Cambodia's Pangasius Catfish Value Chain Getting a Boost
Phnom Penh, July 28, 2023 --The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research is supporting a new research project to reduce food loss and waste in the pangasius catfish value chain in Cambodia, said the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh in a news release on Friday.Knowledge generated by the research will benefit pangasius catfish farmers, private enterprises, and the country’s future fish export to foreign markets, it added.The research team from the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) and Health and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (HAPRI) recently visited Cambodia to gather information about food loss and waste along the pangasius catfish value chain, said the source, pointing out that they spoke with farmers, fish traders, and authorities from the Tonle Sap River floating markets and the fish hatchery.According to the news release, the project is part of the ACIAR-IDRC Food Loss Research Programme, which will work with partners in developing countries, including Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, to address food loss in the Mekong pangasius catfish value chain through innovative, locally driven solutions.
China's industrial profit slump narrowed in June
Phnom Penh, July 28, 2023 -China's major industrial companies reported modest profit declines in June, official data showed on Thursday.Industrial companies with annual business revenue of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.81 million US dollars) saw their combined profit stand at 719.76 billion yuan last month, down 8.3%. Compared to the previous year, which narrowed from a decline of 12.6% in May.
Annual UK grocery bill could rise by £180 amid cost of living squeeze
The average annual grocery bill is on track to rise by £180 this year as the UK’s worsening cost of living squeeze continues, according to the consultants Kantar.Grocery prices rose 3.8% over the four weeks to 23 January compared with the same period last year, according to the market research firm. Prices are rising fastest for fresh beef and poultry, savoury snacks, crisps, skincare and cat food but are falling for fresh bacon, vitamins and beer.Fraser McKevitt, Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight, said: “Prices are rising on many fronts, and the weekly shop is no exception. Taken over the course of a 12-month period, this 3.8% rise in prices could add an extra £180 to the average household’s annual grocery bill.From milk to crisps: why the price of basic food items is risingRead more“We’re now likely to see shoppers striving to keep costs down by searching for cheaper products and promotions. Supermarkets that can offer the best value stand to win the biggest slice of spend.”The UK’s official inflation rate hit 5.4% in December, the highest since 1992, and is on track to head above 6% in coming months as energy costs soar.Supermarket sales fell by 3.8% over the 12 weeks to 23 January, according to Kantar, because of a tough comparison with the start of 2021, when coronavirus lockdowns boosted shopping, but grocery spending remains 8% higher than pre-pandemic times.As more people embraced Veganuary or Dry January after an indulgent Christmas, sales of plant-based products and no- or low-alcohol drinks rose.Sales of alcohol-free beer climbed 5% and retailers’ own-label ranges marketed as healthy increased by 8%. While fresh fruit, salad and vegetable sales were down compared with last year, plant-based products proved more popular than ever. A record 10.7 million households bought at least one item that was a dairy alternative, a meat substitute or labelled as plant-based this January.The Kantar data also points to more people going out to socialise as Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed. The supermarket sales figures do not include on-the-go food and drink purchases, which are likely to be higher than last year, the firm said.
‘Treat your email like laundry’: five ways to work smarter
Does it take you all morning to finish one simple task? Do you feel a sense of dread every time your chat messenger pings? Here are some simple steps to help you find your focusYou start the day with the best intentions, determined to be productive and efficient. Yet, before you’ve even had your mid-morning coffee, you’re derailed by a chaotic procession of interruptions, distractions and poor project management. Before you know it, you are stressed, tired and brain fog has descended.But don’t worry – help is at hand. Dr Sahar Yousef, a leading expert on productivity and cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, has partnered with the work management company Asana to offer expert tips on how to improve your concentration and efficiency at work.Treat emails as laundryMany workers feel pressure to respond to emails and other messages immediately, but this constant monitoring comes at a cost. It can take as long as 25 minutes to regain momentum after an interruption, so Yousef says we should treat email, texts, and other chat tools like we would laundry. “Let messages build up and then do a ‘load’ every one or two hours, as opposed to having everything always accessible and trying to process in real-time,” she says.Schedule focus timeYousef says a major enemy of concentration while working is “context switching”. This happens when you suddenly shift your attention to a different context, such as when you interrupt what you’re working on to join an unexpected call, or to respond to a message about an unrelated project. “Every time we switch tasks, we pay a fine in terms of both time and energy,” says Yousef. “And by energy, I mean our brains literally need blood glucose and oxygen to perform the switch”.So, instead of switching between different tasks throughout the day, schedule dedicated time to focus on one specific project. Two good ways of doing this are timeboxing and time-blocking.With timeboxing, you estimate the amount of time a task will take and dedicate a certain amount of time to complete it. During that time you should ignore all other tasks. Time-blocking is similar – but instead of boxing out time for a single task, you group similar tasks together and complete them all in one “time block”. For example, you might schedule a time block to answer your emails or to catch up on those nagging admin tasks.
What levelling up? Councils forced into tax rises and drastic service cuts
Levelling up secretary Michael Gove last week unveiled the government’s long-delayed plans to address regional and social inequalities, but cash-strapped councils across England are having to plan heavy cuts to frontline services after more than a decade of ongoing austerity. Recent funding increases have not undone £15bn of cuts in central government grants to local authorities between 2010 and 2020, and councils wrestling with the impact of Covid are set to pass a succession of savings measures plus widespread council tax increases. Several local authorities are facing votes on service cuts in the coming weeks.Nottingham is planning cuts to youth services, with all play schemes axed and a move toward targeted rather than universal provision. Its Early Help service would see a reduction in staffing and early intervention for families. Funding for its Base 51 youth centre, which provides services including counselling and crisis support, would be axed. Six of the city’s nine children’s centres would close from 2023.Sandwell in the West Midlands is reviewing the respite support it provides, to allow unpaid carers such as family members a much-needed break while the person they care for is looked after by someone else. Sandwell plans to halve this from 56 days a year to 28, which the council admits “will reduce the level of service offered”. It is also planning to increase the amount adult care users pay for non-residential care.Kent is planning to cut more than £2m from subsidised bus services, with some contracts potentially terminating. The cost of a school bus discount pass will rise by £80 a year, and by £30 for children receiving free school meals. The council is also planning to cut travel concessions for those accompanying disabled people.
Boris Johnson’s flagship London dock scheme on brink of collapse
In May 2013, Boris Johnson announced a flagship £1.7bn scheme for Chinese investors to transform east London docks into the capital’s third financial district.It was the biggest commercial property deal he had announced during his time as London mayor and he pledged it would be a “beacon for eastern investors”.While Johnson’s proposals for a new island airport in the Thames estuary and a new bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland never got off the ground, he hoped the Royal Albert Dock project would boost his mayoral legacy.“It’s bitterly disappointing and we need to establish what has gone wrong and whether the proper due diligence was done on the project.”There were concerns when City Hall first announced the project about its profitability, but it was hoped there would be a plentiful supply of Chinese funds to ensure its success.Johnson said at the time the commercial, retail and leisure complex on publicly owned land was intended to create thousands of jobs and bring in billions of pounds of investment for the UK economy. He said the 19th-century docks and waterways were once again be the “arteries of trade and commerce”.
Give Boris Johnson time to fix his crises, says Iain Duncan Smith
Boris Johnson must stay in place to deal with the “hugely damaging” No 10 parties scandal and the cost of living crisis because they are his responsibility to fix, according to the former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith.The Conservative grandee said he wanted cabinet ministers to “temper their ambitions” and allow Johnson the time to sort out “the big, big crises that are hitting the government”.He said a leadership contest would be destabilising at the moment. But asked whether it was possible to recover the reputation of the party with Boris Johnson remaining as prime minister, he told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “None of us know the answer to that question ... Respect and trust you have to earn, and when you lose it, it’s a very difficult task to get it back across the board.“And so that’s going to be a huge task. The government and the prime minister have set out to try and do that.”Duncan Smith’s remarks came after a disastrous week for Johnson in which he lost five senior staff members and a string of MPs declared they had lost confidence in him.
Millions in UK face fuel poverty despite Sunak support, say experts
Millions of UK households are expected to be dragged into fuel poverty for the first time despite the support announced by Rishi Sunak to soften the blow from soaring energy bills.Several charities warned that the chancellor his plan was badly targeted and offered too little support for those most in need. The scale of the shock to low-income households would drive hunger, rent arrears, and ill health, and pile extra demand on to already stretched food banks and homeless shelters, they said.How the UK energy price cap is calculated – and how it affects your billRead moreThe Resolution Foundation thinktank said cases of fuel stress – where energy bills in a household exceed 10% of disposable income – would double to 5 million in April despite the steps announced by Sunak on Thursday.The Treasury’s intervention was designed to ease the pressure of a £700 increase in the regulated energy price cap to nearly £2,000 a year.Without the chancellor’s plan – which offers most consumers £350 of relief on their bills – fuel stress would have trebled to more than 6 million, the thintank said. However, it criticised Sunak’s decision to favour a moderate amount of help for a large number of people, rather than deeper support for those most in need.“The government’s package of measures might cushion the blow for some but it’s not enough to protect people who already need a food bank,” said Garry Lemon, the policy director at the Trussell Trust food bank network. He called for the planned 3.1% rise in benefits from April to be doubled to 7%.
Cost of living crisis: Bank of England calls for wage restraint as inflation soars – business live
Bank of England: We need to see restraint on pay risesThe Bank of England is calling on workers and bosses to show ‘restraint’ on wage rises, even as the country faces its toughest squeeze in decades.Speaking to the Today Programme, governor Andrew Bailey says the Bank wants to see “quite clear restraint” in the bargaining process.Bailey, who is paid around half a million pounds a year, insists that the UK is not experiencing a wage-price spiral, but pressures are building.A day after the Bank raised interest rates to 0.5%, and warned that inflation will hit 7.25% in April, Bailey said controlling wage increases is key to keeping a grip on inflation.We are looking to see quite clear restraint in the bargaining process. Otherwise it will get out of control.It’s not at the moment but it will do.”I’m not saying, don’t give your staff a pay rise, Bailey insists. This is about the size of it.But won’t wage restraint prevent companies from hiring workers, at a time when many are struggling to fill positions?Bailey says he wants to see wage restraint across the economy.I’m not saying nobody gets a pay rise, don’t get me wrong. But what I am saying it, we do need to see restraint in pay bargaining, otherwise it will get out of control.Yesterday, the Bank of England warned that UK households face the worst squeeze on their disposable incomes for at least 30 years, with real post-tax labour income expected to shrink by 2% this year.
Winter Olympics 2022: 10 things to look out for in Beijing
Jamaica will enter a four-man bobsleigh team in the Olympics for the first time in 24 years after nicking the final qualifying spot, offering a feelgood reboot for the island nation whose debut at the 1988 Calgary Games inspired the Disney film Cool Runnings. Just making it to Beijing might seem like accomplishment enough for Shanwayne Stephens, the team’s 31-year-old pilot and Royal Air Force lance corporal who emigrated to Great Britain with his family in 2002: certainly after improvised training methods at the height of the pandemic that included pushing his girlfriend’s Mini Cooper around the streets of Peterborough. But having touched down in China after undergoing their final preparations at the University of Bath, his goal is plain. “It’s got to be medalling,” Stephens says. “It’s everybody’s dream, it’s what we’re here to do. So why not aim high?
Winter Olympics 2022: 10 things to look out for in Beijing
Jamaica will enter a four-man bobsleigh team in the Olympics for the first time in 24 years after nicking the final qualifying spot, offering a feelgood reboot for the island nation whose debut at the 1988 Calgary Games inspired the Disney film Cool Runnings. Just making it to Beijing might seem like accomplishment enough for Shanwayne Stephens, the team’s 31-year-old pilot and Royal Air Force lance corporal who emigrated to Great Britain with his family in 2002: certainly after improvised training methods at the height of the pandemic that included pushing his girlfriend’s Mini Cooper around the streets of Peterborough. But having touched down in China after undergoing their final preparations at the University of Bath, his goal is plain. “It’s got to be medalling,” Stephens says. “It’s everybody’s dream, it’s what we’re here to do. So why not aim high?” BAG