $72 million
In terms of bitcoin platform hacks, cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex ranks as the second largest of all time. As announced by Bitfinex in August 2016, nearly 120,000 bitcoin were drained from users’ accounts. Though this loss was worth $72 million at the time of the heist, these roughly 120,000 bitcoin would be worth close to $1.2 billion today!
Interestingly enough, the bitcoin drain wound up impacting multisignature accounts, which are often viewed as a step up in safety. With a “multisig” account, there are multiple signees that help manage funds and mitigate risk. In order for a transfer of funds to occur, you’d need access to these multiple keys, which essentially act as passwords that allow a transaction to take place. Bitfinex held two of these keys, while partner BitGo, which helped create this multisig system, held the third key. Somehow, hackers were able to gain access to these keys and withdraw users’ bitcoin to an unknown address.
Following the hack, neither Bitfinex nor BitGo stepped forward and took responsibility for what happened, and no true mea culpa has been issued to this day.
The Mt. Gox. debacle: $487 million
Arguably the highest-profile hack of all time was that of cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox. The breach was discovered in 2014. What’s really notable about the Mt. Gox hack was that it wasn’t a single event that occurred over a matter of hours or a few days. According to documents released in early 2014, hackers had been skimming bitcoin from the company for years. In total, they got away with an estimated 850,000 bitcoin, worth $460 million at the time, and about $27.4 million in cash held by the cryptocurrency exchange. Today, those bitcoin would be worth more than $8.3 billion.
The biggest issue appears to have been Mt. Gox’s lack of coding security, at least according to Wired. Mt. Gox lacked any type of version control software, which meant that a coder could accidentally overwrite a colleague’s code if they were coincidentally working on the same file.
Additionally, instances were found where untested software was put in front of customers, which is not something you’d expect to see from an exchange that was controlling 70% of bitcoin trading volume at the time.
Finally, only CEO Mark Karpeles could approve changes to the source code, even if there were major security flaws found. All of these factors set Mt. Gox up for failure, and in this instance, unlike Bitfinex, it did go bankrupt.
The Coincheck hack: $534 million
But the dubious honor of the largest cryptocurrency hack in history goes to Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck, which lost $534 million to cybercriminals.
As reported on Jan. 26, 2018, Coincheck stated that 523 million NEM coins (known as XEM) had been stolen from a hot wallet — i.e., a wallet that was connected to the internet — allowing hackers to drain the NEM coins into a separate account. Coincheck would state that it didn’t believe keeping these coins in a hot wallet represented a weak security practice, but given the beefed-up security that multisig wallets provide, it baffled exchange users. Since XEM has devalued quite a bit since the hack, the value of these 523 million tokens is only $221 million now.
For what it’s worth, in March, Coincheck did announce its intent to begin compensating those affected by the NEM heist. Users who had their NEM stolen will receive $0.83 per NEM token, meaning a complete refund will cost the company about $420 million. Needless to say, Coincheck has a long and arduous road ahead of it.


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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The family-friendly sedan that rolled off assembly lines in the mid-1980s is now being rolled off the cliff.
On Wednesday, the Ford Motor Company announced plans to phase out long-standing car models including the Fiesta, Fusion and Taurus. The current Focus will transform into a compact crossover vehicle, the Ford Active starting in 2019.
The number two U.S. automaker plans to cut $25.5 billion in costs by 2022.
As part of the announcement, the company said it plans to focus sales efforts on SUVs and trucks.
Ford’s changes will not affect Claycomo’s Kansas City assembly plant. Employees there make the Ford F-150 and the Transit.
Dwayne Giles has been a car salesman for more than a decade. He's surprised by Ford's decision but does see more customers who want SUVs and crossover vehicles.
"Car buyers have more than one purpose in mind when they get a vehicle. With a crossover they can do multiple things," said Giles.
By 2020, the Mustang will be Ford's only car.


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The Isle of Raasay Distillery set up an online ballot for the opportunity to purchase its newly released flagship single malt whisky, attracting 17,478 people by the time the ballot closed yesterday (19 May).
In total, 2,500 people will be given the chance to buy a 70cl bottle of the lightly peated signature Isle of Raasay single malt ahead of its official launch on 4 June, with the ballot results set to be announced today or tomorrow (20-21 May).
Another 500 people will be sent a ticket to a virtual launch event featuring whisky writer Dave Broom, who made the whisky, plus a 70cl bottle of Isle of Raasay Single Malt and a ‘deconstructed dram’ tasting pack of samples from the six cask types that make up the final vatting of the whisky.
The single malt combines peated and unpeated spirit, each matured in first-fill rye whiskey, Chinkapin oak and first-fill Bordeaux red wine casks – all distilled, matured and bottled on Raasay, a small island with a population of 161 lying between the Isle of Skye and Scotland’s West Highland coast.
‘We’ve been taken aback by the hugely positive response from whisky fans right across the world, with 10,000 entering the ballot in the first 24 hours alone,’ said Alasdair Day, Isle of Raasay Distillery co-founder.
‘This launch puts the Isle of Raasay firmly on the whisky map and is a testament to the innovation and hard work of our distillery team.’
Isle of Raasay’s single malt uses water from the island’s Tobar na Ba Bàine – the Well of the Pale Cow – and is bottled with natural colour and non-chill filtered at 46.4% abv.
Later this year, the distillery, which opened in 2017, will release single cask whiskies from each of the single malt’s six ‘recipe’ casks under the banner of the ‘Na Sia Cask Series’ (Na Sia is Gaelic for ‘The Six’).


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Volvo Group Southern Africa is on the expansion train with new facilities currently being developed in Pinetown, Port Elizabeth, Kenya and Zambia. The automaker also plans to expand its market share across Africa in 2017.
In the second half of 2016, the automaker launched new sites in Alrode and Angola, which specialise in truck servicing.
Locally, the Volvo Group’s products comprise of the Trucks, Bus, Penta and UD Trucks brands.
Throughout Africa, Volvo has representative offices in Zambia, Ethiopia, East Africa and Angola. In addition to building new facilities, the automaker is now looking to improve some safety vehicle features and soon introduce new financial solutions.
Introducing new safety features
Volvo will be introducing new safety features on its local Volvo Trucks Extra Heavy Commercial Vehicle range.
President of Volvo Group Southern Africa Torbjörn Christensson said the new innovations include electronic stability control, adaptive cruise control with forward collision warning and emergency braking, lane keeping and lane support, as well as driver alert support.
These features are also aimed at enhancing the overall driving experience by minimising fatigue and increasing productivity, Christensson said.
The new safety features will be assembled at Volvo’s Durban plant which recently underwent a R6.5 million renovation.
New financial solutions
Christensson said that the company has also made a concerted effort to ensure customer needs are understood and met throughout the entire organisation.
He added that the company is constantly exploring ways to develop and improve the way they support their customers.
“There are high market demands on new financial solutions and we are therefore developing financial solutions as part of our total offering,” Christensson said.
“We should be able to make some announcements in this regard during the second quarter of 2017,” he added.
Volvo grew its net sales by 1.2% despite challenging market conditions in Africa during 2016. Volvo Trucks claimed a 15.6% market share of the local commercial vehicle market last year with a total of 1,957 units sold.
Volvo Penta also continued its strong run in the local market in marine diesel and off-road engine sales. During 2016, Volvo Penta recorded a 20% increase in orders and a 55% market share of the power generation segment.
Globally, Volvo Bus increased sales by 10% during 2016, including 3,000 hybrid-technology buses.
The company also invested R25 million during 2016 in its Diesel Technician Apprenticeship Programme, several learnerships and bursaries which benefitted a total of 2,308 people.


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Missing: Baylee Smith Last Seen Withdrawing Money From An Oklahoma ATM in September 2018
Baylee seemed to be under no duress when last seen in surveillance footage with an unidentified person.
Baylee Smith was last seen in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma on September 14, 2018. According to reports, Baylee was seen on surveillance not long after she vanished withdrawing money from her bank account at an ATM. Reportedly, when she entered the local convenience store to make the withdrawal she appeared not to be under any duress and was seen leaving the store with an unidentified person. The teen's phone has been turned off since she vanished.
TRAITS & CHARACTERISTICS
HEIGHT: 5 feet 1 inches
WEIGHT: 130 pounds
DOB: February 24, 2002
Known to wear glasses
Read more: News On 6


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Marks & Spencer has bought a stake in one of its international franchisees as part of plans to open 50 new stores in the Balkan states and Switzerland over the next few years.
The retailer has bought 50% of existing joint venture partner Marks & Spencer Marinopoulos BV, which operates stores for the retailer in Greece and other markets, for £38m to lead the expansion.
The deal fits in with Marks & Spencer’s plans to invest in its existing franchise partners to grow its international business to represent up to 20% of the group’s revenues within the next five years.
Marinopoulos, which has been a partner of Marks & Spencer in markets like Greece, Romania and Switzerland for 30 years, also has rights to operate in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro, where currently there are no Marks & Spencer stores.
Carl Leaver, director of international business at Marks & Spencer, said: ‘We have an exciting opportunity to open many more Marks & Spencer stores in Greece and the Balkans and our joint venture with Marinopoulos will mean we can really put M&S on the map in this part of the world.’


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Brian H. Dovey has resigned as president of Survival Technology, the Bethesda developer and manufacturer of emergency medical-care products, effective Feb. 15.
Dovey, who will remain on the company's board of directors, will become president of the surgical products division of the Pennsylvania health-care company Rorer Group.
Dovey said he was "not looking at all" when he received a phone call from a management recruiter for the Rorer position. He said the move "represents a real improvement in my career" because he will now head five companies, "each one about the same size or larger than Survival Technology."
Rorer Group's special products division consists of five operating subsidiaries with total sales of approximately $120 million last year. Survival Technology's sales for last year were approximately $20 million.
Dr. Stanley J. Sarnoff, chairman of Survival Technology's board of directors, will become president of the company. Cabot R. Caskie, vice president and chief financial officer, has been promoted to executive vice president.
Caskie has been with Survival Technology for seven years and was formerly head of the company's outpatient cardiac-care operations. Prior to joining the company, he was vice president of Systems Technology Associates Inc.
In addition, Robert Katzen has been promoted to vice president and controller. Douglas J. Greenwold has joined the company as vice president of the outpatient cardiac-care operations.


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Update: As it turns out, the announcement was a hoax. Read more here.
A new entry in the Bloody Roar fighting game series is in development. Developer Hudson Soft teased the new project on Twitter today.
They wrote: “New Bloody Roar sequel, is in production! we’ll post more soon!”
The latest title in the franchise, Bloody Roar 4, released on PlayStation 2 in 2003.


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Canada’s forest products industry is promoting wood as a building material while urging governments to allow taller wood buildings.
FPAC and partner organization FPInnovations have also undertaken a study called Construction Value Pathways to help forest companies compete, looking to additional ways they can reach new markets and even branch into new products.
“Our study identifies different ways that Canada’s mills can work directly with builders and architects to devise new innovative products and approaches that are environmentally attractive.” said FPAC president and CEO David Lindsay. “This will help the Canadian forest products industry reach our Vision2020 goal of generating another $20 billion in economic activity through new products and markets by the end of the decade.”
FPAC is also urging governments on both the federal and provincial levels to change building codes to allow larger wood buildings. The organization wishes to see wood building of up to six storeys in height permitted by 2015 and wood buildings of up to 30 storeys allowed across the country by 2020.
“Urbanization and intensification are driving a higher demand for multi-residential units globally,” said Windmill Development Group founder and Construction Value Pathways external lead Jonathan Westeinde. “There is an increasing trend to retrofit and renovate existing homes and buildings in mature Western markets where growth is slowing. The skilled labour shortage and desire for green building solutions are also changing the landscape. This study suggests that we can set our sights on working closely with the construction industry and be a world leader in a wide range of building systems.”
Advances in wood quality, technology and construction practices help ensure that wood is a strong and durable building material. FPAC notes that engineered wood products, pre-fabricated pieces, fibre-based insulation and other wood-based products can even perform better than many traditional construction materials while also serving as a greener alternative.
“Supported by science-based innovation, changes to codes and standards and the development of new materials and fully integrated systems will position the industry to become a world leader in the fields of multi-family residential and tall wooden buildings,” said FPInnovations president and CEO Pierre Lapointe.
With the construction market estimated at $8 trillion and boasting annual growth of eight per cent according to FPAC, even a slight increase in the use of forest products would be a boon to the forest products industry. Currently, that industry is valued at $57 billion per year, represents two per cent of the country’s gross domestic product and is responsible for 230,000 jobs across Canada.
Published on 17 February 2013


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Before the Mars Retail Group transformed its Ethel M Chocolates store at Fashion Show into Ethel's Chocolate Lounge in September, company executives did no advance consumer research to study whether tourists and locals would embrace the new concept. They merely wanted to see, on a small scale and in real-market time, how the lounge would fare in Las Vegas.
Mars executives liked the results of the changeover: Sales inside the 1,200-square-foot store grew by double digits.
Now, based on the improved sales, Mars' test run is leading to an entirely new business model for Ethel M Chocolates, a beloved, locally based brand that's been a Southern Nevada mainstay since the company's Henderson headquarters and factory opened in 1980.
In the next two months, Mars Retail Group will change all nine of the company's Ethel M Chocolates stores across the Las Vegas Valley into Ethel's Chocolate Lounges.
The transition is under way inside stores at the Henderson plant and at The District at Green Valley Ranch. Conversions are planned for the remaining stores inside the California and Flamingo hotels, the Meadows Mall and McCarran International Airport.
Future stores, both locally and nationally, will carry the Ethel's Chocolate Lounge logo.
"We are calling this a chocolate evolution," said John Haugh, president of Ethel M owner Mars Retail Group, a Henderson-based division of global food giant Masterfoods USA. "We're building on the best part of our past as a regional leader in chocolate. By transitioning Ethel M to Ethel's, we're at the forefront of innovation."
Fans of Ethel M needn't lament the brand's disappearance from storefronts.
The nameplate will live on in the Ethel M Classic Collection. Consumers will be able to buy seven of the company's best-selling product lines, including assortments with Almond Butter Krisps, Lemon Satin Cremes and Milk Chocolate Raspberry Satin Cremes. Ethel M's Buttery Pecan Brittle and Chocolate-Stribboned Pecan Brittle will also be available, as will the Las Vegas Slot Box featuring foil-wrapped chocolate coins and the Taste of Las Vegas collection with its box cover featuring the Strip skyline. The collection's prices will range from $8 to $33.
The local changeover to Ethel's Chocolate Lounges follows a 10-store rollout in Chicago in 2005 and 2006.
Unlike the Las Vegas debut, the Chicago launch involved extensive consumer research. The company's studies "said there was a space for us to go after a more contemporary lounge environment and more everyday premium chocolates," Haugh said.
With Ethel's Chocolate Lounges, Mars officials want consumers to enjoy chocolate beyond key holidays such as Valentine's Day, Easter and Christmas. In addition to splurging on big candy purchases for special occasions, consumers could also frequent their neighborhood chocolate lounge for regular, smaller indulgences in gourmet confections.
Inside Ethel's Chocolate Lounges, patrons can buy 10 chocolates and hot cocoa for two for $18. Chocolate fondue for two, with dipping items such as strawberries, bananas, marshmallows or pound cake, costs $18 to $25.
The chocolate flavors in the Ethel's line also depart from the standard butter-cream fare of more conventional lines. Truffles come in espresso, honey and pi a colada varieties, while the Cocktail Collection serves up chocolates with hints of spiced rum, brandy, champagne and mixed drinks such as mojitos and margaritas.
The American Pop Collection offers Peanut Butter and Jelly, Cinna-Swirl and Apple Pie varieties.
The confections feature custom touches such as hand-squeezed juices for the Fruit Collection and individually painted or transferred art on candies in the Cocktail Collection.
Candies sold through Ethel's have commanded about a third more in price than Ethel M chocolates. A 1-pound, 1-ounce box of Ethel M Creamy Milk Chocolates, for example, contains 40 pieces and sells for $29. A 24-piece box of Ethel's chocolates retails for $24.
Food-industry experts say Mars Retail Group's brand makeover is a wise one given the trend toward trading up -- the notion that middle-class consumers are seeking small-scale luxuries they can relish every day.
Steve Lalich, president of the Illinois-based food-marketing firm Lalich Resources, said the proliferation of "higher-quality food" in recent decades means more consumers can distinguish between upscale and mid-market products. That ability to taste a difference makes many consumers more keen on investing in gourmet delicacies, Lalich said.
People have also shown a greater willingness to spend on occasional goodies.
"When it comes to a small treat or piece of candy -- something where you're not buying a month's worth of food to feed a family -- you're usually consuming in smaller quantities, so you can kind of justify the higher expense," Lalich said.
Ryan Montague, president of Gourmet Business Solutions in New Orleans, said other major chocolate makers are going high-end, such as Hershey's with its new Cacao Reserve line.
"A lot of companies are entering the upscale market," Montague said. "Larger companies have seen the enormous growth in the gourmet-food segment, so they're trying to get a piece of that growth."
Mars plans to expand Ethel's locally and nationally. By the end of 2007, "a couple more" Ethel's Chocolate Lounges should have opened in Las Vegas, Haugh said. The company is eyeing new locations near Boca Park at Rampart and Charleston boulevards and Town Square, which is under construction at Sunset Road and Las Vegas Boulevard.
Executives are preparing for nationwide expansion in 2008. Mars officials haven't solidified entry into specific cities yet, though Haugh said the emphasis would be on markets with diverse demographics and high concentrations of gourmands.
"We're talking about the usual suspects -- L.A., Dallas, Atlanta," Haugh said. "We're looking for premium 'foodie' markets."
The company will also make capital investments in its Henderson factory as the plant switches more of its output to Ethel's products, though Haugh didn't disclose the price of the improvements.
Haugh said the company doesn't plan to let workers go or hire new staffers to accommodate the brand swap. Mars Retail Group employs about 450 workers in the Las Vegas area.
Food marketers said expansion could bring even sweeter success to Mars Retail Group.
"If you look at Starbucks, going for a cup of coffee there is kind of the 'in' thing to do," Montague said. "It's become a status symbol. The chocolate lounge could follow in similar footsteps. It may not be as large an industry as coffee, because so many consumers are drinking coffee. But a chocolate lounge could be the next hit date thing. Instead of grabbing a cup of coffee, people might go to the new chocolate lounge and have a couple of gourmet chocolates. It's possibly one of the great, new, emerging trends."
Agreed Lalich: "I don't see a slowdown in gourmet trends in the near future. I just see the gourmet market as continually moving up. I think there's a market for (Ethel's)."


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Regional government workers in France are taking part in a pilot test of NFC car key technology. Twelve Renault Twingo cars shared by staff in Toulouse have been equipped to allow the vehicles to be booked and located via a mobile phone. The car doors and ignition are also operated via NFC.
- NFC Forum adds certification for NFC wireless charging
- NP Plastibell adds ultra-miniaturised ST NFC tags to pre-filled syringes
- German luggage brand leverages NFC for product authentication and customer engagement
- Clinique adds NFC to packaging for post-purchase customer engagement
- PayPay lets new customers verify identity with their driving licence via NFC
This article is more than 10 years old


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Promo Marketing: “Ah, the fall. It’s hard to believe that we’re a few weeks away from pumpkin spice lattes, cozy sweaters and the Instagram influx of apple-picking photos. For those in the apparel world, that also means it’s time to dive deep into the fall apparel trends making an impact. Thankfully, we have Supreme to do the work for us with its fall/winter lookbook.
The New York streetwear company has a major cult following and unveiled its Fall 2018 collection this week. Pieces will start to be released later this week, and will inevitably sell out in seconds. Because the company tends to be on the brink of all the next big trends, we’re pretty confident in saying these looks will be in demand.
Here’s the trends to pay attention to:
1. Varsity Jackets
No longer is the letterman jacket reserved for high school football players. Instead, a clean logoed varsity jacket is the latest must-have fall outerwear.
2. Logo Fleece Jackets
Great news for promotional apparel suppliers and distributors: The logo jacket is a key trend this fall.
3. Graphic Tees
Supreme is teaming up with Madonna for its fall collection, and these graphic tees prove the trend isn’t going anywhere.
4. Flannel Shirts
You heard it here first: Supreme says flannel isn’t going anywhere. (Hmm, where have we heard that before?)


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The outbound China air freight market, which serves as a bellwether for the global economy, is showing some signs of recovery.
March saw air cargo exports out of China surge by 29% month-on-month, with further gains in April, although at a slower pace of 2%. This suggests China’s export activity has picked up after the seasonal slowdown and the end of its high-profile zero-COVID policy.
However, there remains room for improvement. Despite the increase in month-on-month volumes, Chinese air cargo volumes in Q1 were still down 7% from Q1 2022.
In terms of capacity, the picture is complex. Outbound China air cargo capacity in March increased by 25% over the previous month, largely due to the post Lunar New Year recovery. However, in the first two weeks of April air freight capacity out of China dropped by 4% compared to the same period a month ago.
This shows that the airlines’ summer schedules, starting from 26 March, have yet to deliver any meaningful increase in passenger belly capacity, as shown on the transatlantic trade, with outbound international travel demand remaining subdued compared to domestic demand.
Due to the very low level of capacity out of China at this time last year, the year-on-year growth rates can appear impressive, despite the relatively low levels. In March, outbound air cargo capacity was up 28% year-on-year, while in the first two weeks of April it was up 133%. But April 2022’s capacity was particularly low as it coincided with the start of a two-month lockdown in Shanghai. Therefore, the high growth rate reflects a low base effect, rather than a strong increase in supply.
In terms of capacity utilization, outbound air cargo load factors dropped from 93% in March to 89% in the first half of April. However, these levels are still high - sitting 6 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels - indicating there is still a tight balance between supply and demand in the market.
Bucking the trends
One of the most interesting trends in the outbound China market is April’s rise in air freight rates, running against the tide of the general air cargo market and occurring despite the drop in the filling factor. Outbound China air freight spot rates increased by 8% from the first two weeks of March to the same two weeks of April.
More specifically, the spot rates, including both general and special cargo, rose by 2% to USD 3.74 per kg for the China to Europe corridor, and by 5% to USD 5.26 per kg for the China - US route. In contrast, the average global air freight rate declined by 2% between the first two weeks of March and the same period in April.
The increase in outbound air freight rates from China was not driven by cost factors, as jet fuel price continued its downward trend (disconnected from the trend of crude oil) and disinflation continues. Instead, it was driven by demand factors, mainly by the rise of general cargo demand. General cargo spot rates increased by 13% from the first half of March to the same period of April for the China to Europe market, and by 5% for China to the US.
On the other hand, special cargo spot rates continued their downward trends for the outbound China market. Special cargo spot rate decreased by 4% from early March to early April from China to Europe, while the trend for China to the US market stayed the same.
Want to Learn More?
Watch the latest episode of our monthly State of the Market Webinar for air freight rates to see where you stand in the volatile markets. If you have any questions, please send them to firstname.lastname@example.org.
PS: Missed the LIVE session? Sign up to get the full webinar recording.


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WhatsApp Adds A Shopping Button As It Enters E-Commerce
WhatsApp has entered online commerce with a shopping button.
The messaging platform introduced the feature that will allow users to shop, and soon, pay for goods and services via WhatsApp chats, Facebook Inc.-owned company said in a statement. WhatsApp’s business account holders can provide catalogues from the chat screen to customers, letting them to purchase directly.
The buy button going live globally will come to India later.
“We will expand ways for people to check out available products and make purchases right from a chat," WhatsApp said in a blogpost, adding that it will make it possible to add items to a cart, and check out within the platform. "We also want to make it easier for businesses to integrate these features into their existing commerce and customer solutions.”
WhatsApp has more than 2 billion users worldwide. Every day, over 175 million people message to WhatsApp business accounts that allow businesses to display goods and services catalogues. India, with more than 400 million WhatsApp users, offers a captive base that could be an asset for an online foray.
WhatsApp already awaits permission from the Reserve Bank of India to launch its payments service in the country. At present, the feature is in the beta phase. Once both payments and shop features go live in India, it will vie with Amazon.com, Walmart-owned Flipkart, and Mukesh Ambani's JioMart in next big online battleground.
The social messaging platform is also working on a customer service to help businesses use WhatsApp more seamlessly to provide support to customers, and add additional features to help people buy, and business buy and sell. It will also offer hosting services through Facebook. WhatsApp, however, will charge customers for some of the services it plans to offer.
Parent Facebook is already dabbling with e-commerce with a pilot in the U.S. Its users will also be sell products via WhatsApp. Earlier this year, Facebook unveiled a similar shopping tab on Instagram.


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For the longest time, Google Chrome came with a very small list of pre-installed apps, Gmail, Search and YouTube. There were temporary promotions, for example Angry Birds, but those three were always there.
Now, Google is adding a fourth and you can probably guess which one it is, it's an app that's already being burrowed deeply into Chrome OS, Google Drive.
Already, fresh installs of the dev channel Google Chrome 23, come with Drive pre-installed along with Gmail, Search and YouTube. As Chrome 23 makes its way through the release channels, first in beta and then stable, the Drive app will come with it.
It may not seem like a huge change, but Chrome is used by hundreds of millions of people so getting it in front of all of them is sure to have an impact on usage.
That said, the app will be added only if you do a fresh install of Chrome, if you just update the browser it shouldn't be added to your list, unless Google makes the decision to push it to existing users, a much bigger deal than having it come pre-installed.
Google Drive has been getting a big push from Google recently and for good reason. While the name change may be a bit confusing for those that just use the office apps, the Docs suite, it does mean that Google's consumer cloud solution is going to get a big exposure, bigger than it would have had organically.
Dropbox has tens of millions of users and a lot of people use Drive, SkyDrive and the myriad of other solutions, yet there are hundreds of millions more people that can benefit from cloud storage and whatever apps and services will be bolted on top of that in the future. The fight is far from over.


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Who inspires you?
Who pushes this industry to be bigger and better each and every day?
Whose creativity spurs innovation in others?
WholeFoods asked, and our readers responded. This inaugural listing of WholeFoods
Magazine Who’s Who honorees is the result.
For the first time this year, WholeFoods Magazine is honoring outstanding individuals from natural products manufacturers and suppliers who are innovative and advance this industry in positive ways. Earlier this year, we asked for nominations of those deserving to be Who’s Who honorees and received an excellent pool of candidates. We also sought input from several trade associations about industry members who have done amazing things this year. A special thank you to all those who nominated individuals for the award, including the Organic Trade Association, the American Herbal Products Association, the United Natural Products Alliance and the Independent Natural Food Retailers Association.
The number of accomplished industry members could have certainly been in the triple digits, but we decided to honor just five standouts from our nomination pool. Among them are true industry visionaries, product development geniuses and major retailer supporters. But common threads among them all are their love for this industry and their commitment to make this world a better place.
We feel their stories are truly inspirational, and will launch us into our January 2015 Person of Year coverage. We have some ideas cooking, but if you’d like to nominate someone who has made an incredible impact on this industry over the past year, email your suggestion to:
And now, without further ado, let’s learn about the honorees.
Mastering Vertical Integration: Roland Gahler
A few decades ago, a four-year-old boy found a bean seed on the floor of his kitchen. He planted the seed, watered it and left it to grow. After a short time, the boy was amazed at the result: it had sprouted all on its own.
The boy developed a great appreciation for what the earth can do, and grew to become an innovator in the supplements market. “I was enamored from that time on that it was so simple to grow and get so much in return. That drove me in my life until this day,” states Roland Gahler, chairman and owner of Natural Factors Nutritional Products, headquartered in Coquitlam, BC, Canada, with U.S. headquarters in Monroe, WA.
Roland’s father, Swiss herbalist Jacob Gahler, founded the company in the 1950s and since 1972, Roland Gahler, has refined it, improving the business with modern technology and continuing to deliver high-quality, sustainable, well-researched products to shoppers.
|Roland Gahler Speaking at a gala in Canada where he introduced the Whole Earth & Sea line.|
Farm Fresh Supplements
For Natural Factors, the integrity of its products starts at the roots—literally. The new Natural Factors LEED Gold-certified facility near Seattle, WA, has earned the respect of many industry members. “It’s a very modern facility and we were able to get the farm right across the lake from our facility,” states Gahler, adding “The ecosystem is what’s respected about the farm.”
The farm where Natural Factors grows crops for its line is somewhat isolated, situated in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia and protected from sources of pollution and contaminants. It is not only certified organic, but ups the ante by not using any sprays (even those allowed under organic rules). “We hand weed and we control it through plowing and things like that,” says Gahler.
Lakes near the farm feed meandering creeks that run through the farmland in a valley, and beehives are kept to help pollinate the crops. “What’s lovely about it is that in the spring, millions of froglets come out from our ponds and creek and eat the pests,” he states. He also speaks of a lake with ducks and otters. “We keep it as a preserve. We don’t want anything to interfere with the life that lives on the land.”
This farm is kept and loved with the heart of the little boy who planted a seed in his garden decades ago, who never forgot that if you respect the earth and take care of it, the soil will provide 10 and even 100 times more than what you put in. “We give a little to the ecosystem, and we get back a lot. But, we’re not looking to get back everything we invest. The earth is perfect, and the seed is perfect…our goal is not to interfere with this amazing process,” says Gahler.
The land is also properly rotated and kept so as to preserve the soil’s fertility for years to come. “Our movement is to do the very best we can to support what the earth has been doing to save our lives,” Gahler states.
One may forget that these are not the practices of farmers selling produce on a farm stand or at retail; Gahler’s 1,000 acres are intended to create high-quality standardized extracts of herbs and other selectively hand-picked plants for the development of dietary supplements. This truly sets Natural Factors apart, as well as the man that insists the company continues to farm in this manner. “I don’t know of another supplements manufacturer that’s integrated the way we are, to the extent that we are,” says Gahler.
Natural Factors recently developed the Whole Earth & Sea raw, whole foods supplement brand, and many of the components are grown on the firm’s organic farms and minimally processed with fresh materials. “But to make sure we have enough supply, we also work with really fine organic farmers in the area,” Gahler explains. Not only does this secure the supply in case there’s a crop failure, but Gahler says he also likes to encourage organic farming in the area.
Beyond farming, Gahler is keen on ensuring every aspect of his line—harvesting, extracting, packaging and educating—is done with care and to his high standards. Natural Factors even owns its own laboratories, distribution centers, softgel/tableting equipment and more. Few companies can say they control their products from seed selection to shelf in this manner.
There are far easier ways of running a supplements company, but Gahler chose a different path. “I never wanted efficiency to replace love,” Gahler states.
|Natural Factors facility in Monroe, WA|
Gahler is also a large proponent of supporting and bolstering small retailers. He is planning to roll out an exciting new venture that will bolster natural products stores, beginning in Canada. “Many smaller vendors are afraid of their future, so I had to make a very bold move to start a bit of a revolution. And that process is going to begin in February with a presentation about the start of what we’re going to do to support natural food stores,” he explains.
Reeling in a Better World: Duncan Berry & Kipp Baratoff
Imagine going to the store to buy wild-caught salmon, and instead of a beautiful display of fresh fillets, there’s a sign saying, “Out of Stock Until Further Notice.”
The oceans are some of Earth’s most valuable resources, yet healthy habitats needed for a healthy seafood supply have been slowly deteriorating. In fact, the United Nations recently said humans might be forced to stop eating seafood by 2050 if they do not change their ways. “The healthy population of seafood that we all enjoy eating may not be there for future generations if we don’t enlist consumers today to be agents of change with us as a company,” says Duncan Berry, CEO and co-founder, of Fishpeople.
This was part of the impetus for Berry and Kipp Baratoff, CFO and co-founder, of Fishpeople, to found their company in 2012. Fishpeople makes comfort seafood meals, seafood entrée starters, soups and frozen seafood fillets. Berry, Baratoff and the Fishpeople team have done remarkable work to put “transparency” at the centerpiece of its business on many levels. The result is a unique company that is improving coastal communities, bettering the ocean and making shoppers increasingly aware of their role in improving the ocean’s environment.
Sea Changes in the Grocery Aisles
For Berry and Baratoff, a key to their strategy is abiding by this philosophy: “Business is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment.”
The firm starts by being highly selective about which species it offers, namely those that “can take the predatory pressure and relieve pressure on those that can’t,” Berry explains. The company presently focuses on just 11 species (like wild albacore tuna, wild Keta salmon and wild Pacific rockfish), even though more than 130 species could be taken from the firm’s preferred ports in Oregon, Washington and Alaska.
But, there’s a very human side to the Fishpeople story, too. Berry states, “What drives us every day as a B Corp are the communities that depend upon the sea.” U.S. coastal communities, he says, are largely located in poverty zones, but Berry and Baratoff feel it should not be that way. Part of Fishpeople’s strategy is to “enrich coastal communities by keeping the value of our seafood here by making value-added products,” Berry explains. Fish are harvested domestically and fisherman receive fair compensation for their efforts.
Fishpeople’s connection to these communities is deeply personal. States Baratoff, “We endeavor to know the name of every fisherman that catches the fish that we put in our products.”
To get different parts of the supply chain to work together and communicate with each other involves great “technical muscle and willpower,” says Baratoff. But, he feels their efforts are more than worth it to keep the value of seafood in local communities and “help the shopper connect with his/her food.”
This point hits on another important facet of Fishpeople: the company believes transparency is the future of food, as more and more shoppers value knowing exactly where their meals come from. Says Baratoff, “We’re trying to bridge the gap between our industry and our consumers in order to create safety and trust in a way that they haven’t had before.”
To acheive this transparency, Fishpeople has developed a “Track Your Pouch” feature that enables shoppers to enter a code found on product packaging and connect with the people behind every ingredient. This was no simple feat. Simply building relationships with the fleets that the company sources from and collecting the necessary information was a challenge. Sometimes, Berry and Baratoff asked for details that no one had requested before. “We promised them to not only take that information and do something good with it, but also to honor and provide integrity and respect for their efforts as hunter–gatherers,” states Baratoff.
As the company continues to scale up, the complexities of tying together this data with a batch code and also a website is not getting easier. But, that isn’t stopping Berry and Baratoff. Says Berry, “The world didn’t need another seafood company—unless it was a different seafood company.”
Adds Baratoff, “It’s been fun to kind of change the industry.”
On the Menu
The taste of the chef-inspired Fishpeople line is also unique in terms of flavor, and really speaks to foodie trends.
|Wild Crab bisque|
Baratoff loves the Seafood Chili Blanco Soup, Red Curry Coconut Bisque and Thai Coconut Lemongrass. Berry enjoys these varieties as well, and says of the latter, “We worked really hard to get the Thai flavor.” He also leans toward the firm’s new Wild Crab Mac ‘n Cheese as well as the Smoked Oyster And Bourbon Chowder.
But, at the end of the day, Berry and Baratoff don’t want Fishpeople to just be a food company. They want to bring consumers into the brand, not keep them on the outside looking in, and invite them to join Fishpeople in nourishing coastal communities and the ocean.
A Passion to Help Retailers and Bring Innovation to Market: Terry Lemerond
Many company presidents are great spokespeople, marketers and strategists. Our next Who’s Who honoree is well-loved by natural products retailers for not only bringing these skills to his supplements company, but also for his deeply embedded love of independent retailing and product formulation and development.
Terry Lemerond, founder of EuroPharma, Inc., Green Bay, WI, lives, breathes, sleeps and bleeds natural health “It’s a huge passion of mine to make products available that are innovative and unique—and will help natural products retailers have a different position in their stores than other competitors. I want to make a difference in people’s lives,” states Lemerond.
While he understands that certain pharmaceutical drugs can save lives, he does not believe one should over-rely on them when diet and lifestyle choices can be one’s first line of defense.
Lemerond was not always sold on natural products. As a boy, he says he had a poor diet and was a “sugaraholic.” He was affected by hypoglycemia and depression, and was overweight to boot. He credits several angels for putting him on a course to bettering himself by eating more healthily and exercising more often. One was a captain in the Marine Corps who took Lemerond—a private at the time—to a nutrition store to buy supplements. He recalls, “I never knew what a health food store was; I had never seen a health food store…the experience changed my life.”
Tying Retailers and Manufacturing Together
If Lemerond could turn his own life around, he felt he could help others, too. Lemerond bought a health food store in 1969 and realized some years later that he could have an even bigger impact on people’s lives at the supplements manufacturing level. He founded Enzymatic Therapy in 1982, and sold it in 2000.
“I was absolutely lost without being involved in the supplements industry,” he says, “I was like a fish out of water without having that passion in my life to make a difference.” Lemerond then went on to found EuroPharma, Inc.
The way Lemerond leads EuroPharma is noteworthy for two reasons: his connection to retailers and product innovation. On the former, Lemerond believes that retailers are in the trenches to bring good health to communities, and supplement makers can help supply the ammunition to reach consumers. “It’s not easy,” he states. “The retailer is the key for bridging the gap between the manufacturer and the consumer…We will do anything within our power to help the retailer.”
Lemerond is also very accessible to retailers, visiting natural products stores each and every month. “I’m on the road 60–70 percent of my time,” he states.
At the same time, EuroPharma has a diverse line of supplements, and many of them are quite unique. Lemerond’s colleague Cheryl Myers, chief of education and scientific affairs at EuroPharma called him “insatiably curious” and “a true innovator” for bringing numerous ingredients to the United States for the first time like standardized gingko, glucosamine and chondroitin. She also feels, “He was a driving force behind raising awareness about the health benefits of curcumin.”
But even with his focus on innovative ingredients, Myers adds that when Lemerond develops a product, “he’s more concerned with how it works in the body” and less about which “it” ingredient he can throw in to make a sale.
When asked if he had any favorites, Lemerond states, “They’re all my babies. I love them all!”
But he says BCM-95 Curcumin, is a “very special baby,” and he is proud of an omega-3 fatty acid that is one of very few not derived from oil (Vectomega). “It’s an omega-3 from the brain of salmon, so it’s very high in phospholipids and omega-3 fatty acids,” he states.
He also mentions a new release from his company: a powdered spray that helps provide quick allergy relief (FastBlock). “It’s a very unique mechanical barrier for the nasal passages,” Lemerond explains. “It forms a very fine gel in the nasal passages and blocks the uptake of airborne allergens…We’re the first to launch it in Canada and the United States.”
Lemerond feels his retail background gives him unique insight on products that will make a splash at retail. “We have a retail store—Terry Naturally. We know what the consumer is doing and what the consumer wants. Any day I’m in Green Bay, Wisconsin, I work in the health food store,” he states, adding that the business will open a second location in early 2016.
Whether it’s with his direct interaction with shoppers at retail, as a partner to retailers or as a product innovator, Lemerond intends to apply his passion about natural products to make a difference in this world.
Innovation in Plant-Based Foods: Andre Kroecher & Greg Blake
If you visit the dairy section of nearly any natural grocer today, you’ll likely find an array of dairy-free cheeses available. Ten years ago, the situation was very different. Many vegan cheeses just didn’t melt, shred or taste like a traditional dairy cheese.
Andre Kroecher and Greg Blake, vegans and co-founders of Daiya Foods, Inc., Vancouver, BC, Canada, are two innovators in plant-based foods. But what makes their story so remarkable is not only what they’ve done to push the envelope in the dairy-free cheese market. It’s also how they continue to think outside the box to bring unique options to vegans, those with allergies/intolerances and anyone else looking to avoid dairy products.
|Greg Blake & Andre Kroecher|
Early Days at Daiya
Kroecher had been playing around with some dairy-free cheese recipes on his own when Blake suggested the pair team up to create the first shredded, melting, non-dairy mozzarella on the market. Additionally, the team wanted to stay away from as many allergens as it could (like gluten, egg and soy).
“Back then, there were just blocks and the reputation was that they were soy cheeses and they didn’t melt or taste very good,” says Kroecher, whose background was in product development and intellectual property.
Meanwhile, Blake had been working in computer technology and had gotten accustomed to the start-up culture and the excitement that surrounds it. “When Andre showed me a havarti-style cheese that he had been working on, I was blown away. It was really, really good,” he states. Since cheddar and mozzarella represented over 80% of the market at that time, the pair decided to focus on those varieties—banging away in their kitchens for a year until the formulas were just right.
Once the recipe was finalized, the pair approached the restaurant and food service industries. “We never expected that we had something that would take the market by storm,” says Kroecher. “We didn’t know if it was something that people would even want.”
|Kroecher and Blake doing product testing|
Several influential people in the plant-based food movement like vegetarian chef Tal Ronnen took notice and the ball got rolling. The team launched Daiya—pronounced “day-ah,” a play on the words “dairy” and “Dayaa” (Sanskrit for loving, kindness and compassion)—at Natural Products Expo West 2008 with little more than shredded cheese in five-pound bags and no official retail product. Kroecher and Blake had simply wanted to attract the attention of other companies that could use the cheese in their lines. But the pair got far more than they bargained for. Attendees were wowed by the pizzas prepared at the booth with their vegan cheese, including frozen foods maker Amy’s, which decided to incorporate Daiya cheeses into its line.
Kroecher says this launch was facilitated by the advent of smart phones. “The product thrilled and excited people, and they just had to tell other people what they discovered on social media, forums and blogs. Through word of mouth, shoppers would start requesting the product at their local stores,” he states. “There was this viral spread in interest in Daiya that coincided with the outbreak of the smart phone era.”
And the innovation has kept coming.
More than Mozz
With support from retailers like Whole Foods Market behind them, Kroecher and Blake not only brought shredded dairy-free mozzarella and cheddar to consumers, but also other varieties like pepper jack shreds, cheese slices, cheese blocks (like gouda and jalapeno havarti) and cream cheese. “It absolutely took off. It was amazing,” says Blake. “From there, we wanted to roll out a much broader portfolio of cheese products…and move into adjacent categories.”
When Daiya initially sampled its cheese on a pizza at its first Expo West, attendees thought the company made frozen pizzas. When the pair felt it was time to expand outside cheese alone, a frozen pizza was their first move. “Taking this step was an important part of the Daiya dream since we developed the brand,” Kroecher states.
It definitely was not an easy endeavor, though. Blake says getting the gluten-free crust to be perfect was extremely difficult without egg. “That was really challenging,” he states.
The company has also launched dairy-free cheesecake, macaroni and cheese and yogurt. “It’s tireless work from Daiya’s research and development team to identify unmet needs among traditional mainstays and make it taste as good out of natural, plant-based ingredients…and as nutritious as possible while still being affordable,” states Kroecher. “But, someone’s got to take the risk.”
The pair teased that more unique products are in the works. The industry will have to stay tuned for what might innovate the plant-based category tomorrow.
Transparency to a T: Robert Craven
Who do you trust? What exactly is trust? How closely do you need to know someone (or something) before you can trust them? And, when does trust start to break down?
There are many questions about the nature of trust, and none are easy to answer. But one industry member who is trying to increase trust and transparency is Robert Craven, a leader in the natural products industry for the past 15 years (including the past four years as CEO of FoodState, maker of MegaFood).
“What I’ve seen is that there’s been an erosion of trust for this industry. Every year, it seems to intensify,” he states.
|Robert Craven (left) in MegaFood's analytical lab with Matt McLean of Uncle Matt's|
He feels that this attrition is out of place for an industry that has a sense of community at its core and a deep-rooted commitment to health and wellness. Craven’s solution is to build transparency rather than let “fringe” industry players—who are fine with low-quality products and low ethical standards—give the entire industry a bad name.
“The fringe gets so much play and so much attention from the government and the media that it paints the entire industry with a broad brush,” Craven believes. “What I’ve been thinking a lot about is how to get past the noise…and the only way to do it is to go big with transparency. It’s the right thing to do.”
Craven believes good industry players like MegaFood have a lot to show the world. His company is known for its high-quality and efficacious whole food supplements. It is also vertically integrated back to its suppliers. Product manufacturing is done in house, as opposed to at a contract manufacturing facility, while an on-site analytical lab completes product and raw material testing. For years, though, no one knew that piece of the story. “We had this beautiful method for making great dietary supplements, but we weren’t talking about it,” says Craven, who says he decided to “become a leader in the transparency movement.”
|Robert Craven (right) with Stacey Gillespie of MegaFood and Bryce Lundberg of Lundberg Family Farms|
Earlier this year, Craven announced that MegaFood would build on previous transparency goals with “The Big T” Transparency Initiative. “It’s going bigger with transparency to really drive trust,” he explains.
The initiative is multifaceted. The company has four live-feed video cameras (with six more on the way) stationed at its New Hampshire manufacturing facility. Interested retailers and consumers can view the footage online and on-site tours are welcome.
In addition, the company recently rolled out the idea to make “audit transparency.” MegaFood regularly partakes in third-party and routine site inspections by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ensure the facility meets and exceeds standards. “All these audits are important, but our retail partners and our consumers don’t see them,” Craven states. “Our new goal is to share the results of these audits through videos and describe what was found and was we’re doing about it.”
This approach is unique, as these types of discussions take place behind closed doors at most other companies. Says Craven, “No one scores 100% on any audit. That’s not the point. The point is to continually improve—and that will be a shock to some people.”
Another effort also involves spotlighting a process that is often quite secretive: new product development. “We’re going to show the world what’s coming, the new products that are in the pipeline,” he explains. The goal is to show what goes into developing a top-notch supplement. “Our average launch time is nine to 12 months…the amount of effort that goes into it is significant for a good player,” Craven states. “We want to show what the new product development process looks like.”
Craven isn’t stopping there. He wants to share things like town hall meetings online so retailers and consumers can understand the company’s strategies and goals.
“People want to do business with people they know and so introducing everyone to the people who run the company is important to building trust,” he states.
Uniting Around Transparency
Earlier in this piece, Craven stated, “The idea was to be a leader in the transparency movement.” Note his choice of words: “A leader.” Craven is very open about sharing the technique of trust, hoping that he can inspire others to do the same.
He also feels it is worth it to work with competitors on common initiatives, such as spearheading the launch of a new trade association, Coalition for Supplement Sustainability. The group is made up of diverse supplement makers—many of whom are competitors—that want to work together to iron out issues within this industry such as developing widely accepted standards for certifying non-GMO dietary supplements.
“Taking common issues and moving them forward is something everyone needs to do to really have a healthy industry,” Craven states.
In the end, this work speaks to what Craven is trying to get across: the more knowledge that is shared among industry members—and consumers—the bigger the win for everyone.
Published in WholeFoods Magazine November 2015