The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) have partnered to raise awareness on sustainable palm oil and strengthen frameworks like that for complaints on compliance.
Analysis released today shows that nearly three-quarters of global companies see risks associated with sourcing commodities that are linked to deforestation.
Cereal chemists, food scientists and even culinologists will feature in Ingredion's new innovation centre in Singapore—the latest in a series of international food development facilities opening in the city-state.
The palm oil sector makes a clear contribution to the economies of producer countries – but it also contributes to the economy in importing markets, according to a new report.
Tate & Lyle used the recent Food Ingredients-Asia trade event in Jakarta as a springboard for its mounting ambitions in the country of 250 million people as well as other parts of Asia. Fibre and low-calorie sweeteners for weight control were a big...
Agribusiness giant Bunge is the latest multinational company to commit to deforestation-free palm oil supply – going beyond the requirements for RSPO membership.
By Shane Starling from Food Ingredients-Asia in Jakarta
Irish dairy and ingredients group Kerry sees a lot of potential in an Indonesian market where sophisticated nutritionals are gaining ground with a young demographic. It is upping investment in a country with south east Asia’s largest population (250m).
By RJ Whitehead and Shane Starling from FI-Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia
Indonesia's food industry will continue to grow in importance as its population of around 300 million gains wealth, according to some voices in the halls of the Jakarta International Expo at Food Ingredients-Asia last week. But it may have some way...
To a backdrop of the Asean regulatory harmonisation process, a number of European Union officials have descended on Kuala Lumpur to attend a forum designed to apply the older bloc’s knowledge on the subject.
Nestle has spent $36.6m expanding its Milo chocolate malt beverage factory in Vietnam and stressed its ‘firm belief in the potential of the country’ as nutritional drinks demand grows.
RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil now accounts for 18% of the total global palm oil market, up from 15% last year, according to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
US infant formula giant Mead Johnson Nutrition has bolstered its presence in the lucrative Asian market with the opening of a Singaporean research and production site.
With its rice industry going through salad days, Cambodia is nevertheless at a crossroads. While on the international front, it is shipping more rice overseas than ever before; domestically, there is still a number issues for producers and exporters to...
By Gary Paoli, director of research and project development at Daemeter Consulting
Having completed a review of RSPO, Gary Paoli of Daemeter Consulting outlines how the sustainable palm oil certifier has fared in addressing key market demands.
A recently-emerged strain of avian influenza virus in poultry in Southeast Asia represents a new threat to animal health and livelihoods and must be closely monitored, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned.
Although Malaysia’s halal certification is pretty much the only such standard that is accepted across the world, the body behind it continues to refuse to allow the accreditation of medicines to avoid causing life or death cases of panic.
Dispatches from Euro Fed Lipid Congress, Montpellier
Faced with increasing gains across Asia-Pacific, not least in Australia where traditional brewers are fast losing market share, craft beer importers are now eyeing Southeast Asia as a new growth market.
Ten years into the process to harmonise the regulatory framework for nutritional and health supplements among Southeast Asian nations, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
In spite of a recent downturn in prices, there is still cause for optimism for Indonesia’s palm oil producers as a result of growing consumption by China and India.
Nestlé has extended its partnership with expansion services firm DKSH to bring confectionery brands such as Kit Kat, Milo Confectionery and Uncle Toby’s to traditional trade channels in Singapore.
When in June of this year, British newspaper The Guardian published a damning report tracing fishmeal that it claimed had been caught by workers kept in slave-like conditions, a public relations storm seemed to have broken loose.
Back when Europe and North America were there dominant growth markets for the food industry, Asia was considered as little more than an extension of their traditional business and dominated by unorganised local companies.
Recently, it seems that not a week goes by without a lead story in the English-language press raising serious concerns about the adverse impact of some food and beverage companies on their workers, surrounding communities or on the environment.
Nestlé has recalled a batch of NAN brand infant formula in the Philippines after internal tests discovered products did not contain fatty acids specified on the label.
Carlsberg tells BeverageDaily.com it is maintaining heightened security at its Malaysian brewery near Kuala Lumpur, after sympathizers of terrorist organization Islamic State told police they had planned to attack the facility.
Indonesia’s poultry sector is fast transforming from a backyard industry to professionally managed and integrated production, according to figures released by Rabobank.
Sales slipped 6% and net profits 11% in Q2 for DSM’s human and animal nutrition arm as adverse currency movements, a slow US vitamins and omega-3 food supplements market and the Asian botulism infant formula scare affected earnings.
Chobani, America’s top-selling brand of strained yogurt that has been gaining a massive global following through its slick marketing, will soon be available in Malaysia.
A major stake in New Britain Palm Oil, which supplies UK manufacturers, is being targeted by Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby, part of the consortium that acquired Battersea Power Station.
In what many say is an attempt to silence dissent against an allegedly military-orchestrated land grab, a Burmese court has been prosecuting hundreds of farmers who have been calling for the return of their property.
“The IEA does not accept state money, and all of our research is independent of corporate funding.”
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has said categorically it does not accept state money, following accusations by a Malaysian media outlet that the UK think tank is in bed with the Malaysian Palm Oil Council and the country’s government.
Probiotics research is now entering the Malaysian mainstream, according to two female Universiti Sains Malaysia students who recently received international recognition for their work.
Early this month, in what looks like a failed attempt to save its reputation, Australia‘s ANZ Bank severed its ties with Phnom Penh Sugar, a company accused of a range of human rights abuses linked to its plantations in Kampong Speu province, Cambodia.
If it wasn’t bribery, then who was it, Thais have been asking after food conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Foods strongly denied the payments it had been making to journalists were anything other than a "special budget to support the media”.
A new sustainable palm oil scheme has met with criticism from environmentalists claiming that it actually allows deforestation, rather than stopping it.
In a rare move, NGOs and rights experts commended Coca-Cola for a report it has submitted with the US State Department regarding its responsible business practices in Myanmar.
A common fish that was said to have fed thousands in biblical times could feed billions of mouths in the future as food stocks struggle to keep pace with population growth.
The expansion of oil palm plantations may also pose a threat to water quality in fresh water streams that millions of people depend on, according to new research.
The Australian Food and Grocery Council has published a series of reports that it hopes will deepen the manufactured food industry’s understanding of the opportunities that exist within Asia.
A new testing kit will go a long way to ease fears among Malaysian Muslims that the food they are eating is halal, especially in light of a recent pork-related controversy involving Cadbury.
If modern-day slavery is ever to be eradicated from Thailand’s food sector, companies and supermarkets must set out to make their supply chains more transparent—a move for which there seems to be little appetite, especially among Thai suppliers.
The Indonesian government is considering new labeling regulations for manufacturers of alcoholic beverages in a bid to lower the number of consumers of alcohol in the country.
Indigenous peoples, local communities and private smallholders should actively form producer organisations, according to two new reports promoted by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.
