Joy Orzales

Summarized by Natacia Ann I. Esguerra Functional beverage market is seen to be growing at 4.4 percent annually and will reach US$2,090 billion by 2022. Non-alcoholic beverages play an important role in people’s daily lives. The industry produces a wide range of beverages such as carbonated soft drinks, syrup concentrates, energy drinks, juices, teas, coffee,

Globally, the trend towards healthy and natural foods, due to increased health awareness and the fight against obesity, will lead to a boom in the demand for dehydrated fruits. Dehydrated fruit consumption is expected to reach 4 million tonnes in 2020. The Global Industry Analysts (GIA) estimate ranks dehydrated fruits as a high potential export

The Philippines has gained membership to the International Halal Accreditation Forum (IHAF), a development seen to further spur the local halal industry by strengthening trade between the Philippines and other member countries. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the Philippine Accreditation Bureau (PAB) on Wednesday signed a full membership agreement with the IHAF.

Smallholders farm roughly 40 percent of Indonesian land planted with oil palm trees, but account for only 30 percent of its palm oil output due to lower yields because of low quality seeds and outdated farming techniques. Industry leaders plan to address that inefficiency next year through more investment in and collaboration with smallholders. Smallholder

Summarized by Ms. Natacia Ann Esguerra Administrative Assistant, CFA-UA&P Vietnamese conglomerate Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) is on its second export of 100 tons of dragon fruit to China from its Ratanakkiri plantation in Cambodia. HAGL also exports bananas to China. It invested in planting 14 types of fruits for export to diversify its Cambodian

The banana sector is very satisfied with the signing of the multi-party agreement between Ecuador and the European Union. Eduardo Ledesma, the president of the Association of Exporters of Bananas of Ecuador (AEBE), said that the signing of this agreement generated many expectations for the banana sector. In this sense, they announced that a public-private

“The Ministry of Agriculture will provide seeds and fertilisers among 2001 farmers in 64 districts to cultivate Bt brinjal (eggplant) on 2001 bighas (667 acres) of land next season. As an incentive, each farmer will receive 20 grams of seed and 15 kilograms of DAP and MoP fertilisers, at a total cost to the government

Scientists from Cornell University and colleagues from other institutions have identified genes that control Vitamin E content in the maize grain. The researchers used different types of genetic association analyses to identify 14 genes across the maize genome involved in the synthesis of vitamin E. Six genes were newly discovered to encode proteins that contribute