Author Archives: CrispConsulting

Russia may suspend beef imports from Australia

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The Russian veterinary watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor may ban imports of beef from Australia starting January 15 due to the detection of trenbolone, a steroid used to increase muscle growth in livestock, which is banned in Russia.

“The Australian veterinary service has time before January 15 to review the lists of suppliers to Russia and exclude those using trenbolone from them,” Rosselkhoznadzor chief Sergei Dankvert told Interfax. “If this is not done and the Australian veterinary service continues to simply sign veterinary certificates, we will have to limit beef imports from all enterprises that are on the list of suppliers to Russia,” Dankvert said. This measure will primarily concern suppliers of chilled beef, which is considered a higher-risk product, he said.

What makes the situation more complicated is that, in addition to trenbolone-containing meat discovered earlier, new such cases have been revealed lately, Dankvert said. “In addition to two companies that were earlier found to export meat containing the growth stimulant, two more have joined now,” Dankvert said, adding that beef imports from Australia are under Rosselkhoznadzor’s special control.

“The enterprises caught [on using trenbolone] will be deprived of the right to ship meat to Russia, but if such discoveries become massive, protection measures will be different,” he said.

Australia is among major beef suppliers to Russia. The list of beef exporters includes 47 enterprises, and imports to Russia from 8 of them have been banned for various reasons.

www.interfax.com

Рождественский концерт в Спасо Хаусе

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18 декабря в Спасо Хаусе, резиденции посла США, прошел рождественский концерт Виртуозов Москвы, дирижер Владимир Спиваков.

Гости могли насладится прекрасной музыкой в чудесной праздничной атмосфере, а также каждый получил небольшой рождественский подарок от Бюро по грушам США, Вашингтонской яблочной комиссии и Комитета по продвижению клюквы США.

 

Груши США www.usapears.ru

Яблоки штата Вашингтон www.bestapples.ru

Клюква США www.us-klukva.ru

U.S. dried Cranberries added to USDA school foodservice list

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In collaboration with the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, the U.S. Cranberry Marketing Committee (CMC) and industry representatives announced on friday news from USDA Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack. Effective July 2014, schools will have the option to purchase dried cranberries from the Foods Available List (FAL) as part of the USDA foodservice procurement program. Previously, only cranberry sauce had been available.

FAL is the USDA resource list of commodity food products. The list has been modified extensively in recent years with the goal to improve the nutritional options available to the nation’s school children. As a result of new guidelines, dried fruits, including cranberries, are creditable. Dried fruit credit at twice its volume, providing the equivalent of ½ cup of fruit in school breakfast and lunch for every ¼ cup served.

With a projected record-breaking crop for 2013, the USDA news comes at an auspicious time for a market hungry for new opportunities to promote U.S.-grown cranberries.

Next steps for the cranberry industry will be to engage in outreach efforts to educate and work with school foodservice professionals toward cranberry usage. Said Scott J. Soares, Executive Director, “In addition to being healthy to eat, cranberries are incredibly versatile in cooking applications. In July, we unveiled five foodservice-friendly recipes in our School Lunch Toolkit that were very well received by school foodservice professionals and marked the start of our work to ‘cran’-hance school meals.”

www.freshplaza.com

Stagnating Russian apple market

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The Russian apple market is still characterized by rather low consumption activity. For the present, apples are purchased mainly by retail chains, and sales volumes are not high.

Under those conditions and stable imports from Poland, Serbia and other countries, Russian growers are unable to raise prices. For the present, apple prices average 0.43-0.48 euro/kg. Produce of smaller size is shipped at 0.32-0.39 euro/kg. We would remind you that last year prices of domestic apples reached 0.61 euro/kg in the Russian Federation.

Taking into account such a situation, growers keep on holding their apples in storage in the hope of an increase in prices in future.

www.fruit-inform.com

Land considers business in Altay Teritory

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The premium grocery retailer Land is negotiating on the lease of premises in the Plaza shopping centre in Barnaul. The outlet would operate as a Land franchise store. The retailer claims that it has signed a franchise agreement with a Barnaul partner.

Today, Land operates nine stores in St. Petersburg, and another, in Narodnogo Opolchenia Avenue in the city, has been opened on 12 December. The Barnaul launch will represent a totally new regional market for the network.

In 2012 the company’s annual revenues came to RUB 2.5bn (€55m). As PMR reported in November, in 2013 the company expects to boost its revenues by 28-30% year on year, to RUB 3.2bn (€71m), excluding VAT.

www.ceeretail.com

November sales rose by 28.7% for Russian retailer Magnit

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Russia’s biggest food retailer Magnit said on Tuesday its sales rose by 28.7 percent in November, year-on-year, to 50.2 billion roubles ($1.5 billion) after a rise of 27 percent in the previous month.

Magnit, which this year overtook rival X5 as Russia’s No.1 grocery chain by revenue, said the November result brought sales for the first 11 months of the year to 516 billion roubles, up 30 percent on the year.

The company opened 181 stores last month, bringing its total to 7,920. Fast expansion will help it grow revenues by 28-29 percent this year, while next year’s growth is likely to slow to 25-27 percent, the company has said.

www.freshplaza.com

US (WA): Increased productivity makes for another big apple crop

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In the face of decreasing acreage over the last several years, Washington’s apple growers have continually improved productivity. That has helped the state’s growers return another big apple crop this year, which, though it is less than last year’s record-setting crop, is the second-largest crop in state history.

“The crop estimate in August was 120 million bushels, and December’s final estimate was 113 million bushels,” said Todd Fryhover, President of the Washington State Apple Commission. But even after the downward adjustment, 113 million bushels would be the state’s second-largest crop ever, behind last year’s crop of 128 million bushels. Fryhover noted that the trend has been for acreage to go down over the last few years, so two large crops in a row has to do with the gains in productivity that growers have achieved.

“Production keeps going up because growers are doing better with what they have, and they’re more efficient,” said Fryhover. Growers have also leaned on varieties that allow them to be more productive. Fryhover noted that Gala apples have become popular because growers appreciate the relative ease with which they can grow the variety, especially since it’s well adapted to the state’s climate. Another winner has been the Honey Crisp apple, which Fryhover thinks has the potential to double in volume over the next three years. As far as prices, he noted that they have not been on par with those from last year.

“There were crop failures in Michigan and New York last year, so when we had a bumper crop last year there was little fruit coming from the east and we had very good prices despite the volume we had,” said Fryhover. “But with eastern states having record years this season, we have seen a downturn in prices.” But he added that growers with premium quality and good sizes can still do well this year, despite softer prices from increased competition.

“Even with big volumes here and in Pennsylvania and New York, there’s remarkable optimism right now,” said Fryhover. “It’s going to be an okay year; not super and not bad, but adequate.”

www.freshplaza.com

US (AK): Proposed 2014 Halibut Catch Down 21 per cent

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The recommendations for next year’s halibut catches are down again for all regions in the USA except Southeast Alaska.

Fishery scientists with the International Pacific Halibut Commission have recommended a 2014 coast wide commercial catch total of 24.45 million pounds, a 21% decrease from the 31 million pounds allowed for this year. That includes catches in Alaska, British Columbia and the Pacific Coast states.

In a summation at a meeting in Seattle last week, the IPHC said: “The results of the 2013 stock assessment indicate that the Pacific halibut stock has been declining continuously over much of the last decade as a result of decreasing size-at-age, as well as recruitment strengths that are much smaller than those observed through the 1980s and 1990s.”

Here are the proposed catch limits for Alaska regions in millions of pounds, compared to the totals from 2013 in parentheses: Southeast Alaska (2C) – 4.16 (2.97); Central Gulf (3A) – 9.43 (11.03); Western Gulf (3B) – 2.84 (4.29); Alaska Peninsula (4A) – 0.85 (1.33); Aleutian Islands region (4B) – 0.82 (1.45); Bering Sea (4CDE) 0.64 (1.94).

Final decisions on the catch limits, season start date and regulation changes will be made by the IPHC at its annual meeting, Jan. 13-17 in Seattle. While the Pacific halibut catches have been declining for decade, the value of the fishery has been on a downward trend for the past four years.

Near the end of each year bills are sent out to Alaska longliners who hold shares of the halibut and sablefish (black cod) catches. They are required to pay an annual fee to the federal government to cover the costs for managing and enforcing those fisheries. The fee, which is capped at three percent, is based on dock prices and averaged across the state.

The billings were mailed out in late November to 2,024 fishermen, 90 fewer than last year, according to Troie Zuniga, fee coordinator for NOAA Fisheries in Juneau.

This year the combined halibut and sablefish fisheries paid a fee of 2.8%, which yielded $5 million for coverage costs.

For halibut, the overall dockside value of the 2013 fishery was $105 million, and about $72 million for black cod.

“That’s about $32 million lower than the 2012 value for halibut and $37 million lower for black cod,” Zuniga said, adding that it reflects a fishery value decline of nearly 28 percent over four years.

In terms of fish prices, the average for halibut this year was $5.06 per pound compared to $5.87 last year; for sablefish, an average price of $2.84 per pound is a drop from $4.11 in 2013.

www.thefishsite.com

Фестиваль черной трески из Аляски в трех московских ресторанах

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12 декабря в Москве начнется Фестиваль черной трески из Аляски, можно будет попробоваить два разных оригинальных сета с черной треской от двух московских шеф поваров.

Черная треска по праву считается Королевой Аляски, ее мясо славится высоким содержанием жирных кислот Омега-3, эта редкая рыба превосходный источник высококачественного белка. Сладковатый, нежный и в то же время чрезвычайно насыщенный вкус аляскинской черной трески можно попробовать в ресторанах Gastronomica Fish и Florentini Coutry Cafe в ”королевском сете” из трех блюд от от бренд-шефа ресторанного холдинга  “Gastronomica”  Артема Добровольского, в сет входят карпаччо, суп и стейк.

В рыбном ресторане Fish Point c 17 по 31 декабря можно оценить сет из черной трески от шеф повара Ильи Татьянко. В сет входит карпаччо из черной трески, консоме из черной трески с мини-овощами, томленое филе черной трески на подушке их мятого картофеля с вялеными овощами и спаржей.

Фестиваль черной трески проходит при поддержке Института маркетинга морепродуктов Аляски. Больше информации о морепродуктах Аляски на сайтах www.alaskaseafood.ru, www.alaskaseafood.org 

US (WA): Apple production down from initial estimates

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Temperature fluctuations throughout the year have contributed to a Washington apple crop that will likely net less fruit than was initially anticipated. While most varieties suffered from diminished output, Granny Smith apples actually increased in volume over last year’s numbers.

“We started out with a strong estimate, but due to certain weather conditions, this turned out to be a short crop,” said Howard Nager, vice president of marketing for Domex Superfresh Growers in Yakima, Washington. Estimates at the beginning of the season put this year’s crop near 120 million boxes, but Nager noted that estimates last month put volume closer to 113 million boxes, and the dip has cut across almost all varieties.

“We’ve seen decreases in just about every variety except Granny Smith, which has seen a 15 percent increase over last year,” said Nager. That also extends to organic varieties, which suffered similar dips. Nager pointed to temperature fluctuations throughout the season as the likely reason for less volume this season. Cool weather greeted the start of this year’s harvest, and alternating warm then cool weather in August and September affected this year’s fruit.

“It wasn’t one weather event, like a big storm or hail that did it,” said Nager. But he pointed to larger fruit this year as a bright spot this season, and there are opportunities for retailers to push some varieties.

“There are good promotional opportunities on larger-sized fruit, which translates to good pricing for consumers,” said Nager. “What we need to do now is move the crop in a consistent manner.”

www.freshplaza.com