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| ISSUE 70: FEBRUARY-MARCH 2022 |  |
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| UN's International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021 officially closed | ||
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| The United Nation’s (UN) International Year of Fruits and Vegetables (IYFV2021) officially closed on February 24, 2022, highlighting the year-long activities that increased awareness of the critical role of fruits and vegetables to improve farmer incomes, create decent jobs, and attain food and nutrition security through transformation of agrifood systems. |
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| FAO: Food Price Index rises to record high in February | |||||
| Vegetable oils and dairy products lead the increase, while early forecasts point to strong prospects for maize and wheat in the year ahead | |||||
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TROPICAL FRUIT NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD |
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USA: Paper made from banana plants stymies potato pest |  |
ECUADOR: Banana producers seek declaration of emergency | ||||
| Wrapping potato seeds in biodegradable paper made from unusable parts of banana plants reduces the infestation and harmful effects of a nasty plant pathogen—a worm called the potato cyst nematode—and sharply increases potato size and yields. | Ecuadorian banana producers in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Los Rios, and El Oro, have staged road blockades demanding the government to step in and purchase the surplus resulting from Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. | ||||||
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PHILIPPINES: Country might lose position as China’s biggest banana source as costs, transport times soar |  |
INDIA: How banana plant waste is turned into menstrual pads | ||||
| The Philippines may soon no longer be China’s biggest banana supplier as exports to the country sank 25%. | One in four women in India don’t have the supplies they need for their period. One startup is turning farm waste into biodegradable pads that could prevent the mountains of plastic trash conventional pads create. | ||||||
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ECUADOR: Banana growers propose a contingency fund to minimize losses due to the war between Russia and Ukraine |  |
ECUADOR: Banana sector hopes signing of FTA would allow recovery of Chinese market | ||||
| The banana producers propose to the Government the creation of a contingency fund with their own financing (from the banana producers themselves), through the withholding of $0.05 per box sold to minimize the losses that may be caused by the war between Russia and Ukraine. | The presidents of Ecuador and the People’s Republic of China, Guillermo Lasso and Xi Jinping, reached an agreement in the Memorandum of Understanding for the signing of a Free Trade Agreement. | ||||||
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INDIA: Farmers in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri shifting to banana cultivation from sugarcane |  |
INDIA: Tripura to launch mission to boost pineapple, jackfruit crops, popularize them abroad | ||||
| Several sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh are shifting to the banana plantation. Farmers are taking to the banana plantation after facing payment delays and rising input costs in sugarcane cultivation. | Tripura has decided to start work in mission mode over the next five years to promote the growth of pineapples and jackfruits for facilitating their export to foreign countries after their “augmented” growth figures were still found behind expected numbers. | ||||||
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PHILIPPINES: P306-M worth of pineapple packing plant launched by DOLE |  |
CHINA: RCEP opens doors for pineapple growers in Xuwen County | ||||
| The start of commercial operations of the state-of-the-art pineapple packing plant of Wao Development Corporation (WDC), a subsidiary of multinational fruit company, Dole Philippines, Inc. (Dolefil), was formally launched. | Last month, under the framework of RCEP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free trade agreement, Xuwen’s pineapples were sold to Singapore for the first time. | ||||||
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INDIA: At $3.26 mn, pineapple exports record near 100% growth |  |
INDIA: Pineapple prices move up as demand increases | ||||
India’s pineapple exports rose by almost 100 per cent to $3.26 million during the April-December period in 2021, compared to $1.63 million recorded in the corresponing period of 2013. |
Pineapple prices are moving up with summer season demand rising in the north Indian cities. | ||||||
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CAMBODIA: Country to export mangoes to Europe |  |
MEXICO: All set for positive mango campaign | ||||
| The government has urged farmers and investors to adopt more effective off-season mango cultivation techniques and modern agricultural practices to ramp up exports to the European market, as a practicable alternative to mainland China. | Mexico is set to export around 61.66m cartons of fresh mangoes to the US market in 2022, a similar volume to last year. The quality of the crop is reported to be excellent. | ||||||
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VIETNAM: Mango exports triple in 2021 |  |
SOUTH AFRICA: Promising new mango, kiwi and passion fruit cultivars | ||||
| Vietnam exported more than 600,000 tonnes of mangoes worth US$310 million to 53 countries and territories last year, up by almost half from 2020. | Looking for a different crop to grow in the Western Cape? At the Subtropical and Minor Crop Workshop held last year, Glenneis Kriel spoke to a number of experts about the fruits highlighted at the event. | ||||||
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INDIA: Mango yield expected to be less than half of usual |  |
KENYA: Scientists use wasp to kill pawpaw pest | ||||
| There is bad news for mango lovers eagerly awaiting the arrival of the king of fruits; the mango season is delayed by nearly a month and owing to widespread crop damage, the yield is expected to be less than half of the usual. | Kenya has stepped up the use of the encyrtid wasp to manage the papaya mealybug, which is ranked among top pests affecting papaya and other horticultural crops. | ||||||
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MALAYSIA: Perlis Harumanis orchards preparing to welcome visitors |  |
COLOMBIA: Avocado exports to the U.S. to increase by 50% by 2024 | ||||
| The arrival of the Harumanis mango season in May is definitely awaited by many, especially the fruit orchard operators and growers who are now busy making preparations to welcome tourists and fruit enthusiasts. | Colombia exported 2,376 tons of avocados to the U.S. last year, and in 2022 plans to increase that by 30 percent. | ||||||
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KENYA: Avocados clinch fresh access to China |  |
MEXICO: Avocado shipments are resuming after the U.S. lifts its ban | ||||
| The deal to export avocados to China, which was originally agreed in April 2019 between Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, has finally come to fruition. | The U.S. Department of Agriculture is resuming inspections of avocados from Mexico, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City announced Friday. | ||||||
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VIETNAM: Expects official export of durian to China |  |
MALAYSIA: Get ready, it’s durian time | ||||
| Vietnam has completed negotiations on quarantine and is waiting for a licence on the official export of durian to China. | Everything seems to be falling into place for durian sellers this year particularly with the reopening of international borders, and the expectation of a bumper crop. | ||||||
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THAILAND: Govt agencies make moves to tackle oversupply of fruit and slump in prices |  |
SINGAPORE: Jackfruit-based meat startup launches in US | ||||
| The Office of Agricultural Economic have devised management plans by surveying farmers, exporters, cooperatives, processing factories and demand at shopping malls. | Singapore-based plant-based food startup Karana is launching in the US market as it tries to spread its jackfruit-based menu offerings after kicking off in Asia last year. | ||||||
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AUSTRALIA: Farmer starts Malaysian fruit farm in Queensland |  |
VIETNAM: Farmers desperate as dragon fruit price sinks to USD 0.03-0.07 per kg | ||||
| Meet Blair Limbert, a 31-year-old resident of north Queensland. While Australia has a plethora of local fruits, he has fallen in love with those from tropical Southeast Asia. | On March 1, many fruit traders in Binh Thuan Province said that the price of dragon fruits was only at VND500-VND1,000 per kg on average. The most beautiful dragon fruits (for export) fetched only VND1,500 per kg. | ||||||
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AUSTRALIA: Lychees lift off to US |  |
STUDY: Blasting bananas with light could pave the way for more ‘eco-friendly’ biomass | ||||
| The Australian lychee industry has identified North America as a key market in its plans to develop exports. | Banana peels zapped with a powerful lamp can be instantly turned into renewable energy, scientists have discovered. | ||||||
RECENT LITERATURE ON TROPICAL FRUIT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT |
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Pulsed vacuum drying of banana: Effects of ripeness on drying kinetics and physicochemical properties and related mechanism Mucuna pruriens, Crotalaria juncea, and chickpea (Cicer arietinum) have the potential for improving productivity of banana-based systems in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Comparative study of micropropagated plants of Grand Naine banana during in vitro regeneration and ex vitro acclimatization |
An agent-based model to simulate the boosted Sterile Insect Technique for fruit fly management Esther Gnilane Diouf, et al (2022) Proximal remote sensing-based vegetation indices for monitoring mango tree stem sap flux density Identification of elite seedling progenies of mango (Mangifera indica L.) for the qualitative traits of the fruit and correlation studies on quality parameters under north eastern transitional zone of Karnataka |
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Carica papaya ameliorates thrombocytopenia through upregulation of Interleukin-11 and modulation of thrombopoietin in mouse model of carboplatin-induced myelosuppression Nitric oxide supply reduces ethylene production, softening and weight loss in papaya fruit Prostacyclin analogues decrease platelet aggregation but have no effect on thrombin generation, fibrin clot structure, and fibrinolysis in pulmonary arterial hypertension: PAPAYA coagulation |
Investigation of the JASMONATE ZIM-DOMAIN Gene Family Reveals the Canonical JA-Signaling Pathway in Pineapple Bacterial anti-adhesive films of PDMS coated with microstructures of biogenic silica rosettes extracted from pineapple peels residues Chemo-mechanical production of cellulose nanocrystal from pineapple leaf waste as eco-friendly reinforcement for biocomposite films |
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Effect of ginger extract on stability, physicochemical and antioxidant properties of avocado powder using maltodextrin as carrier Phytochemicals of avocado residues as potential acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, antioxidants, and neuroprotective agents Plant Growth Regulators in Avocado |
Evaluation of a novel phosphorylated red dragon fruit peel pectin for enhancement of thermal stability and functional activity Evaluation of the perceptual interaction among sulfur compounds in durian by Feller’s Additive Model and odor activity value Development of plant based meat analogue |
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