India Agriculture, Food & Nutrition updates - 07Jan'16 !

1. Bengal's tea companies to instal solar plants in estates capitalizing on The removal of VAT is expected to bring down the cost of solar generation on a par with that of thermal power generation.

2. India’s rice exports for the current financial year are headed for a decline, both in value and volume terms, over the previous year on reduced purchases by large buyers, such as Iran and Nigeria, and drop in realisations.

3. Indian domestic sugar prices have surged, boosting incentives for production of low-quality white sugar for the local market and export prospects fade as domestic prices soar.

4. Agriculture and allied businesses are increasingly gaining importance as a serious business activity among the global industrial giants.

5. A two-day International Conference on Agri-business in Emerging Economies is being held at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) in collaboration with Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management and the Journal of Agri-business in Developing and Emerging Economies (JADEE).

Global Agriculture, Food & Nutrition updates - 07Jan'16 !

1. Romanian land costs about €2,500 to €4,000 per hectare, whereas in Poland you’re looking at anything between about €8,000 and €15,000 per hectare.
2. Cannabis investment firm looks to raise $100m in first half of 2016 .
3. The e-commerce giant Alibaba invests $1.25bn in Chinese food delivery and online services company .
4. SFP (Sustainable Farm Partners) seeks $40m to convert US row crops to organic.
5. Foodborne outbreak investigations into E. coli linked to Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants in the US and Salmonella from poultry products in Canada are continuing.
6. About 67% of all canned meat and large part of dairy production on the Russian market is counterfeit, according to a study by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE).
7. Revolutionalizing personal nutrition, The ‘internet of food’ could one day tell users what to eat based on their personal health needs, according to a digital health researcher.
8. An investigation is ongoing in Germany to find the source of a Listeria outbreak which has sickened 66 people since 2012.
9. Swiss-Israeli flavours and ingredients house Frutarom Industries has invested 10 million Israeli Shekel (€2.25m) for a 50% stake in the biotech start-up Algalo.
10. Olympus Automation Ltd (OAL) has received a £60,000 grant from the Eastern Agri-Tech Growth Initiative to develop robotic ‘chefs’ in food manufacturing.