With Exports of $1.2B, Ireland Remains Top European Butter Exporter for the Second Consecutive Year

October 8th, 2020 IndexBox Leave a comment

IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘EU – Butter – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights’. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.

In 2019, after two years of growth, there was a significant decline in the EU butter market, when its value decreased by -10.7% to $9B. Over the period under review, the market hit record highs at $10B in 2018 and then fell in the following year. Given the relatively stable volume of consumption in physical terms, those fluctuations are shaped by price changes.

Consumption by Country

The countries with the highest volumes of butter consumption in 2019 were France (520K tonnes), Germany (446K tonnes) and the UK (186K tonnes), together accounting for 64% of total consumption. Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Spain and the Czech Republic lagged somewhat behind, together accounting for a further 26%.

From 2013 to 2019, the biggest increases were in Spain, while butter consumption for the other leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

In value terms, the largest butter markets in the European Union were France ($3.1B), Germany ($2.1B) and the UK ($838M), with a combined 67% share of the total market. Italy, Poland, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and the Czech Republic lagged somewhat behind, together comprising a further 24%.

The countries with the highest levels of butter per capita consumption in 2019 were France (7.91 kg per person), Germany (5.44 kg per person) and Austria (5.23 kg per person).

Production in the EU

In 2019, the production of butter in the European Union totaled 2M tonnes, with an increase of 2.1% against the previous year. Over the period under review, production continues to indicate a relatively flat trend pattern. As a result, production reached the peak volume and is likely to continue growing in the immediate term.

Production by Country

The countries with the highest volumes of butter production in 2019 were Germany (438K tonnes), France (401K tonnes) and Ireland (247K tonnes), with a combined 55% share of total production.

From 2013 to 2019, the most notable rate of growth in terms of butter production, amongst the leading producing countries, was attained by Ireland, while butter production for the other leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

Exports in the EU

Butter exports rose significantly to 1M tonnes in 2019, with an increase of 7.3% against 2018. The total export volume increased at an average annual rate of +5.3% from 2013 to 2019; however, the trend pattern indicated some noticeable fluctuations being recorded throughout the analyzed period. In value terms, butter exports declined to $5.1B (IndexBox estimates) in 2019.

Exports by Country

Ireland (257K tonnes) and the Netherlands (238K tonnes) were the largest exporters of butter in 2019, reaching near 25% and 23% of total exports, respectively. It was distantly followed by Germany (135K tonnes), Belgium (112K tonnes), France (71K tonnes), Poland (53K tonnes) and Denmark (51K tonnes), together constituting a 40% share of total exports.

From 2013 to 2019, the biggest increases were in Poland, while shipments for the other leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

In value terms, the largest butter supplying countries in the European Union were Ireland ($1.2B), the Netherlands ($1.1B) and Germany ($624M), with a combined 58% share of total exports.

Among the main exporting countries, Ireland recorded the highest growth rate of the value of exports, over the period under review, while shipments for the other leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

Export Prices by Country

The butter export price in the European Union stood at $4,860 per tonne in 2019, dropping by -17.1% against the previous year. In general, the export price saw a relatively flat trend pattern. The most prominent rate of growth was recorded in 2017 an increase of 48% against the previous year. Over the period under review, export prices attained the peak figure at $5,865 per tonne in 2018 and then fell significantly in the following year.

Average prices varied somewhat amongst the major exporting countries. In 2019, major exporting countries recorded the following prices: in France ($6,237 per tonne) and Denmark ($5,544 per tonne), while Poland ($4,564 per tonne) and the Netherlands ($4,637 per tonne) were amongst the lowest.

From 2013 to 2019, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by France, while the other leaders experienced mixed trends in the export price figures.

Source: IndexBox AI Platform

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7 Industry Experts Weigh In On Blockchain and the Fresh Food Supply Chain

October 6th, 2020 Jim McMahon Leave a comment

Editor’s Note: While the writer filed this story before the magnitude of the global pandemic was known, the subject matter is even more vital now. Because if living with COVID-19 has brought to light anything, it is the importance of an unbroken fresh food supply chain. What follows are seven supply chain industry experts weighing in on blockchain, sharing their unique perspectives regarding challenges and adoption, with a focus on the fresh food supply chain.

On Jan. 4, 2011, President Barack Obama signed into law the Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). One provision of the Act was that the “FDA will have access to records, including industry food safety plans and the records firms will be required to keep documenting implementation of their plans.” The intention of this mandate was clearly to safeguard the health and safety of the American public.

But there is a problem here. These records are stored all over the country on paper, in file cabinets located in thousands of places. So when there is a serious problem of contamination with, say romaine lettuce as there was in November 2018, and again in November 2019, this explains why it can take the FDA 45 to 60 days backtracking just to locate the records, with potentially thousands of farms under review for contamination. If these records were accessible through blockchain, the potential contaminated farms would be whittled down from thousands to less than 10, and identified within a matter of seconds.

Reasons like this make a strong use case for blockchain; it is why so many food supply chain industry leaders are focused on establishing a universally accepted blockchain platform, with particular focus on the fresh food supply chain.

Building a blockchain ecosystem for the fresh food supply chain, by bringing manufacturers, distributors, retailers and suppliers together is a seemingly insurmountable challenge to many of us involved in the industry. Let alone factoring the entire supply chain for food and beverage, and all consumer goods.

Luckily, there are those people who do have a keen perspective on blockchain, with not only an optimistic view of it, but solutions as well. I had the opportunity to interview seven key supply chain thought leaders on the subject of blockchain and the fresh food supply chain. These were: John Haggerty, vice president, Business Development, Burris Logistics; Steve Tracey, executive director, Center for Supply Chain Research at Penn State Smeal College of Business; Kevin Otto, senior director, Community Engagement, GS1 US; Rick Stein, vice president, Fresh Foods, Food Marketing Institute; Rick Blasgen, president and CEO, Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals; David Shillingford, CEO, Rising Tide Digital & Team Member, Resilience360; and Stephen Rogers, vice president, Blockchain Initiatives for Supply Chain, IBM.

Their viewpoints were diverse, reflecting their respective roles in the industry. And their responses were incisive and broad-reaching, with a very practical perspective on what is expected to realize a universal blockchain platform.

John Haggerty – Vice President, Business Development, Burris Logistics

Burris Logistics operates an expanding network of temperature-controlled warehousing and distribution centers from Florida to Massachusetts, also expanding west to Oklahoma. The company provides leading-edge logistics, transportation and supply chain solutions coast to coast through four distinct business units: Custom Distribution, PRW Plus (Public Refrigerated Warehousing), Trinity Logistics (transportation and freight management), and Honor Foods (a redistributor of frozen, refrigerated and dry food service products).

“There are systems of data exchange already in place in the fresh food supply chain that support blockchain. The GS1-128 barcode, for example, used in the meat industry, provides a global standard for exchanging data between different companies, enabling serialization and expiration to be encoded. Some seafood products, such as scallops fished in the North Atlantic, are tagged with GPS coordinates, recording location, date and time when harvested. Like the data acquired from the produce inspection capability and our customer portal, GS1-128 information is readymade for integration with the blockchain.

“We are constantly testing ourselves and readying ourselves to partner with those vendors and customers who want to integrate with blockchain. But as a solution provider, we are a participant in the process. We are blockchain ready, but those suppliers producing the products and those retailers receiving the products need to be the initiators of blockchain.”

“Utilizing blockchain to validate temperature-controlled services and product integrity is an extremely valid and attractive option. But only a small percentage of participants in the fresh produce supply chain, such as Dole and Driscoll’s, provide continuous tracking of products from producer to the retailer via blockchain.

“The challenge with blockchain in temperature-controlled foods, and indeed for the entire supply chain, is more fundamental than integrating blockchain-enabled companies, it is system standardization. Establishing a universal language with developed and managed standards from a recognized independent standards agency, which enables the openness like we enjoy with the Internet is where we need to focus our efforts. A uniform standard for blockchain is still a long ways away from being ready and effective across multiple channels.”

Steve Tracey – Executive Director, Center for Supply Chain Research, Penn State Smeal College of Business

The Center for Supply Chain Research connects researchers and professionals from leading organizations within a community that is shaping the future of the supply chain discipline. It is member strong and intellectually active in many facets of supply chain management and the enabling technologies used for collaboration, visibility and integration.

“The underlying technology of blockchain is a distributed ledger technology and encryption, which has been around for a while. It got popularized with bitcoin, and although it uses the same underlying technology, it is almost completely the obverse of how it is used for bitcoin. In a bitcoin use case, the trans-actors are anonymous, and the transactions are public, across a large network base. In a supply chain, the trans-actors are public, and the transactions are private, across a very small network base. You might have 50,000 or more network nodes around a bitcoin transaction, and in a supply chain use case you are talking about much smaller numbers, maybe 10s or 100s.

“Where I see blockchain being applicable in the long run are things like smart contracts. Blockchain could potentially speed up procure-to-pay systems, which would make the velocity of money and the speed of transactions go much faster, and significantly reduce administrative overhead.

“Another great use case is chain of custody in the food business. Being able to track and trace chain of custody from point of origin to point of use. This is another case where you could have big data streams managed with data integrity, creating a high trust value.

“From a data security perspective, one of the myths about blockchain is that it is perfectly accurate. It is not. If you put bad data into a blockchain, the only way to correct that bad data is to go back and append that block with the correct data. So blockchain doesn’t eliminate data quality issues. What it does do is encrypt data in a way you can trust the data. The combination of the encryption technology, the blockchain itself, and the distributed ledger system, where you are actually verifying the same data on multiple nodes in the network, creates a high level of data trust. As long as you put the right data in, and it is verified from the nodes in the network, you have a high level of trust that the data as input is trustworthy.

“The wide adoption of blockchain, in particular use cases, is going to come from pilots through networks of different organizations figuring out actual data sustainability models, and getting all the right players onto the network where they all have buy-in, and actually have a vested interest in having the data. To work, I believe it will need to be a win-win scenario, with the ability for everyone in the network to see value in both contributing and drawing data from the system.”

Kevin Otto – Senior Director, Community Engagement, GS1 US

GS1 US is a not-for-profit information standards organization. With more than 300,000 members, GS1 standards are the most widely used supply chain standards in the world. GS1 US administers the Universal Product Code (U.P.C.) barcode, as well as other information standards and data carriers.

“In our cross-industry blockchain discussions encompassing healthcare, food service, retail grocery, apparel and general merchandise, supply chain visibility is the first use case that companies are looking at to see how blockchain can fit into their operations. Because GS1 already has universally accepted standards in place for visibility that can be used in blockchain, and other data sharing mechanisms, we are in a unique position to foster interoperability between blockchain users. Essentially, GS1 Standards are fundamental to the evolution of blockchain.”

“Because of consumer demand to know more about the quality and origin of the foods they are purchasing, we are seeing a considerable increase in discussions around the ability to constantly monitor the quality of food products as they go through the supply chain, and then feed this information into a blockchain. This need is making it less practical to record and maintain this information paper-based, while at the same time it presents a barrier to getting participants onboard to record this data digitally, like at the farm level where they may not be electronically equipped.”

“In food, companies in the supply chain definitely have to know where a product came from and where it went, per FDA and USDA guidelines. Since GS1 Standards are broadly adopted in the food industry, these standards are being shared electronically, by and large. The challenge of getting smaller upstream suppliers (farmers and other producers) to use GS1 Standards for identifying, capturing and sharing information is therefore a first-step and prime concern, while the challenges of adopting blockchain are being discussed and evaluated. One-hundred percent supply chain visibility cannot be achieved without all participants in a blockchain ecosystem on-board with the same standards of capturing and reporting data. I think it is necessary to have bigger players come forward to push and facilitate smaller participant companies to come to the table.”

“Essentially, the food industry, as well as other supply chain sectors, is engaged in utilizing other systems to achieve supply chain visibility, until they figure out exactly the best way to leverage blockchain technology.”

Rick Stein- Vice President, Fresh Foods, Food Marketing Institute

The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) advocates on behalf of the food retail industry, which employs nearly 5 million workers and represents a combined annual sales volume of almost $800 billion. FMI member companies operate nearly 33,000 retail food stores and 12,000 pharmacies.

“FMI guidance to its members is to work with their supply chain partners and focus on prevention of contamination, increase communication with FDA and supply chain partners, and provide simple and agreed-upon data elements for traceability and flexibility in how those data elements are shared. Our members want to be able to make technology choices on their own, and we fully expect technology to advance as it has done so in the past.

“We firmly believe in the importance of the safety of products and the increased use of technology as a tool to share information among supply chain partners. Our members will choose which technologies they adopt but are moving toward the ability to trace their products back to its origins. Blockchain is among some of the technologies used, but it’s the data within that is critical to the success.”

Rick Blasgen – President and CEO, Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP)

CSCMP is a network of more than 6,000 global supply chain professional members worldwide. It is the preeminent worldwide professional association dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of research and knowledge on supply chain management.

“To me, blockchain is almost like RFID was some years ago. We have this technology that is probably ahead of business practice. People don’t know exactly what to do with it.

“There are a lot of pilots and use cases in progress, people trying to figure out how the technology and the business process will work. But at this point, who knows where it will go. It is a bit of a leap of faith, in a way. But, this is how new ways of doing business are accomplished.

“As a technology which is enabling movement of data between partners, if blockchain produces productivity and offers a more accurate and secure way of transacting business, it will lend toward being accepted by the supply chain. The question to be asked is: What do I get out of it that improves my business process?

“I think the track-and-trace capability will be the main draw for blockchain. Greater visibility into where the inventory has been, and where it is, at any time, in the supply chain will increase productivity. This will drive supply chain leaders to pilot it, and try to figure out how to best employ it in their supply chain.”

David Shillingford – CEO Rising Tide Digital, Team Member, Resilience360

Resilience360, was developed in DHL’s Global Innovation Center, and has since become an independent company receiving venture funding from Columbia Capital. The company is an innovative supply chain risk management software platform that helps businesses predict, assess, mitigate and react to supply chain disruptions and delays.

“There are a number of different ways that blockchain relates to supply chain risk. Ultimately, at the heart of it is having accurate supply chain visibility that you can trust, and sharing this data with all parties involved. This can be done with today’s technology, but in some cases, can be done better with blockchain, because it is data that can be trusted.

“This extends to the legality and paperwork associated with product movement. When a container is moving from point A to point B, specific financial transactions relate to what is in the container, who owns it at any particular point on the Earth and having location verification. This permits financial transactions to be initiated through smart contracts, which would be difficult to do without blockchain.

“Today, the state-of-the-art of supply chain risk management encompasses bringing together two sets of data. One relates to supply chain assets, which could be manufacturing locations or distribution centers, or the shipments that are made between them. This, of course, is being mapped or tracked in real-time in the system. But this is then overlaid with future risk indicators or information about an event that has happened that might be a disruption to the supply chain. These can include weather and geological disruptions, labor issues, political upheavals, anything that might disrupt the supply chain.

“This level of insight and analytics brings together what a company’s supply chain looks like in real-time, combined with what might happen to it given known data. Ultimately what a company wants to know is what it should be concerned about and the actions it should take to mitigate any disruptive events. At its core, a blockchain-enabled supply chain can outperform traditional supply chains because it is powered by accurate data, leading to better evaluation and decision making.”

Stephen Rogers – Vice President, Blockchain Initiatives for Supply Chain, IBM

Since 2016, IBM has worked with hundreds of clients across financial services, supply chain, government, retail, digital rights management and healthcare to implement blockchain applications, and operates a number of networks running live and in production. The cloud-based IBM Blockchain Platform delivers the end-to-end capabilities that clients need to quickly activate and successfully develop, operate, govern and secure their own business networks. IBM is an early member of Hyperledger, an open-source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies.

“The Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain are going to be almost interchangeable because they will be working so closely together in the future. Right now they are viewed as two separate technologies, but they are going to come together. I would even describe blockchain as the most likely operating system for IoT networks because of its ability to provide security.”

“Food, and its supply chain, is one of those that you really want to make it an industry solution. Because having gaps in your information between the store that is selling it, and the farm that produced it, means you really don’t have a solution. You need to have information of where it was grown, where it was shipped to, and if there was any kind of an aggregation point, where that was shipped to for packaging, and where it was shipped for distribution and then shipped to the stores. You want to make sure you can capture all of that information.

“Walmart is starting out with a blockchain pilot with leafy greens, because of the past problems that have occurred with recalls. So IBM is out there with Food Trust, the first and biggest blockchain solution associated with food.” (Food Trust is an IBM blockchain-based solution that brought together a host of companies in the food industry into a network, including supply chain services companies.)

“The technology of blockchain still has a ways to grow. It still needs to be able to support higher levels of transactional throughput. There are a lot of people who describe blockchain as the golden hammer. It is not that. It is a technology. Just like robotic process automation or hybrid cars or AI, it addresses a specific set of problems. It’s just that these problems happen to be big intractable problems, so it is really important.”

___________________________________________________________

Jim McMahon is CEO of ZebraCom, Inc. He writes on industrial and technology solutions, and his features have appeared in more than 2,500 trade and business publications worldwide. You can reach him at jim.mcmahon@zebracom.net.

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The Pandemic Undermines Robust Growth of the Global Pistachio Market

October 5th, 2020 IndexBox Leave a comment

IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘World – Pistachios – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights’. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.

The global pistachio market expanded slightly to $10.6B in 2019, growing by 4% against the previous year. This figure reflects the total revenues of producers and importers (excluding logistics costs, retail marketing costs, and retailers’ margins, which will be included in the final consumer price). In general, consumption showed resilient growth, driven by both the increases in prices and in the volume of consumption in physical terms.

Pistachios are a well-known product in the Middle East and in the U.S. where they are largely grown. Being imported, the product is also widely consumed worldwide. Thus, the countries with the highest volumes of pistachio consumption in 2019 were Iran (490K tonnes), Turkey (263K tonnes) and the U.S. (255K tonnes), with a combined 67% share of global consumption.

From 2013 to 2019, the biggest increases were in Iran, while pistachio consumption for the other global leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

In value terms, the largest pistachio markets worldwide were Iran ($3.7B), the U.S. ($2B) and Turkey ($1.6B), with a combined 69% share (IndexBox estimates) of the global market.

The countries with the highest levels of pistachio per capita consumption in 2019 were Iran (5.90 kg per person), Turkey (3.18 kg per person) and Hong Kong SAR (3.12 kg per person).

Like other nuts, pistachios are consumed primarily as a snack. In addition, thanks to its distinctive taste, flavor and color, those nuts are widely used in pistachio-flavored products, in a bid to benefit on flavor. The changing consumer lifestyle, rapid urbanization and increasing disposable incomes promote the demand for on-the-go healthy convenience foods and snacks which includes pistachios. Moreover, the nuts also are recognized by vegan and highly health-conscious consumers.

Accordingly, population growth remains a fundamental market driver, combined with increases in disposable income, which in turn will contribute to enhanced consumer spending. Increasing preference for healthy food and rising health awareness is also supporting the pistachio market growth.

Until 2020, the global economy has been developing steadily for five years, which created a favorable environment for the pistachio market growth. In early 2020, however, the global economy entered a period of the crisis caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to battle the spread of the virus, most countries in the world implemented quarantine measures that put on halt production and transport activity, which undermined economic growth heavily throughout the world.

In the context of falling incomes, consumers primarily tend to exclude non-staple goods from purchases, which include pistachios. Thus, a sharp drop in household incomes is a powerful factor that will restrain the pistachios market in the medium term. In addition, the closure of the HoReCa sector limits the growth in the consumption of pistachios as ingredients for various foods and snacks.

In the countries of the Middle East, where pistachios are locally available and are staple food products, the impact of the crisis on domestic demand should be less significant. At the same time, the pistachios industry in large producing countries (the U.S., Iran, Turkey) is largely export-oriented, therefore, a decrease in demand in non-producing countries can hurt local producers.

Given the above-mentioned prerequisites, the global pistachio market is expected to contract somewhat in 2020 and then to begin a slow growth on the backdrop of a gradual recovery of the global economy from the pandemic. In the medium term, the market is expected to grow modestly, with an anticipated CAGR of +1.1% for the period from 2019 to 2030, which is projected to bring the market volume to 1.7M tonnes by the end of 2030.

Production

In 2019, approx. 1.5M tonnes of pistachios were produced worldwide; growing by 8.1% compared with 2018. Over the period under review, the total production indicated a prominent expansion from 2013 to 2019: its volume increased at an average annual rate of +13.8% over the last six-year period. The generally positive trend in terms of pistachio output was largely conditioned by the strong growth of the harvested area and a buoyant expansion in yield figures.

The countries with the highest volumes of pistachio production in 2019 were Iran (571K tonnes), the U.S. (484K tonnes) and Turkey (267K tonnes), together accounting for 88% of global production.

Harvested Area and Yield

In 2019, the global harvested area of pistachios rose rapidly to 804K ha, increasing by 6.6% against 2018 figures. The harvested area increased at an average annual rate of +5.7% over the period from 2013 to 2019. In 2019, the global average pistachio yield amounted to 1.9 tonnes per ha, stabilizing at the previous year’s figure. Over the period under review, the yield indicated resilient growth from 2013 to 2019: its figure increased at an average annual rate of +7.7% over the last six-year period.

Imports

In 2019, approx. 439K tonnes of pistachios were imported worldwide; surging by 15% compared with the previous year’s figure. The total import volume increased at an average annual rate of +3.2% over the period from 2013 to 2019. In value terms, pistachio imports rose significantly to $3.4B (IndexBox estimates) in 2019.

Imports by Country

In 2019, China (113K tonnes), distantly followed by Hong Kong SAR (65K tonnes), Germany (45K tonnes) and India (23K tonnes) were the largest importers of pistachios, together constituting 56% of total imports. Italy (18K tonnes), Belgium (15K tonnes), Spain (15K tonnes), Russia (10K tonnes), Saudi Arabia (10K tonnes), Israel (9.8K tonnes), Luxembourg (8.5K tonnes) and France (8.3K tonnes) occupied a little share of total imports.

From 2013 to 2019, the most notable rate of growth in terms of purchases, amongst the main importing countries, was attained by China, while imports for the other global leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

In value terms, the largest pistachio importing markets worldwide were China ($809M), Hong Kong SAR ($496M) and Germany ($436M), with a combined 51% share of global imports.

Import Prices by Country

In 2019, the average pistachio import price amounted to $7,794 per tonne, falling by -2.4% against the previous year. Global import price peaked at $8,208 per tonne in 2015; however, from 2016 to 2019, import prices stood at a somewhat lower figure.

There were significant differences in the average prices amongst the major importing countries. In 2019, the country with the highest price was Italy ($10,948 per tonne), while Israel ($4,799 per tonne) was amongst the lowest.

Source: IndexBox AI Platform

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USDA AND EXIM BANK UNVEIL PLAN TO BOOST U.S. AGRICULTURE EXPORTS

September 28th, 2020 GT Staff Leave a comment

EXIM President and Chairman Kimberly A. Reed and USDA Under Secretary Ted McKinney show off the memorandum of understanding they had just signed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and EXIM Bank on Aug. 31st announced a three-year collaborative effort to promote the export of U.S. agricultural commodities.

The initiative will facilitate engagement between EXIM and USDA to identify opportunities to increase the export of U.S. agricultural commodities, as well as the development of an educational program to increase awareness of export opportunities among small agribusinesses and cooperatives.

“Given my extensive background in food and agriculture, I have made sure that supporting U.S. agricultural and rural business exports are priorities at EXIM,” says EXIM Chairwoman Kimberly A. Reed. “We look forward to closer collaboration with USDA, and I thank USDA Secretary Perdue and Under Secretary McKinney for their leadership.”

“We all know, but oftentimes forget, that food is the sustenance of life,” said USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney.

“This MOU [memorandum of understanding] is bringing EXIM and USDA together to help make sure that food is transported safely and effectively so that people eat, at a time when many people do not eat well. With USDA’s outreach through our Foreign Agricultural Service, and EXIM’s resources, this MOU is a match made in heaven.”

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The Philippines, India, and Indonesia Dominate the $35B-Worth Global Coconut Market

September 25th, 2020 IndexBox Leave a comment

IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘World – Coconut – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights’. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.

In 2019, after two years of growth, there was decline in the global coconut market, when its value decreased by -3.2% to $35.2B. Overall, consumption, however, saw a relatively flat trend pattern. The pace of growth appeared the most rapid in 2018 when the market value increased by 7.9% year-to-year. As a result, consumption reached a peak level of $36.4B, and then dropped modestly in the following year.

Consumption By Country

The countries with the highest volumes of coconut consumption in 2019 were Indonesia (18M tonnes), the Philippines (15M tonnes) and India (12M tonnes), together accounting for 71% of global consumption. These countries were followed by Sri Lanka, Brazil, Viet Nam, Papua New Guinea, Mexico and Thailand, which together accounted for a further 16%.

From 2013 to 2019, the most notable rate of growth in terms of coconut consumption, amongst the main consuming countries, was attained by Viet Nam, while coconut consumption for the other global leaders experienced mixed trends in the consumption figures.

In value terms, the largest coconut markets worldwide were the Philippines ($9.8B), India ($6.8B) and Indonesia ($4.8B), together comprising 61% of the global market. These countries were followed by Sri Lanka, Brazil, Thailand, Viet Nam, Papua New Guinea and Mexico, which together accounted for a further 18%.

The countries with the highest levels of coconut per capita consumption in 2019 were Papua New Guinea (140 kg per person), the Philippines (136 kg per person) and Sri Lanka (125 kg per person).

Production

In 2019, the number of coconuts produced worldwide reached 62M tonnes, approximately reflecting the previous year. Overall, production, however, continues to indicate a relatively flat trend pattern. The pace of growth was the most pronounced in 2018 when the production volume increased by 2.4% year-to-year. Global production peaked at 62M tonnes in 2013; however, from 2014 to 2019, production stood at a somewhat lower figure.

Production by Country

The countries with the highest volumes of coconut production in 2019 were Indonesia (18M tonnes), the Philippines (15M tonnes) and India (12M tonnes), together accounting for 72% of global production. Sri Lanka, Brazil, Viet Nam, Papua New Guinea and Mexico lagged somewhat behind, together comprising a further 14%.

From 2013 to 2019, the biggest increases were in Viet Nam, while coconut production for the other global leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

Harvested Area and Yield

In 2019, the global harvested area of coconuts amounted to 13M ha, approximately equating the previous year. Over the period under review, the harvested area recorded a relatively flat trend pattern. In 2019, the global average coconut yield declined to 5 tonnes per ha, standing approx. at the previous year’s figure.

Exports

For the fourth consecutive year, the global market recorded growth in overseas shipments of coconuts, which increased by 11% to 1.1M tonnes in 2019. Over the period under review, exports posted a prominent increase. Over the period under review, global exports attained the maximum in 2019 and are expected to retain growth in the immediate term. In value terms, coconut exports rose significantly to $527M (IndexBox estimates) in 2019.

Exports by Country

Indonesia represented the major exporter of coconuts in the world, with the volume of exports resulting at 474K tonnes, which was approx. 44% of total exports in 2019. Thailand (178K tonnes) ranks second in terms of the total exports with a 16% share, followed by Viet Nam (16%) and India (9.9%). Guyana (27K tonnes), Hong Kong SAR (25K tonnes) and Sri Lanka (21K tonnes) held a little share of total exports.

From 2013 to 2019, the average annual rates of growth with regard to coconut exports from Indonesia stood at +29.1%. At the same time, Hong Kong SAR (+47.5%), Thailand (+26.7%), Guyana (+17.3%), India (+13.6%) and Viet Nam (+6.2%) displayed positive paces of growth. By contrast, Sri Lanka (-14.7%) illustrated a downward trend over the same period.

In value terms, Thailand ($151M), Indonesia ($115M) and Viet Nam ($88M) appeared to be the countries with the highest levels of exports in 2019, together comprising 67% of global exports. India, Sri Lanka and Guyana lagged somewhat behind, together accounting for a further 18%.

Export Prices by Country

The average coconut export price stood at $487 per tonne in 2019, with an increase of 1.9% against the previous year. Overall, the export price, however, continues to indicate a relatively flat trend pattern. The growth pace was the most rapid in 2015 an increase of 11% y-o-y. Over the period under review, average export prices attained the maximum at $528 per tonne in 2017; however, from 2018 to 2019, export prices stood at a somewhat lower figure.

There were significant differences in the average prices amongst the major exporting countries. In 2019, the country with the highest price was Sri Lanka ($852 per tonne), while Indonesia ($242 per tonne) was amongst the lowest.

From 2013 to 2019, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Sri Lanka, while the other global leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

Source: IndexBox AI Platform

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USTR, DOC, and Department of Agriculture Issue Plan to Investigate Foreign Imports of Certain Perishable Produce

September 7th, 2020 Stephen Brophy, Turner Kim, and Camron Greer Leave a comment

On September 1, 2020 the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Department of Agriculture, and Department of Commerce issued a 32-page report outlining the Trump Administration’s plan to address increased foreign imports of perishable fruits and vegetables. Following the public hearings held in August, the Administration published this report in hopes to open a dialogue with senior Mexican Government officials over the next 90 days regarding specific produce.

The USTR requested that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) formally initiate an investigation under Section 201of the Trade Act of 1974 (Global Safeguard Investigation) with respect to imports of blueberries. Additionally, USTR intends to request that the ITC monitor and investigate imports of strawberries and bell peppers, which could lead to an expedited Section 201 investigations later this year.

The USTR is separately pursuing negotiations with the Mexican government to address U.S. industry concerns over imports of strawberries, bell peppers, and other perishable products. Section 201 investigations occur when a country experiences an unexpected surge in the import quantity of a certain product. The most recent Section 201 investigation was used to limit imports of solar panels and washing machines in 2018.

Other initiatives include the Department of Commerce improving communication with U.S. farmers responsible for growing the subject produce and assisting them in understanding trade remedy laws and procedures.

Similarly, the Department of Agriculture will develop a market promotion strategy for domestically produced produce and work with producers to maximize the use of existing agriculture programs. USTR, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Agriculture will establish an interagency working group to monitor seasonal and perishable fruit and vegetable products, coordinate as appropriate regarding future investigations and trade actions, and provide technical assistance to Congress in developing legislation on this issue.

The interagency announcement regarding imports of certain fruits and vegetables follows media reports that U.S. farmers are on track to receive a record $37.2 billion in subsidies from the government this year.

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Stephen Brophy is an attorney in Husch Blackwell LLP’s Washington, D.C. office focusing on international trade.

Turner Kim is an Assistant Trade Analyst in Husch Blackwell LLP’s Washington, D.C. office.

Camron Greer is an Assistant Trade Analyst in Husch Blackwell LLP’s Washington, D.C. office.

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Germany, the UK, and France Dominate the European Frozen Fish Fillet Market

August 31st, 2020 IndexBox Leave a comment

IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘EU – Frozen Fish Fillet – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights’. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.

The EU frozen fish fillet market totaled $6.6B in 2019 (IndexBox estimates), surging by 5.1% against the previous year. This figure reflects the total revenues of producers and importers (excluding logistics costs, retail marketing costs, and retailers’ margins, which will be included in the final consumer price). The market value increased at an average annual rate of +2.0% from 2013 to 2019; the trend pattern remained consistent, with only minor fluctuations being recorded throughout the analyzed period. The pace of growth appeared the most rapid in 2018 with an increase of 7.7% year-to-year. Over the period under review, the market reached the maximum level in 2019 and is likely to see gradual growth in years to come.