From local discovery to global disruption read more

She was meticulous in her extensive agenda, which was more like a grand tour, in which I visited a cheese factory, a dairy, a cider cellar, several Romanesque churches and the theatre in which she made her debut as an actress. In the evening there was plenty of cider in the village of
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In southern and northern Lebanon, on plots no higher than 500m above sea level, avocado cultivation is undergoing a remarkable revolution. Annually, that acreage grows by about 200 hectares and yields by around 2,500 tons. Yet, the extraordinary thing is that one man is driving the expansion of
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Thai Sade is the founder of tech firm BloomX, a company that has found a way to mechanically pollinate crops in a similar way to bees. "We are not replacing bees... but rather, offering more efficient pollinating methods to farmers, and reducing the dependence on commercial honeybees," Sade says. read more

The Lebanese organic market has dropped since the latest crises, yet there are opportunities for organic growers thanks to Lebanon's proximity to a relatively large, wealthy purchasing base in the Gulf states. Agreen Organics exports a wide range of organic products, fresh or processed, plant or
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Israel’s avocado industry, that has just started the 2023/24 harvest season, is seeing good early demand from European markets for the Greenskin variety. “The Greenskin season just started. Demand in the EU is good for now, but we expect a challenging season going forward into the main
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Carlópolis, in the Northern Pioneer Region, is the ‘National Guava Capital’. It is a recognition not only of the quantity of fruit produced in the municipality, but also of the quality, which opened doors to the international market, with exports to countries in Europe and the Middle East. read more

According to EastFruit, Egypt has set a new record for mango exports to Saudi Arabia in 2022, reclaiming its status as the largest supplier in this market that it had lost the previous year. Furthermore, mango exports in this direction have also remained at record levels in the first half of
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Pure Harvest Smart Farms has entered into a three-year, exclusive strategic partnership with Richel Group. With an immediate focus on the Middle East and Asia, the partnership aims to deploy over $150 million worth of smart growing systems with the flexibility to expand the partnership into new
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Small-scale farming is still dominant in Lebanon. More local and overseas investment in the professionalization of horticulture is needed and factors such as the favorable climate and fertile soil are attracting these investors. But the current model also offers opportunities, says Moussa M. Zgheib. read more

India: Reliance Retail in $1.5bln Gulf, Singapore funds talks, sources say read more

The Canary Islands are witnessing a severe shortage of potatoes. Even worse, the supply from Israel and Egypt, which has temporarily replaced the supply from England, is on its last legs. British potatoes are still unable to enter the Canary Islands, leaving the closest local source as the
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Almost 90% of the 59,000 tons of grapes produced in Lebanon has been exported in 2021, figures of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reveal. It’s a clear indication of the product's high quality. Nonetheless, that volume is modest compared to Greece's 270,000 tons, Spain's 300,000
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Two years ago, carrot yields in Lebanon reached 5,400 tons, a drop in the bucket compared to the Netherlands' 643,000 tons or even its neighbor, Israel's 186,000 tons. We spoke to Ahmad Mostafa Khodr of Fresh Products, one of the few carrot growers in Lebanon. read more

Last September, Piet Schotel of the Center for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) and Fresh Publishers manager, Pieter Boekhout, took a work trip to Moldova. They visited some 15 fruit growers in this small European country, wedged between Ukraine and Romania. You can read
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After being detected in Israel last year, Diaphorina citri has now been identified in Cyprus, which should force Brussels to investigate the origin of the outbreak as well as finance and supervise eradication measures. The Asian psylla is more worrying than the African Trioza erytreae, already
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Equifruit, the North American leader in Fairtrade-certified bananas, has announced that its director of sales and marketing, Kim Chackal, has become an owner of the company. Equifruit’s president, Jennie Coleman, retains a majority share. read more

After a long period of kiwifruit from Iran being banned in India, it seems new protocols will be put in place. This means Iranian kiwifruit could soon be exported to India once again, which would have an impact on the Italian and Greek export of kiwifruit to this region. Although there has been
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In normal times, a large share of the citrus fruit consumed in Saudi Arabia comes from South Africa. However, this season, with the supply shortages that have marked the season in South Africa, Saudi importers have had to adapt. read more

Innovation in fruit and vegetables also means studying new types, such as this novelty coming directly from South Korea: sweet tomatoes grown with the addition of stevia; read more