Page 875 of articles about news

According to EPA reports, the overall ammonia nitrogen tested at Kaoping river, a major water source of the island, decreased by 0.2 cc/liter in the past eight years, a significant number when considering the volume of the body of water. The EPA also succeeded in closing over 4,000 pig farms near the five major rivers of Taiwan over the past eight years, said Chang Ting-jing, director of the Bureau of Environmental Inspection of the EPA.

The private sector anticipates food exports will drop this year by 15% from last year's 778 billion baht. The National Food Institute (NFI), the Thai Chamber of Commerce and Federation of Thai Industries project Thai food shipments of 661.2 billion baht this year due to the global crisis. The groups projected commodity exports worth 156.4 billion baht, down by 31.4%, semi-processed foods 137.6 billion (-16.9%), beverages 12.1 billion (-15.2%), animal food 38.46 billion (-11.8%) and processed food 316.58 billion baht (-3%).

Fears have also been expressed that the sow herd will shrink when the European Union partial ban on stalls comes fully into effect in 2013. Producers in other countries may decide to quit also, rather than invest in new sow accommodation. This will lead to a significant shortage of pigs on the continent from 2013 onwards.

Total number of pigs in the United Kingdom fell 2.6 percent, from 4.7m in December 2007 to 4.6m in December 2008. The number of breeding pigs fell 2.8 percent, from 519,000 in December 2007 to 504,000 in December 2008.

Pork production is expected to increase 4 percent in 2009, due in most part to large investments in swine production in 2007-08, higher reproductive yields and government measures to curb imports.

The House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry held a hearing to review animal identification systems on Wednesday. The National Animal Identification System is a voluntary program that has been in place since 2004, but many are pushing for the program to become mandatory.

FAS Beijing forecasts China’s pork production will continue rising in 2009 to 48.8 million metric tons. Higher pork production and lower prices will reduce 2009 pork imports by nearly half to 300,000 metric tons.

During the meeting it was confirmed that prices have recovered in recent weeks, and that the performance of exports in 2008 was excellent, with a 20% increase on the previous year. The meeting also examined legislative projects which have recently, or will imminently, come into effect. (Original in Spanish. Read Google translation here).

Although most of the food industry may be following safe production procedures, the majority of the public doesn’t feel it does enough, according to a recently-released American Society for Quality survey.

According to figures from the Federal Office of Statistics, Germany exported nearly 2.2 million tonnes of pig meat last year. (Original in German. Read Google translation here).

The December census makes grim reading with a fall of pig numbers of 20% on 2007 to 432,000 pigs. Only in 2003, the number of pigs in the country was 620,000. With consumption stable at around 90,000 tonnes, this means that self-sufficiency that has been around 70% for some years will fall and Slovenia will import more pig meat in the future.

The survey shows that the Germans evaluate German pig meat as the best according to all parameters.

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) is urging the federal government to adopt standards that apply equally to both federal and state meat inspection programs.

The UK’s farming industry has received a boost as Defra’s request for a derogation from one of the more burdensome provisions of the EU Nitrates Directive was agreed at the EU Nitrates Committee.

The European parliament has adopted an initiatives report with the aim of simplifying the normatives of commercialization, giving better information to consumers, making the ticket of origin more precise, and protecting quality European products better at an international level.