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Dear friends of the Global Food Summit, |
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I would like to thank you all, all speakers, guests, colleagues and sponsors, for your support after the cancellation of the Global Food Summit at the beginning of March. Even though the cancellation of the event was a deep cut with many new experiences, we have continued to work. We are already in preparations for the Global Food Summit 2021 and for the Berlin Science Week in November 2020.
This crisis is also a major challenge for food security in a global supply system. The pandemic and its consequences for international labour and supply chains add another set of problems to the issues of climate change, urbanisation and increasing changes in opinion on animal welfare.
The question arises as to what a "new start" in the food sector for manufacturing, production and trade alike should look like now. It is questionable whether the crisis also opens up the opportunity for joint action. Just as Europe's cohesion is called for in the crisis, one could also expect the players in the food industry to take concerted action. These are challenges which, in the end, politicians must also help to shape.
These challenges concern all players:
Should global supply systems be set up for urban nutrition, which require cross-border supply chains and the highest industry standards? Or should we focus on regional concepts in which new technologies are used to provide a decentralized basic supply of, for example, alternative proteins from laboratories?
Which regulatory framework do we need for innovative products so that the economic success can be attributed to production in Germany?
Where are vertical farms or aquaponic systems in Germany being tested on a large scale by manufacturers and industry on a cross-sectoral basis, so that we can enable "environmentally controlled agriculture" in a world affected by climate change?
And last but not least, how can we create a closed cycle, especially in the food sector? Urbanisation and safety regulations have had a major impact on this cycle. Food and packaging waste has become a problem in the global North, from which the global South is also increasingly suffering.
What's the saying in football? After the game is before the game. Even so the Global Food Summit was cancelled due to force majeure, we are looking forward to the new season. Because the questions on the topic of "A World Without Hunger" are more important than ever and need to be discussed openly.
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Yours sincerely,  Stephan Becker-Sonnenschein
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Interview Interview with Stefan Genth, General Manager of the German Retail Association |
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Retail |
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Consequences of Covid-19 |
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| The reactions to the Covid-19 epidemic have put our economic life under severe pressure and highlighted strengths and weaknesses. Trade has been particularly hard hit. We asked Stefan Genth, General Manager of the German Retail Association, about the current situation and his assessments for the future. How do the closures of borders within Europe affect trade, how much does the European economic area suffer from national solo efforts?
The outbreak of COVID-19 has plunged the European and global economy into a severe crisis. Trade, with its widely ramified international supply chains, is particularly affected. Our ultimate goal must be to restore the internal market as quickly as possible. National go-it-alone initiatives have exacerbated the crisis in Europe.
What role will digitalisation play in the retail sector in the post-Covid era? Will there be more digitalisation, will online trade increase, or will the retail sector win back its customers?
Online trade will remain the growth driver in retail. This trend cannot be stopped and will continue after the Corona. The crisis shows us the advantages of linking digital and stationary offers. This results in new opportunities that our retailers must take advantage of.
Many catering businesses will probably not survive the shutdown, their existence is threatened. Will this mean that food retailers with their bistro and "To Go" activities will be able to emerge from the crisis stronger?
It will be existential for many catering businesses - as in the retail sector - how quickly government financial aid reaches them. The German government has acted quickly and decisively with its aid package, and yet the question still arises as to whether the funds will be sufficient in the end. Further market developments depend on this.
What lessons do you, as the German Retail Association, draw from the current crisis?
We need a strong, united Europe with a functioning internal market as an answer to the challenges of globalisation.
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News of the Month
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Picture: Science Week Berlin
Global Food Summit goes Science Week Berlin: We have booked our space and exhibition area at Science Week!
The planning is progressing: We will be present at this year's Science Week Berlin in the Museum of Natural History and have secured the Experimental Field, our event room from last year, for the whole day on November 4, 2020. In addition, we will have a booth on the exhibition area for two days and will thus be able to present the Global Food Summit right in the entrance area of the museum.
We will discuss with associations, science and companies. Topics are alternative proteins, bio-economy, but also urban planning. We will keep you up to date.
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Upcoming Events
"AgriFood beats Corona" - Our partner innovate! holds online conference |
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Tomorrow, on April 30th, 2020 from 5 pm our partner innovate! will hold its first online conference, innovate!now, under the motto: "AgriFood beats Corona".
Numerous experts and well-known personalities will present their solutions and ideas tomorrow.
Stephan Becker-Sonnenschein, Head and Founder of the Global Food Summits, will chair the Roundtable "Beyond Corona: Alternative Proteins - Technology and Morals".
Closed restaurants, changing consumer behaviour, problems in the supply chain or the upcoming asparagus harvest - Corona has turned everything upside down.
But the Corona crisis also offers opportunities: farm robots for harvesting, digital ordering tools, delivery services with #stayhealty vegetable crates from regional organic farming.
Register here and learn more about the program.
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April
2020 |
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17
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Applications for the Beverage Industry Accelerator Programme can be submitted until mid-May
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May
2020
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The Drink Innovation Campus (DICA) is the accelerator program of the beverage industry. The program offers the possibility to get up to 3 months support in the development of an innovation and new business models. In the support programme, participants are supported by innovation partners from the industry for intensive exchange and possible cooperation. In addition, the Campus provides a material budget of € 2,000 per team.
The application deadline for the programme has now been extended to 17 May 2020. Especially exciting for DICA are innovations and solutions with applications in the beverage industry concerning packaging, materials, logistics, digitalization & sustainability.
Further information about the program and application can be found here.
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When acoustic waves freeze food
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 Picture: AEF Deutschland GmbH Some foods can be wonderfully deep-frozen - many types of vegetables or rolls of all kinds, for example. Others, however, are very sensitive, because after defrosting they do not look and taste as good as they used to.
The reason for this is that the low temperatures cause the liquid in and between the cells of the food to freeze. The slower they freeze, the larger ice crystals form, which affect the cell structure. The more sensitive the food, the more the cell structure is attacked. This is why raspberries, for example, do not look very nice after thawing.
However, there is a method that can solve these problems: Acoustic Extra Freezing (AEF) - a method that is marketed in Germany by the company of the same name, AEF Deutschland GmbH. This method freezes food particularly gently and up to 25 percent faster than the traditional method. Due to the acoustic resonance, the ice crystals are reduced in size to nano ice crystals. They are so small that they do not damage the cell walls. The result is food that looks exactly the same after thawing as before. And that's not all: thanks to AEF technology, up to 97 percent of the nutrients are retained, the food can be stored for longer, and the taste does not change. After freezing with AEF technology, the vacuum-packed food, which may already have been processed, is then stored at -18°C as normal. The perfect conditions for healthy, long-life food, even in the premium sector.
AEF Germany is the exclusive partner of the Acoustic Extra Freezing Group from Helsinki. The Finns are currently in the process of going one step further with the technology: They are working on freezing blood to preserve it. This would be a huge step, as blood currently only has a shelf life of 42 days.
Further information about AEF Germany can be found here.
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Food innovations are being discussed more and more positively
The Global Food Summit has set itself the task of giving food innovations a voice. For us, this also means keeping an eye on and analysing the communication around these topics.
Our partner Ubermetrics helps us with this. It has already spent three months in 2018 and 2019 collecting data for the three major thematic blocks "Substitute products such as algae and insects", "Vertical farming" and "Clean Meat". In this context, Ubermetrics analyzed for us the German and English language communication of consumers and leading German food and agricultural associations.
We let the analysis continue after our congress in March 2019 and now wanted to know how communication around these three topics has changed. To do this, Ubermetrics used data from a total of five months and examined the same groups as the year before.
The current data say the following: The approval rate for all thematic blocks improved by up to 4.5 percentage points. However, the biggest change was in Clean Meat: the rejection rate for this innovation fell by more than 50 percent year-on-year, from 23.5 percent to 10 percent. Clean Meat is no longer discussed with strong rejection, but rather with a predominantly positive and neutral stance.
For us, this means that food innovations meet with a benevolent to neutral consumer community that is interested in these topics. There are good opportunities here for manufacturers and marketers. Through innovative production, the sustainability goals of the UN can also be improved and in the future the food supply can be guaranteed worldwide.
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Tender for Urban Agriculture in Singapore
 Singapore boosts domestic food production with a grant of the equivalent of 21 million dollars
"30x30 Express" - The very name of the new support programme of the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) allows significant conclusions to be drawn about its function: It is designed to provide targeted support for the goal of producing 30 percent of the food consumed in Singapore locally by 2030. And as quickly as possible. The background is the current Covid 19 pandemic, which highlights the weaknesses of the food supply chain in the Southeast Asian region.
Now, since 17 April 2020, the SFA has been looking for proposals from local food producers who have rapidly implementable concepts and innovations to increase food production for eggs, fish and leafy vegetables as far and as quickly as possible. These food products, which are commonly consumed in Singapore, can be produced locally and are therefore also marketed fresher than imported goods.
Subsidised companies will have the equivalent of 21 million dollars at their disposal in the next 6 to 24 months. The closing date for applications is 29 May 2020.
The proposals will be evaluated with a view to
- the security and speed of implementation,
- the level of production and productivity,
- the feasibility and economic viability of the project
- the track record, ability and capacity to implement the project
In addition, the Singapore Food Agency, together with other government agencies, will look for alternative land for agricultural use, such as industrial wasteland or unused land. In addition, the SFA will also issue a call for tenders for roofs in parking garages operated by the Housing & Development Board - the country's public housing association - to install urban agricultural land on roofs.
You can find the link to the announcement here.
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Global Food Summit
Werneckstraße 23a
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Deutschland
contact@globalfoodsummit.com
www.globalfoodsummit.com |
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