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Fresh apples from China may be imported into the continental United States under a new determination published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

Among the conditions to be applied are that apples from areas in China where the Oriental fruit fly is known to exist must be treated with fumigation and refrigeration, and all Chinese apples must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that all conditions for the importation of the apples have been met and that the consignment of apples has been inspected and found free of quarantine pests.

In a press release today, APHIS said the rule follows decades of hard work by the USDA and further builds on the trade relationship USDA has established with its Chinese counterparts.

“Earlier this year, USDA officials reached an agreement with our Chinese counterparts to allow the importation of all U.S.-grown apples to the Chinese market, which will be effective May 22, 2015. Under that agreement, the apple industry estimates that, within two years, exports to China will reach five million bushels annually, a value of nearly $100 million a year. This achievement also has the potential to increase U.S. fresh apple exports, which were valued at more than $1 billion in 2013, by approximately 10 percent,” it said.

“In making the determination that apples can be safely imported to the United States from China APHIS completed a risk analysis in 2013. The risk analysis determined that apples could safely be imported from China into the continental United States under certain conditions, including being produced in accordance with a systems approach. The systems approach requirements will include:

• production by a grower who is part of a certification program administered by the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) of China;
• pre-harvest NPPO inspection;
• issuance of a phytosanitary certificate;
• importation in commercial consignments only;
• sealed boxes;
• and location of apples in a cold storage facility while awaiting export to the continental United States.

APHIS said it will continue to monitor and audit China’s implementation of the systems approach. The final rule is be published April 23 and to be effective as of May 26.

Source: APHIS

A new import inspection model help is being trialled in China which aims to reduce the clearance time as much as possible.

According to the Chinese Customs authority, while 3–5 days has generally been required for clearance, under the Customs-CIQ 3-Singles model, 24 hours will be enough.

In a press release, it said Qingdao Dongfang Dingxin International Farm and Sideline Products Trading Center is the first designated port of entry for fruits in Shangdong Province where the Customs-CIQ 3-Singles model has been trialled.

The model’s name means “single declaration, single inspection and single release”, it said. This is based on cooperation between Dagang Customs House (affiliated to Qingdao Customs District) and Qingdao Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau at the Qingdao Dongfang Dingxin International Farm and Sideline Products Trading Center in Jimo, a county-level city in Shangdong Province. “It combines the linear and separate operation systems of two different departments and turns them into one synchronized and ‘parallel’ clearance procedure.”

The photo is from the day of China’s Lantern Festival in March, a busy day at the trading centre. “A Qingdao company in the center imported a consignment of fresh dragon fruit with a street value of RMB 240,000 from Vietnam and cleared the goods quickly. Thanks to the great reduction of the clearance time, the fruits were ready for sale in 24 hours after their arrival,” Chinese Customs said.

Its data shows that last year China imported about 3.3 million tons of fresh fruit, up nearly 23% on 2013.

source: http://english.customs.gov.cn/Statics/220ba2bf-eb10-4f4c-90b6-e313edf398a4.html

Britain’s biggest supermarket chain, Tesco, today announced a £6.37 billion loss, the worst result in its 96-year history.

And the pre-tax loss for the year to February 28 – compared to a profit last year of £2.26 billion – comes as the grocer’s new CEO, Dave Lewis, says the food retail market “is still challenging and we are not expecting any let up in the months ahead.” About £4.7 billion of the loss was due to the reduced value of Tesco’s store empire.

Online grocery sales growth

But on the positive side, the retail giant also reported that customer transactions, having been in decline since the beginning of 2012, rose 1.5%, and its UK like-for-like sales volumes improved in the fourth quarter. It said the latter rise – the first in over four years – was driven by better availability, service and pricing.

And in its preliminary 2014/15 results statement, Tesco said its online grocery business continued to grow ahead of the market, driven by an increase of nearly 20% in the number of orders year-on-year.

Outlook: focus on regaining competitiveness

Also in the statement, Tesco said that in the next 12 months it will continue to focus on our three priorities:

• regaining competitiveness in its UK business;
• protecting and strengthening the balance sheet;
• and rebuilding trust and transparency in the business and brand.

Tesco promises more focused range, new relationship with suppliers

Tesco said a new approach to its cash payment terms with suppliers, involving “fundamental change to the way we do business with our suppliers, with significantly less focus on commercial income,” further impacted its profitability.

It its statement it said that as part of its efforts to rebuild trust and transparency it has increased its focus on building “longer-term, mutually beneficial partnerships” with its suppliers.

Since last October it has met with over 100 suppliers, “creating new business plans to drive volume growth through a more focused range and create cost efficiencies throughout the whole supply chain,” it said.

Payments to and from suppliers

Tesco included in its statement a section explaining the commercial income forming part of its overall economic relationship with suppliers. “Consistent with standard grocery market practice, we negotiate a very wide range of payments to and from our suppliers including fees, contributions, discounts, multiple offers and volume rebates,” it said.

“Whilst we have embarked on a fundamental review which will significantly simplify our approach, in total we currently use over 20 different categories of variation in payment terms. Many of these relate to adjustments to a cost price and can be considered (and are in practice) a part of the standard unit price variations that can be expected under normal, competitive market conditions.”

A number of commercial income categories can be conditional on the satisfaction of certain actions or performance conditions by either Tesco or the supplier in question, including the achievement of agreed sales volume targets, the provision of certain benefits such as marketing materials or promotional product positioning, and costs incurred for unplanned variations in product specification, it said.

Read more from the Tesco statement here.

Revenue for the Delhaize Group grew to €21.4 billion last year, up about 3.7% on 2013.

But operating profit for the Belgian international food retailer – present in seven countries on three continents – slipped from €537 million to €423 million and operating margin from 2.6% to 2.0%, it said in its annual report. At the end of 2014, the group’s sales network consisted of 3,402 stores and it employed about 150,000 people.

With $17.7 billion (€13.4 billion) in revenues and a network of 1,295 stores at the end of 2014, the US is its biggest market. Of total group revenues, 63% came from Food Lion and Hannaford, operating along the US east coast, from Maine to Georgia and covering 15 states.

In the report, Delhaize said it sees three main external competitive trends affecting the food retail industry today.

• Large format stores, particularly hypermarkets are being challenged. Several large players are experiencing a slowdown of comparable store sales (CSS) in their core large formats. Thus they are developing smaller formats as well as on-line alternatives to try to revive growth.
• The rise of the discounters has progressed unabated.
• As the number of channels proliferates – discount, traditional, hypermarket, club, dollar, online – the blurring of boundaries between formats continues. Food retailers are joining other industries in developing, testing, and refining different business models to adapt to both new consumer demands as well as a changing competitive landscape. The result is that shoppers no longer distinguish between formats; they only want their favorite products at the best prices.

Goal: be known as the best in fresh

In addition, and because of these trends, margins in the retail sector are increasingly being squeezed. “Our response to these trends is to refine and update our formats and intensify our e-commerce efforts while continuing to invest in the customer proposition. Our goal is to be known as the best in fresh, with an efficient yet innovative assortment, delivering the best shopping experience at the best everyday value.,” Delhaize said

It also listed 3 other trends it sees impacting food retail:

• Increasing consumer demand for transparency about its products, such as where they are from and how they are produced.
• Health trends including the increase of diet-related diseases (obesity, diabetes, malnutrition) impacting customer health needs and expectations.
• Increasing pressure on both agriculture and oceanic resources impacts price and availability of our products; such as the increasing global demand for food, decreasing availability of water, diminishing soil quality, and climate change impacts such as droughts and storms.

Source: http://annualreport.delhaizegroup.com/overview/key-figures/

European Union exports of fresh fruits and vegetables to non-EU countries in 2014 totalled 7.7 million tons – up a tenth on 2013,  Eurostat data shows.

But they were 5% lower in value at €5.38 billion, analysis by FEPEX, the Spanish federation of associations of producers and exporters of fruits, vegetables, flowers and live plants, shows.

EU fruit exports up in volume, down in value in 2014

EU exports of fresh fruit increased a tenth last year to 4.2 million tons but fell 1.5% in value to €3.28 billion.
Main fruit exports:

• Apples 1.7 million tons (+15%)
• Pears 471,797 tons (+35%)

EU vegetable also gain in volume but slip in value

EU vegetable export to non-EU countries grew 9% in volume on 2013 to 3.4 million tons but dropped a tenth in value to €2.1 billion.
Main vegetable exports:

• Potatoes 1.4 million tons (+ 27%)
• Onions 804,659 tons (+ 5%)

source: Fepex

Fresh vegetable snack packs, compostable packaging, peel-and-reseal lidding, living salads and QR codes on packaging are among innovations in other countries that Horticulture Innovation Australia (HIA) has identified as likely to help Australian growers differentiate their produce in the Asian market.

A shortlist of ten such innovaions was developed as part of research conducted by Euromonitor International and funded by a Horticulture Innovation Australia (HIA) project in collaboration with AUSVEG. The goal was to pinpoint new, relevant and commercially viable solutions.

Project Leader Umesh Madhavan said the shortlisted innovations are highly relevant to Australian growers “looking to differentiate themselves from lower‐priced, locally grown Asian produce.”

““New infrastructural developments and the modernisation of grocery retailing channels, coupled with rising consumer affluence across Asia, will create a retail and operations environment more conducive to helping Australian growers benefit from the adoption of select vegetable innovations,” he said.

HIA CEO John Lloyd said identifying key innovations that will add superior value to Australian produce is one way of increasing international trade opportunities for Australian horticulture.

The shortlist includes:

• fresh vegetable snack packs;
• environmentally friendly compostable packaging;
• peel-and-reseal lidding films to enhance produce freshness;
• living salads (pots of growing baby salad leaves ready to be freshly harvested at home and picked prior to consumption);
• and QR codes on packaging to inform consumers of the different food varieties and indicate the origins of the produce. 

Read the HIA press release: Driving the competitiveness of Aussie vegetables in Asian markets