Posts Tagged “feature”
Higher walnut consumption may be associated with a lower risk of death and an increase in life expectancy among older adults in the U.S., compared to those who do not consume walnuts.
A new study conducted Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers, has been supported by the California Walnut Commission.
“What we’ve learned from this study is that even a few handfuls of walnuts per week may help promote longevity, especially among those whose diet quality isn’t great to begin with,” Yanping Li, Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and lead investigator of this research.
“It’s a practical tip that can be feasible for a number of people who are looking to improve their health, which is top of mind for many people,” Li said.
This study found five or more one-ounce servings of walnuts per week may provide the greatest benefit for mortality risk and life expectancy.
Eating five or more servings per week was associated with a 14% lower risk of death (from any cause), a 25% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases, and a gain in about 1.3 years of life expectancy, compared to those who didn’t consume walnuts.
Consuming walnuts two to four times per week could have its benefits, too, with the study finding a 13% lower risk of death overall, 14% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases, and a gain in about one year of life, compared to non-walnut consumers.
Participants were relatively healthy when they joined the studies and were followed for about 20 years (1998-2018).
Dietary intake was assessed every 4 years in which participants reported on their overall dietary intake – including how often they consumed walnuts, other tree nuts, and peanuts – as well as lifestyle factors like exercise and smoking status.
Based on this data, the researchers were able to identify associations between walnut consumption at varying levels and different health indicators related to longevity.
As a prospective observational study, these results do not prove cause and effect, but they do shed light on how walnuts may support an overall healthy lifestyle that promotes longevity.
Participants who consumed greater amounts of walnuts tended to be more physically active, have a healthier diet, lower alcohol consumption, and take multivitamins.
All of these factors could influence life expectancy, however, the researchers adjusted for these aspects in their analysis. In addition, it’s important to note that this data was collected before the current Covid-19 pandemic.
One ounce of walnuts is a powerhouse of important nutrients for optimum health, including protein (4g), fiber (2g), a good source of magnesium (45mg) and an excellent source of the essential omega-3 ALA (2.5g).
The Chilean fruit industry and authorities have marked the first shipment from the port of Talcahuano (San Vicente Port) en route to Los Angeles, California, according to PortalPortuario. This adds another option for the country’s fruit production to reach northern markets for fruit harvested in both Central and Northern Chile. The first shipment took place the week of February 7th and included 9,210 pallets of fresh fruit, including blueberries, grapes, pears and stone fruit.
The development is part of a strategy from the port concessionaire San Vicente Terminal Internacional (SVTI) and the port operator Puertos de Talcahuano to diversify the sectors served by the facility.
“This first shipment of this year’s refrigerated fruit confirms the multipurpose work of our concessionarie SVTI, and at the same time demonstrate that the San Vicente Port is an attractive option for agricultural exporters not just in the central and southern regions of Chile, but also from the north”, said Guacolda Vargas, development and sustainability manager of Puertos de Talcahuano.
This first logistical run included the participation of around 300 refrigerated trucks that moved goods from the regions of Coquimbo, Valparaíso, O’Higgins, Maule and others. Authorities from Chile’s agricultural and livestock service SAG and fruit exporters association ASOEX were also on hand.
Chile’s fruit industry depends largely on the ports of San Antonio and Valparaiso in the center of the country, both of which have suffered in the past from logistical bottlenecks and labor issues.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Strategically bolstering its international presence in recent years, Oppy is among the first to offer South African plums to the North American marketplace following an eight-year hiatus.
As U.S. authorities tightened import regulations for Chilean plums following pest detection in early 2021, Sila Louw, who joined the leading grower, marketer and distributor in the interim to head its South African operations, proposed complementing Oppy’s plum offerings with fruit grown on his home soil — first arriving on the East Coast in late January.
The Oppy team is reporting excellent growing conditions and crop quality this season, with supplies planned through March. Varieties already in the market include Ruby Sun, Ruby Crisp, Fortune, Black Pearl and Midnight Gold, with African Delight, Angeleno and Larry Ann to follow in the coming months.
“While we have brought grapes and citrus from South Africa for many years, it’s a particularly exciting time to dive deeper into new items with a fresh edge, allowing us to offer exclusive options to our customers,” said Oppy’s Senior Vice President of Categories and Marketing James Milne.
Continuing to bring Chilean plums to market under strict protocols, Oppy is also currently importing cherries, nectarines, peaches, blueberries and table grapes from the South American country, with apples and kiwifruit arriving soon.
“This is an excellent opportunity to further diversify across growing regions, adding complementary varieties and volumes from Chile,” added Oppy’s Vice President of South American Operations Eric Coty.
About Oppy
Growing, marketing and distributing fresh produce from around the globe for more than 160 years, Vancouver, BC-based Oppy discovers and delivers the best of the world’s harvest. With over 50 million boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables grown on every continent moving through its supply chain annually, Oppy offers popular favorites from avocados and berries to apples and oranges year-round, alongside innovative seasonal specialties. Over the years, Oppy has introduced North Americans to a number of items across its diverse produce range, including Granny Smith, JAZZ and Envy apples, as well as green and gold kiwifruit. Go to www.oppy.com to learn more.
Over 70% of U.S. households ordered groceries — including fresh produce — online in 2021, at least once.
The U.S. online grocery market captured $8.9 billion in sales during December as more than 69 million households shopped online for groceries, according to the Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey .
December’s results increased annual online grocery sales to $97.7 billion for 2021, as more than 70% of U.S. households, or 93 million, received one or more orders during the year, according to a news release.
Brick Meets Click conducted the survey on December 29-30, with 1,836 adults, 18 years and older, who participated in the household’s grocery shopping. Responses are geographically representative of the U.S. and weighted by age to reflect the national population of adults according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Even though most grocery retailers used third-party delivery platforms when they began selling online, the U.S. is a pickup-dominant market. That dominance continues across markets of all sizes, except in some of the largest urban markets where delivery overtook pickup for the first time in December 2021.
Full-year results for 2021 showed that the pickup segment grew its share of online sales to 45%, up 5 percentage points versus 2020, while delivery’s share remained basically unchanged at 33% and ship-to-home’s share dropped 5 points to 22%.
“If retailers are surprised by these results, it’s likely because they are missing a broader view of how and where customers are shopping online for groceries,” Brick Meets Click partner David Bishop said in the release. “Even before the pandemic started, pickup was preferred over delivery. Then in April 2020, pickup took the top spot away from ship-to-home, and it’s kept that spot ever since.”
For 2021, the average number of orders placed by Monthly Active Users (MAUs) held relatively steady at 2.74 per month, down just 1% versus 2020. However, the volatility in 2021’s monthly order frequency dropped 60% versus 2020 levels, signaling that buying patterns are becoming more entrenched at a level that is 35% higher than pre-COVID levels, according to the release.
When 2021’s online share of total grocery spending is adjusted to exclude ship-to-home because most grocers do not offer this option, the results reveal that the combined pickup and delivery segments captured 10% of total grocery sales, up 2 points from 2020.
Throughout December 2021, the share of grocery’s monthly active users who also placed at least one online order with mass retailers jumped to 29.1%, setting a record high for this shopper metric. For these households, cross-shopping with Target rose sharply while Walmart dipped slightly, and the gap between the two retailers shrank to only 2.5 percentage points, the smallest it has ever been.
“The state of online grocery in the U.S. today underscores not only the need for grocers to compete online for sales, but also the imperative to develop and implement more sound strategies that improve profitability as sales growth becomes more challenging,” Mercatus president and CEO Sylvain Perrier said in the release.
That means consumer satisfaction is paramount, requiring operations be efficient for the retailer and to cater to consumers’ quality and convenience demands, he said.
The Port of Philadelphia, PhilaPort, had a record-breaking year in growth in 2021.
The Port saw double-digit growth in containers, breakbulk and overall port tonnage for the year.
Year-to-Date TEU volumes have increased 15% to 739,323 TEUs, with imports growing 16% and export 15%. PhilaPort surpassed its 2020 total TEU count of (640,799), marking another new milestone.
“It has been an interesting year full of challenges and opportunities,” said Jeff Theobald, PhilaPort Executive Director and CEO. “Not only did we surge in container volumes, but some BCOs (beneficial cargo owners) shifted to breakbulk shipments. PhilaPort is one of the only U.S. ports that has several facilities that are purpose-built to handle breakbulk. PhilaPort steel volumes were up 196%, cocoa volumes went up 106% and wood pulp & lumber volumes increased over 10%.”
Breakbulk YTD cargo volumes grew 19% to 1,288,226 metric tons. Breaking our end-of-year volumes from 2020 (previous 1,083,427 metric tons).
Overall Port tonnage YTD volumes grew 10% to 7,062,523 metric tons, crushing the Port’s highest record set back in 2017 at 6,868,747 metric tons.
Other December Cargo Highlights (Year-End Summary):
• Steel Tonnage +196% YTD
• Wood Pulp +11% YTD
• Lumber +11% YTD
• Cocoa Beans +106% YTD
• Vessels +7% YTD
PhilaPort, The Port of Philadelphia, is an independent agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania charged with the management, maintenance, marketing, and promotion of port facilities along the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, as well as strategic planning throughout the port district. PhilaPort works with its terminal operators to improve its facilities and to market those facilities to prospective port users around the world. Port cargoes and the activities they generate are responsible for thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the Philadelphia area and throughout Pennsylvania.
Avocado inspections in Michoacan, Mexico has restarted and avocado exports to the U.S. have resumed, the USDA announced February 18.
The USDA, working closely with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico’s Regional Security Officer, Mexico’s national plant protection organization (SENASICA) and the Association of Avocado Producers and Packers Exporters of Mexico, or APHIS, has enacted additional measures that enhance safety for APHIS inspectors working in the field, following a threat made to an employee on February 11, according to the release.
“The safety of USDA employees simply doing their jobs is of paramount importance,” the USDA said. “USDA is appreciative of the positive, collaborative relationship between the United States and Mexico that made resolution of this issue possible in a timely manner.”
In 2021, the U.S. imported $3.0 billion avocados globally, with $2.8 billion coming from Mexico (92%). In terms of volume, the U.S. imported 1.2 million metric tons of avocados, with 1.1 million coming from Mexico (89%). For the last full calendar year (2020) of available data, Mexico reported exports of avocados of $3.2 billion, of which 79% went to the U.S.
In 2020 and 2021, approximately 80% of the avocados exported from Michoacán went to U.S. markets. The peak growing season for Mexican avocados is January through March, while the U.S production season for avocado fruit runs from April to September.
Mexico and the U.S. will continue working together to fortify the strong bilateral supply chains that promote economic growth and prosperity in both countries.
“We are grateful that both countries have come to a resolution so that the U.S. and Mexico can continue our positive trading relationship,” the IFPA said in the statement. “IFPA looks forward to continuing to work with businesses on both sides of the border and their respective governments to continue to monitor and address these issues, so consumers can continue to enjoy uninterrupted access to fresh produce.”
Florida is expected to produce 44.5 million boxes of oranges this year, which would be the smallest since the 1944-45 season when 42.23 million boxes were produced, according to the USDA. This will be an even smaller crop than when Hurricane Irma hit Florida several years ago.
Citrus disease and poor growing conditions are the primary factors. Meanwhile, demand for orange juice, which has been declining for years, has increased during the pandemic.
The result is higher orange juice prices, and those increasing costs are expected to continue: Frozen orange juice futures have surged more than 50% during the pandemic.
The anticipated spike in orange juice prices comes as consumers are already facing inflation across multiple sectors. The US consumer price index rose 7% over the past year before seasonal adjustments, the steepest climb in prices since June 1982, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently.
Over the past year, food consumed at home was 6.5% more expensive while prices at restaurants rose 6%. Fruit juice and nonalcoholic drink prices have already spiked 5.7% this year, and orange juice futures are up.
Florida supplies most of the country’s orange juice, but supplies have been dwindling for years.
Mediterranean Shipping Co. has become the word’s largest shipping line in terms of capacity, according to data compiled by Alphaliner and published on recently by Bloomberg.
The Danish carrier A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S is no longer the world’s largest container line.
MSC’s fleet can carry 4,284,728 standard 20-foot containers, 1,888 more than Maersk, giving both a market share of 17%.
Maersk, which first entered containerized trade in 1975, has held the top spot for decades. The carrier has been a pioneer in the industry, often breaking records by building the biggest ships.
More recently, it has invested in vessels that can sail on carbon-neutral methanol. It still has the most capacity in terms of owned vessels: MSC has about 65% of its capacity from chartered ships whereas Maersk only has 42%.
After struggling to make money for much of the past decade, the container shipping industry just had its most profitable year ever as pandemic-driven demand for consumer goods strains capacity on vessels. Freight rates out of Shanghai have jumped about five-fold over the last 18 months.
“We never set a specific target to be the biggest,” MSC Chief Executive Officer Soren Toft said in an emailed comment on Wednesday, adding that he’s focusing on growth and profitability.
Maersk CEO Soren Skou last month reiterated in an interview that holding the top spot isn’t important for the Copenhagen-based company, which is investing on expanding its land-based logistics where profit margins are higher.
Chilean fruit exporters are experiencing lower profit margins due to the increased cost of ocean freight, according to the Association of Fruit Exporters of Chile (ASOEX) and the Agricultural Society of Biobio (Socabio).
ASOEX reports rates are increasing considerably in relation to the freight paid the previous two years.
The exporters association notes a U.S. study shows 25 percent of the price consumers are paying corresponds to the freight issue.
This hike has a direct impact on fruit producers and exporters throughout Chile due to freight increases and is one of the fundamental concerns of the industry is specific commodities, such as cherries, table grapes, peaches, nectarines, and kiwis, cannot directly absorb the increase in the cost of the freight.
Socabio reports the cost of freight has risen 30 to 40 percent, which affects the profitability of the exported crops, although it depends on the crop; in the case of fresh fruit, it becomes more expensive to export because it is important to export the crop quickly.
Over the weekend, the U.S. government suspended avocado imports from Mexico “…until further notice.”
The Associated Press reported Mexico has acknowledged the U.S. government has suspended all imports of Mexican avocados after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threat.
The decision, confirmed late Saturday, February 11, could have a major economic impact on the Mexican avocado industry. Mexico exports nearly $3 billion of avocados a year.
The U.S. government suspended all imports of Mexican avocados “until further notice” after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threatening message, Mexico’s Agriculture Department said in a statement, according to the AP report. The report named avocado exports and growers as the latest victims of the drug cartel turf battles in the western state of Michoacan, the only state in Mexico fully authorized to export to the U.S. market.
“U.S. health authorities … made the decision after one of their officials, who was carrying out inspections in Uruapan, Michoacan, received a threatening message on his official cellphone,” the department wrote.
One Michoacan grower notes to reach a faster resolution of the suspension, adding more security for USDA officials may be necessary because of Mexico’s ongoing security issues.
According to AP, many avocado growers in Michoacan — where the Jalisco cartel is fighting turf wars against a collection of local gangs known as the United Cartels — say drug gangs threaten them or their family members with kidnapping or death unless they pay protection money, sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars per acre.
The U.S. Embassy, which said in a social media post that it’s “working with the Mexican government to guarantee security conditions that would allow [its] personnel in Michoacan to resume operations,” has also said that “facilitating the export of Mexican avocados to the U.S. and guaranteeing the safety of our agricultural inspection personnel go hand in hand,” the AP report said.
This is not the first time that USDA officials have been threatened with violence in Mexico, said AP, pointing to a direct threat to U.S. inspectors in the town of Ziracuaretiro in August 2019 and the killing of a Mexican employee of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Sept. 30, 2020.
Michoacan has been exporting avocados to the U.S. for about 25 years, and commercial shipments of Mexican fresh Hass avocados from the state have been imported since 1997, according to APHIS. Michoacan is the only state currently approved to send avocados to the U.S.
The vast majority of Mexican avocados were crossing the U.S. Border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas
Dominican Republic Avocados
Dominican Republic Desbry® Tropical Avocados are available in ample supply for immediate shipping, which are grown and distributed by WP Produce Corporation, headquartered in Miami, FL.
The company’s tropical avocados remain green when ripe, are about three times larger than the more familiar Hass variety, have a sturdy texture, and stay fresh longer after being cut (slower to oxidize and turn brown).
Dominican Republic avocados are well-known throughout the East Coast of the U.S., as well as the Caribbean and many parts of the world. They are gaining popularity throughout the U.S. as retailers expand the avocado category and shoppers and chefs learn about it.
The impending shortage of Mexican avocados is happening during peak season for W.P. Produce’s tropical avocados.
“We grow and pack Desbry® Tropical Avocados on our sustainable farms and facilities in Florida and the Dominican Republic, depending on the season, and ship throughout North America 365 days a year,” said Christopher Gonzalez, VP of Sales for WP Produce and nephew of founder Willy Pardo.”
Founded in 1984, WP Produce is a family-owned, multi-regional grower, packer and shipper of fresh, tropical fruits and roots. WP Produce has been a pioneer in the tropical avocado market since 1992 and is now the largest importer and distributor of Dominican Tropical Avocados worldwide. With farms and partnerships with growers in Florida and the Dominican Republic, WP Produce offers a wide variety of tropical produce and root vegetables under the premium Desbry® brand.