News

“Sustainability” – especially the sustainable production of cocoa and chocolate – was the core theme of the three-day international conference Chocovision, which ended yesterday in Davos/Switzerland. SG SP

Four months into 2018 German retailers have performed below last year‘s level in confectionery revenue and sales. SG

German retailers saw declines in confectionery sales volume and revenues in the first 18 calendar weeks of 2018. SG

Barry Callebaut AG, Zürich, is intensifying its cooperation with Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana on a sustainable cocoa farming model. SG SP

Mondelez International announced today its ambition to expand the Harmony program, the company’s sustainable wheat sourcing initiative, to cover 100% of its biscuit brands in the European Union by 2022, up from 60% of the company’s biscuit production in EU last year. SG SP

PepsiCo, Inc. announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Bare Foods Co. (doing business as Bare Snacks), a U.S.-based maker of baked fruit and vegetable snacks. SG

The World Cocoa Farmers Organisation and the World Cocoa Producers Organisation have agreed to settle their differences and form a single organisation representing cocoa farmers. SP

FachPack is the European trade fair for packaging, processing and technology. Over a compact three-day schedule in Nuremberg/Germany from 25 to 27 September 2018, it will present its extensive range of solutions for the packaging process chain for industrial and consumer goods. SP

Mars Wrigley Confectionery plans to open a USD 69 m new chewing gum plant in Kenya later this year. SG

Anne Schumacher (37) will become the new Vice President in charge of Koelnmesse’s Food and Food Technology area of expertise as of 15 July 2018. SG SP

The U.S. market for food and beverage processing machinery projects to break the USD 6 bn barrier, reaching USD 6.1 bn by 2021, according to the 2018 Global Trends Food and Beverage Processing Report by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. SP

The Intersnack Group has announced that it has reached an agreement for its British subsidiary KP Snacks to acquire Tyrrells, Inc. and its global portfolio of better-for-you, premium snack brands from The ­Hershey Company and its subsidiaries for an undisclosed sum. SG

As announced on 26 March 2018 (with preliminary numbers), Südzucker AG was able to increase consolidated group revenues by 7.8% to € 7.0 (previous year: 6.5) bn in the fiscal year 2017/18 just ended. SG

Despite purchase negotiations with investment companies, Massachusetts bankruptcy judge sets auction of the Revere-based confectionery manufacturer The New England Confectionery Co. (Necco). SG

Five associations from the supply chain for fibre-based packaging solutions for food recently liaised with numerous other project partners from industry, the research community and test institutes to agree on a method for the “Testing of paper and board – determination of the migration of mineral oil hydrocarbons from food contact materials manufactured from pulp containing recycled paper or board”. SP