March 11, 1929 - January 13, 2010

Dieter Fels, Nut Consult & Public Relations, Hamburg, Germany, passed away on Wednesday, January 13th, at the age of 80.

Fels, a much respected INC Senator, was a trustworthy and amicable colleague and friend in the nut and dried fruit world. He was member of the INC since 1984, dedicating his energy and perseverance to his highly valuable work. He served on the INC Board of Directors from 1984 until 1991, when he became INC Senator. He co-chaired the V World Nut and Dried Fruit Congress held in Hamburg, Germany, 1985, and attended a total of 20 INC Congresses.

The funeral service was held at the Central Cemetery of Hamburg, Germany, on Friday, 29th January.

Those desiring to have the address to send memorials, please contact the INC Secretariat.

According to a new release by the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), tree nuts might someday be routinely sprayed with a yeast called Pichia anomala, an eco-friendly way to protect them from becoming contaminated by aflatoxins.

Plant physiologist Sui-Sheng Hua and her team carried out tests in a California pistachio orchard, and found that spraying the trees with the yeast inhibited incidence of Aspergillus flavus in pistachios by up to 97%, compared to unsprayed trees. The yeast can also be sprayed on the harvested or stored crop instead of on trees before the harvest, and it can be effective in protecting crops against at least half a dozen other microbes that ruin taste, texture, yield or safety.

Nuts continue to be one of the markets with the strongest growth due to consumers’ perception of nuts as a healthy choice. In many developing Asian countries, economic growth has resulted in increased demand for nuts and dried fruits. With a population of 1.2 billion, China is expected to achieve 9.9% real growth in 2010, and India, with a population of 1.03 billion, expects a 6.8% growth, according to Informa Economics Inc. It is expected that as purchasing power increases in China and India, the same trend in demand will happen, which converts the Asian region in one of the most promising and emerging markets for nut and dried fruit consumption.

• China leads in production of walnuts and peanuts, having a share of 49% and 39% of overall world production respectively. China’s walnut production is expected to reach 430,000 metric tons (in-shell) in 2009, and peanut production is forecast at 13 million metric tons. The country also ranks among the top countries in production of pine nuts, pistachios, dried apricots, and raisins. Given the big market demand in the country for other nuts such as hazelnuts and almonds, strong marketing campaigns are being developed. Despite China is often seen as a difficult market for western companies, Chinese economy has become more open to the global economy. According to Mintel’s Global New Products Database, Asia Pacific is one of the most prolific regions as regards innovation in nut snacks. Wasabi nuts, peanuts with coconut juice, and horse bean nuts are some examples of new and innovative products launched in recent years.

• In the case of India, it leads in production of cashews with 160,000 metric tons (kernel basis) expected in 2009, a 33% share of world production, and follows China as the second largest peanut producer with an estimated production in 2009 of 7 million metric tons (21% share). India is also a walnut producer country with an estimated production of 22,000 metric tons (in-shell basis) for 2009. India is the largest country growing and processing cashew nuts. In recent years, the local cashew market has grown significantly due to the improvement in the standard of living. On the other hand, and thanks to the promotion by California almond processors, India is becoming the number one in-shell almond importing country in the world, and since 2008 the country has started to increase consumption of pistachios. With a population of 1.03 billion, India has the potential to become the second biggest tree nut consuming country in Asia.
  
  
• Indonesia ranks as the third most populated country in Asia, with 240 million inhabitants. It is the third largest cashew growing and processing country in Asia, and the leading Arabian dates importing country. Its peanut production is estimated at 1.25 million metric tons in 2009, and they import peanuts from the neighboring. The country also imports almonds, walnuts, and pistachios.
  
  
• Vietnam is the world's second largest cashew nut growing and processing country. As a former French colony, Vietnamese like bakeries with tree nuts and dried fruits, and raisins in particular. It is also a major Spanish type peanut growing country in Asia, and a major exporter to its neighboring. The country has recently started to grow macadamias and walnuts in the northern region.
  
  
• Thailand is the leading tropical dried fruits producing country in the world. The country exports a lot of dried mango, papaya, banana, longan, guava, durian, and bread fruit. Due to the influence of American navy and air bases, bakeries and confectionaries were introduced in the country and they use a lot of almonds for bakery and ice cream topping. There are also cashews, macadamias, and walnuts farms throughout the country.

While cashew nuts are still the number one tree nut consumed in Asian countries, peanuts, almonds, pistachios, macadamias, walnuts, raisins, dried dates, and dried apricots are increasing their presence.

Forms of Consumption

Snacking is still the most typical form of consumption in China, as historically Chinese like nuts in-shell especially in the holiday season. Furthermore, Chinese like most of the roasted and salted tree nuts in-shell, except in the case of cashews. The second major item is confectionery, such as walnut, almond, peanut, and macadamia candies. In recent years there has been a rise of tree nut chips promotion in confectionaries manufacturing. In third place, nuts are used as food ingredient in Chinese cooking, milky products like almond, walnut, peanut milk, and ice cream topping. Macadamia, almond, hazelnut, and pistachio topping have been introduced recently.

Chinese people are familiar with walnuts, pine nuts, and hazelnuts, which have been consumed for over a thousand years and they are part of the traditional Chinese Medicine. Whenever a new nut has been introduced in the country, a new term has been created. For instance, the term "Happy Nuts" for pistachios was introduced in China in 1974, due to the “smiley” shape of the nut in-shell, and “Hawaiian Nuts" for macadamias was introduced one year later. Nowadays the Amazonia (Brazilian) nut is named as "Abalone Nuts" because of its shape. On the other hand, there have been many arguments regarding almonds and apricot kernels which are known under the same name in Chinese.

These results have been published in the prestigious journal Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease by the researchers of the EFINUT study, under the direction of the Human Nutrition Team at the Faculty of Medicine of the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) and the NURETA group of the CIBERobn, Carlos III Health Institute (Spain).

Up until now, no studies had been undertaken to establish whether nuts could improve insulin resistance, a stage prior to the appearance of diabetes. The Human Nutrition Department at the Reus Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences decided to study this subject on a group of non-diabetic volunteers with metabolic syndrome, a combination of metabolic disorders associated with abdominal obesity which can lead to diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The EFINUT study involved recommending a low-fat healthy diet for 12 weeks to a group of volunteers with metabolic syndrome. Half of the volunteers were also given 30 grams of mixed nuts per day to add to their habitual diet.

According to the first published results of this study, co-financed by the INC, volunteers who added a daily portion of nuts to their diet (walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds) showed improvements in various parameters associated with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (inflammation and oxidation parameters) and also significantly reduced their insulin resistance. These results suggest that eating nuts regularly to the diet can reduce the risk of developing coronary disease and diabetes.

INC and URV Press Conference
Tarragona, Spain, January 14th, 2010

Thursday January 14, 2010, the INC in cooperation with the University Rovira i Virgili (URV) organized a press conference in Tarragona, Spain. This press conference included the participation of Prof. Jordi Salas-Salvadó, Chair in Nutrition and Bromatology at the Reus Faculty of Medicine, and member of the INC Scientific Committee, and his colleagues Dr. Montse Bulló and Dr. Patricia Casas.

The objective of the press conference was to inform the media and civil society about the results of the study “Effects of one serving of mixed nuts on serum lipids, insulin resistance and inflammatory markers in patients with the metabolic syndrome”.

The INC, represented by Ms. Goretti Guasch, Executive Director, is attending the International Sweets and Biscuits Fair (ISM), to be held in Cologne, Germany, from 31st January to 3rd February, 2010.

ISM claims to be the world's leading fair for the trade in confectionery and snack items. It presents a comprehensive range of confectionery and snack items: chocolate, sugar confectionery, biscuits, snack products, ice cream and raw pastes. Only end products intended exclusively for retail sale are presented. The event is once again expected to offer an extensive, diverse exhibition of products. About 1,500 suppliers from 70 countries are expected.

This will be a great opprotunity to promote the upcoming World Nut and Dried Fruit Congress, while reaching new business contacts and informing about INC activities and projects. If you’re planning to visit the fair and you wish to get in touch, please let us know.

Vietnam will host the First Golden Cashew Nut Festival in the southern province of Binh Phuoc, March 20-23, 2010.

Aimed at highlighting trade promotion for the country's cashew industry, the festival will award scientists, farmers and entrepreneurs and producers, who will share experiences in applying science and technology in cashew cultivation. The event will also include seminars, conferences, a cooking contest, a trade fair, tours to cashew planting areas, and art performances.

The Chilean Walnut Producers´ Committee (CHILENUT) foresees to release the publication “Data Nuts & Dried Fruits”, its first review of statistical information on Chilean nuts and dried fruits. The publication will include information from national exporters, from companies’ details to import and export volumes.

CHILENUT is the Chilean walnut producers´ representative organization which fosters production and development through the promotion of research, use of new technologies, conferences and publications. ProChile (Export Promotion Bureau) and Decofrut are supporting this publication.