Reader’s Digest – November 2021

In November 2021, we published the following articles:

• Global Imports of Tomato Products, updated 1 November 2021.
• Food-at-home and Focus on Wellness are two of the pandemic-induced consumer trends that will stay after the pandemic.
• A Brazilian start-up, Crop Biotecnologia, has developed a platform to express peptides in tomatoes, for the treatment of chronic diseases. The first peptide and the platform itself are currently in the patenting process.
• The 14^th World Tomato Processing Congress and the 16^th ISHS Symposium will finally take place on 20 to 24 March 2022, after having been postponed due to the pandemic.
• In California, after two years of drought, farmers are planning for all scenarios. The impact of climate change is worse than of the Coronavirus pandemic, and there is no return back to normal.
• The price of packaging commodities continues to rise, primarily driven by a rise in US plastics and EU paper prices.
• More and more tomato processors are recycling and re-using by-products, such as transforming waste into energy of food for livestock, using plant-based plastics to replace the carton packs, using residues as agricultural fertilizer, thereby contributing to the circular economy.
• Call for papers for the 16^th ISHS Symposium in San Juan in March 2022.
• GB Foods invested N20 billion into agricultural production and industrial processing of fresh tomatoes in Nigeria. The company plans to build a large tomato processing factory, as well as the largest single tomato farm in Africa.
• A new smartphone app, Setai, combines CO₂ footprint and health score information. The health score is based on Nutri-Score and the Nova classification system.
• FBR ELPO launched their new Mustang aseptic filler, which can process up to 1.200 bags/h.
• Heinz launches their "Marz Edition" ketchup, made from tomatoes grown in the same harsh conditions as found on Mars.
• Global Exports of Tomato Paste, updated 15 November 2021.
• Paste Prices, November 2021: USA, Spain, Portugal, Italy, China, Chile.
• Italy, which exports 60% of their canned tomato products, need to form a united front, in the light of the recent (and future) price increases the sector is suffering from.
• The Spanish company Apis announced a change in the packaging of its tomato frito. They are now using the new plant-based Tetra Brik packaging, together with a more contemporary design.
• With a 6 million tonnes of processed tomatoes this year, a 17% increase compared to last year, Italy is now (again) the 2^nd producing country in the world, with the United States as number 1 and China now as number 3.
• Exports results for Turkey have seen a sharp increase in 2020/2021, and this is confirmed over the first few months of 2021/2022.
• In Italy, an initiative to combat spider mite, which began in 2019 and will end next spring, is getting some interesting results.
• Lycored presents its solutions to help the prepared food industry add more flavor, more volume and more profit margin from every tomato.
• Prices of Canned Tomatoes, November 2021: Italy, Spain, USA, Greece, Portugal.
• The European benchmark price for carbon allowances exceeded 701 Euros per tonne for the first time since 2005.
• Seasons highlights in California from the PTAB 2021 report.
• Spanish researchers developed bioplastics from tomato pomace, which decompose after one month in the sea instead of after 450 year for regular plastics.
• In Algeria, the processing tomato sector reported record performances, thereby ensuring the country its self-sufficiency in terms of tomato paste. 

You can find the individual articles in the NEWS list and/or search by keyword, date etc.