The Columbian exchange continues with “a future sown thousands of years ago” What better way to start the new year than with a forward-looking celebration of an historical legacy? The UN General Assembly has declared 2013 as the International Year of Quinoa (la...
Score for Deckers Outdoor, US company that’s a brand maker, not a shoemaker Move over electronic devices – Uggs was the No. 1 product searched for online on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, according to Experian Marketing Services (as reported here in the Wall Street...
Moves and countermoves by China, US; end of a trade war; start of an FTA In a few crowded weeks, there have been new developments in several of the stories we’ve covered here: Start with China Digging into US Green Subsidies. In July, we wondered whether China’s...
Coconut water meets US market’s growing thirst for natural, healthy drinks In the US market for nonalcoholic beverages, sales of sugary, fizzy soft drinks are flat, while consumption of “wellness beverages” is up sharply. (The segment is getting its own trade show,...
Walmart promo caps 13th season of US imports of South African summer citrus Walmart, a top US importer of South African citrus, invited shoppers at 32 stores to enjoy a “Taste of South Africa” with samples of oranges from the world’s second-ranked citrus exporter...
That’s why we drink it here – including 27 million barrels of imported brew What better time than October to join in singing the praises of beer? If you do hoist a glass, odds are that you’ll be drinking an import. Last year, according to a new report from Technomic,...
Move toward tearing up 16-year US-Mexico tomato trade pact gets bad reviews The US Commerce Department’s September 27 preliminary decision to end a trade pact governing the price of tomatoes exported by Mexico to the US has drawn criticism up and down the supply...
Western Digital aims to get some hard disk drive production out of Thailand A new report from IHS iSuppli finds the global hard disk drive (HDD) industry fully recovered a year after flooding halted production in Thailand. Not only are HDD shipments forecast to reach...
Speculative rumors produce real increases, although not nearly as big as 2003 Last month, a flurry of headlines, starting with a report in the UK’s Telegraph, warned that the wholesale price of vanilla was set to rise sharply – adding as much as 10% to the retail...
Fair trade coffee gains ground among fine, specialty brews As Bill Armbruster notes in Fair Trade: Sustainable Trend?, imported coffee accounted for 78% of all the fair trade premiums paid by US companies in 2011. Fair Trade USA reports that 2011 was a banner year for...
