US Strawberries: Do growers sacrifice taste for size?

When American Greetings introduced the rag-doll style character Strawberry Shortcake in 1980, she generated $500 million in sales for the company over the next two years, according to the company's Web site.

If that character hadn't been introduced at that time, and someone had the idea of creating a similar character today, I don't think the marketing people would approve.

Why, you ask? Because strawberries aren't cute anymore. Commercial strawberries that you get in the grocery store look more like goblin noses or deformed animal hooves. I can hardly look at them.

Some googling of how these monstrous strawberries came to be is revealed in an informative piece in The Boston Globe from 2006, where members of the California Strawberry Commission said they've gotten bigger because they've been bred to be bigger, because that's what people supposedly want.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture also pointed out that with bigger berries, a smaller amount can fill a pint, meaning fewer individual berries need to be picked, saving labor time.

They say larger strawberries don't taste different, but I wonder. Often varieties of produce bred to suit the producer - easier to pick, better for withstanding travel, etc. - lose their taste genes.

So what can we do? Support local berries. Apparently 88 percent of berries sold in America come from the West Coast. But handfuls of orchards and family farms still grow their own strawberries, and they're worth seeking out.

Strawberry festivals should be popping up at local churches during the next few weeks. Check them out, and ask where the strawberries came from. See if you can taste the difference.

Indian banana sets sail for Saudi Arabia

India's banana exports crossed a new milestone Friday when a container load of the fruit bound for Jeddah left this industrial town in Gujarat's Bharuch district. About a thousand farmers, who produced the fruit on a contract basis for Desai Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd (DFV), cheered as the 18-tonne special reefer container moved out from the company's cold storage complex. The consignment is being sent as part of a multi million-dollar contract signed with Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Adallah Sharbatly Co. Ltd.'

This is in effect the 51st container which is going. The previous 50 containers were sent on a trial basis,' said P.K. Khandelwal, CEO of DFV. Bananas were till now exported through merchant exporters and this is the first time a container load is being shipped away. The company is planning to dispatch container loads of fruits to seven more countries within a month. With this, India will join Latin American countries and the Philippines in the Far East as a global supplier of bananas.

A large retailer in India has approached DFV for the supply of premium quality bananas at a good price. This will be finalised in the next two months. India is the largest producer of bananas in the world with 23 percent of the global production, which is estimated at 72.5 million tonnes a year. Brazil, China, Ecuador and Philippines are the other major producers. Export bananas are the developing world's fourth most important commodity and rank first as a commonly eaten fruit.

DFV, founded in 2001 by Ajit Desai, a Gujarat farmer, pioneered banana exports from India. With earnings of $750,000 in 2006-07, the company has become India's largest banana exporter. Desai has created India's first multi-fruit integrated infrastructure and his DFV has now become one of the largest fruit logistics firms in India and works with close to 2,500 farmers spread across 23 villages in Gujarat and 16 villages in Maharashtra. This has made DFV one of the largest contract farming exporters in India.

DFV has a model farm where a tree yields 35 kg per plant compared to the normal output of 17 kg in others. Desai said: 'DFV assures a promise of a minimum price and underwrites initial investment in seeds. Then there is a central labour bank for specific harvesting and post-harvesting of banana cultivation. Any of our contract farmers can ask for skilled labour from this bank.'

Apart from assured income, the Desai farm-certified farmers are getting a taste of hi-tech and best practices. Desai has converted migrating tribal villagers in Surat district to farmers producing fruits and vegetables. He offers cold-chain logistics at the grass root level in various villages.

The company operates at international best practice benchmarks and has cultivated for itself a good customer base including supermarkets as well as leading importers, distributors in Europe, the US, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. DFV's 2007 turnover was close to $8 million. The company's equity holding is in the nature of 80:20. While 80 percent is owned by Contract Farming India, a firm based in Zug, Switzerland, Desai owns 20 percent.

Malaysian Agriculture Office In Dubai To Boost Agro Product Exports

The Malaysian Agriculture Office in Dubai is conducting market studies and meeting interested parties with a view to increasing the export volume of Malaysia's agro-based products to the emirate and beyond. Agriculture Counsellor Abdul Razak Ahmad said among the areas to be looked into include demand and supply factors as well as pricing to make such products more competitive. "What I've observed is that there are many agro-based products from countries like Thailand and the Philippines in Dubai. And Malaysia too would like to make its presence felt here," he told Bernama.

He said the office would serve as a matchmaker between Malaysian companies and those in the UAE intending to do business in the agricultural sector together. The Dubai office is part of a chain of bureaus opened by the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry in an effort to promote Malaysian agro-based products abroad. The rest are located in the Netherlands, China, Thailand, Japan, Australia and United States. Abdul Razak said that Malaysian papayas and jackfruits were available in Dubai albeit in small quantities.

He said he was in the process of meeting local companies already importing agro-based products from Malaysia to encourage them to increase the volume. Being a big producer of pineapples, he said, Malaysia should also be looking at exporting the fruit to this part of the world. "We also have fruits like guava, dragon fruit and star fruit that could be marketed here," he said, adding that seasonal fruits were also an option. Abdul Razak noted that Malaysia exported fruits in large quantities to places like Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and parts of Europe.

He said he had met senior United Arab Emirates agriculture officials who expressed support over the setting up of the agriculture office in Dubai. "Being a wealthy country, UAE and Dubai can buy anything from all the four corners of the world," he added.

Rice cartel to benefit regional, global food security

An organization of rice exporting countries (OREC) will help make regional and global food price more stable in the future, said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday at a university graduation ceremony.
Unlike the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), OREC would contribute to ensuring food price stability not just in individual countries, but to addressing the problem of food shortage in the region and the world, he said.
OREC won't hoard rice to raise prices when there is shortage, so people shouldn't be worried about the creation of OREC, he said.
Meanwhile, he clarified that he himself was the original creator of the OREC concept, as he first mentioned it in 2005 during a meeting of the OREC countries, namely Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.
After all, Cambodia has two million tons of rice for export each year, while Thailand has 9.5 million tons, he added.
On April 30, in response to ever spiraling rice price, Thailand highlighted the idea to establish OREC, which quickly resulted in widespread mixed reactions.
Cambodia surely appeared positive. Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Chan Sarun told a rural products exhibition in southern province of Takeo on Sunday that OREC aims for common price of rice in order to enhance their capability of rice production, help settle the world food crisis and increase incomes for their farmers.
During a meeting in Indonesia on Sunday, the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nations) countries, including OREC themselves, agreed for cooperation to stabilize rice price.
However, on the same day during a meeting in Spain, Asian Development Bank's senior officials clearly opposed establishment of the OREC, citing that it contradicted the free spirit of market economy and would bring about disadvantages to both sellers and purchasers.
According to earlier reports, the OREC are now planning to meet as soon as possible to materialize the concept.
The rice exports of Thailand and Vietnam used to account for some 40 percent of the world's total annual export of rice. If Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are also included, the percentage will rise over 50 percent.
Rice price has been spiraling since 2008 and high-quality rice currently sells some 1,000 US dollars a ton.

Grocers introduce their hot new products

VANCOUVER - If the lineup of new products on display at Grocer Showcase West is any indication, you can expect to see flax hitting store shelves by the pallet-load in the weeks and months to come.

The colon-friendly grain is on display at the exhibition of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers in chunks, hunks, flakes, flours and every cereal and cracker shape you can imagine and a few you probably can't.

There's so many, in fact, that the T-bone filet-mignon flavoured dog biscuits tasted pretty good after sampling a few too many super-fibrous snacks.

The grocery showcase is a chance for the nation's storekeepers to see and sample new products and place orders for the ones that capture their imagination or fill a void in their local market. What will be the next big thing? Cheese-filled bagels shaped like Twinkies? What about Bodacious Ketchup in a foil bag?

McCain wants to help consumers join the slow food revolution . . . instantly.

Their Slow Cooker Solutions are all-day simmered stews that you just open and tip into the Crock Pot.

None had the immediate curb appeal of the flax products.

Flax is the latest craze of the health conscious eater as it promotes "digestive regularity" and is said to have potent cancer-fighting qualities.

The Flax Plus Red Berry Crunch is a rustic-looking breakfast cereal being promoted by food giant Acosta Foods. Across the aisle, the Weetabix Minibix Chocolate Crisp is a disconcerting combination of chocolate chips and fibre in a puck form that took a full minute to chew.

Leaping Lemurs is a new breakfast cereal that is refreshingly devoid of colon-cleansing seeds, instead opting for tried-and-true Cap'n-Crunch-like balls of crunchy peanut butter and chocolate.

Such confections are noticeably rare among the new market entries with their obsession for digestive health.

The independent grocers, whose ranks include Stongs, Save-On Foods and Choices Markets, were also presented with a number of unique B.C. products including sweet fruit and pepper jellies from Campbell River and dips and spice mixes from Kelowna. Both were among the mom-and-pop B.C.-based operations that were cheek-by-jowl with the major food conglomerates vying for new customers and bigger markets

Karen Pattison has been running Bite Size Specialty Foods for seven years. Her preserves run from jams made from local fruit and berries to blistering fruit and pepper jellies. A large yellow card warned of the incendiary nature of the habanero jelly samples.

Pattison grew the business slowly after a back injury forced her to leave her job as a bartender. She still runs the business on her own, but that could change if she lands enough orders at the exhibition.

"I still do most of it myself, but I am getting really busy," she said. "Yesterday was just great. I have seven people interested in placing orders."

Maple Leaf Spices is run by Dee Mole, who started her business four years ago in her Kelowna kitchen. She sells dip mixes and spice mixes at the Kelowna farmer's market and 150 stores across the country.

"At the farmer's market you get people tasting and that helps build the brand," said Mole, who was a human resources manager for 25 years before following her dream in the food industry.

"I'm a one-man show still," she said. "And I love this."