Agribusiness news around the world
An interntional consultant on fruits and vegetables, Omar Zaidan, has been sending us interesting digests of agribusiness developments around the world.
Like, for instance, the story of the unique heart-shaped mini Bouquet watermelon produced in Spain and exported to the United Kingdom. The Spanish company, Anecoop, the leading watermelon producer in Spain, is reported to have shipped 2,000 kg of the unusual fruit lately. Of course the fruit is a ready conversation piece and that’s exactly what the importer would like to happen. It is a good marketing strategy to be offering something unique. Who knows, even the young guys courting the girls of their dreams could give the fruit as gift to them. It could be some sort of a Valentine watermelon.
This story reminds us about the heart-shaped Sweetheart Bittermelon (ampalaya) developed by a lady breeder of East-West Seed in Thailand. The main purpose was to offer something unique in the market.
PINEAPPLE IN THAILAND - Omar Zaidan also forwarded to us a strategy they adopted in Thailand to boost export and consumption of pineapple. The Ministry of Commerce has been exerting efforts to find markets abroad and at the same time encouraging more Thais to eat pineapple, especially in areas where pineapple is not produced. A big company that makes dried pineapple is now buying big quantities of pineapple harvest for drying. Dried pineapple can be sold abroad as well as locally. Thailand’s biggest gasoline company has also offered the use of all its gas stations to farmers to sell their harvest without any rent. That’s something our local gasoline compnies could think about to help the farmers.
MANGO QUALITY METER – Zaidan also sent us a story about the F-751 Mango Quality Meter that was launched in Ecuador during the recent International Mango Congress there. The meter rapidly assesses the internal traits of fresh mango and does so in a non-invasive way so the fruit is not destroyed. The mango meter sends particles of light into the fruit and measures the light’s interaction to assess the number of key quality traits.
The tool, according to the report, has been highly successful in predicting harvest dates for several tropical commodities from avocados and cherries to kiwi, apples and pears.
The F-751 will soon be boosted by the creation of the world’s free fruit maturity app: Fruit Maps. This program takes data generated on the instrument and puts it into a visual format that can be accessed quickly and proactively by growers.
DISINFECTION WITH UVC TECH – Shelf life and food safety are major requirements in the salads, vegetables and fruit processing Freshcut industry. Now, a German company, Kronen, has further developed its UVC disinfection lock, adapting it to the needs of the users. By means of Ultraviolet-C radiation technology, the surface of vegetable and fruit products as well as of packaging materials and tools passed through the lock is disinfected efficiently without using heat or additives.
The UVC disinfection technology is based on the production of UV radiation with a wavelength from 280 to 100 nanometers. Light of this wavelength is germicidal since it destroys the germs’ DNA.
LARGE BLACK PIG, WHAT’S NEW – In the local front, the the owner of the Ragsak Farm in Tarlac is very excited about the result of his crossing the Large Black Pig with Pietrain, a Belgian commercial breed that is white with black spots.
Last Sept. 8, the Pietrain sow bred by a Large Black Pig gave birth to 11 healthy piglets that are all black. The piglets are big and very healthy. They weighed from 1.2 to 1.6 kilos each at birth. The LBP is really very dominant. It has contributed its prolific trait to the large litter size. The breed from the United Kingdom is very docile with excellent mothering ability. Above all, it is a fast grower.
The owner of the farm will also cross the LBP to other large commercial breeds as well as to the miniature native black pig. He would like to find out what would be the good results.