March 2004 Edition
CARBS
The Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) has petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to establish new rules for carbohydrate nutrient content claims.GMA contends the ability of food and beverage companies to provide consumers with the best information about carbohydrate content is limited, as there are no regulations allowing carbohydrate nutrient content claims.
PROSPECTING
Companies have laid claims to record tracts in the Canadian Arctic, snapping up permits for more than 70-million acres in the Northwest Territories and Nunavat, drawn by hoped-for diamond riches. Nunavat issued a record 1,518 prospecting permits covering 64-million acres--a huge jump from last year when just 190 permits were issued covering about nine million acres.
SUPPORT
Across the United States, about 42 per cent of the approximately 6-million immigrants, legal and illegal, from Latin America and the Caribbean dispatch remittances home on a regular basis. As a source of capital, these remittances eclipse all investment by foreigners and foreign firms for most of the recipient countries. and count for six per cent of the gross domestic product in six of the countries. In 2002, these funds amounted to about US$30-billion.
CARDS
Banking or debit cards are the ultimate in convenience. More than 34 million banking cards are in circulation among an adult population of 21.8 million. Canadians love their banking cards using them more than 2.4 billion times in 2002. That's an average of 76 times a second for every hour of the day.
FANTASY
The Disney Co. is pulling out of Celebration, the squeaky-clean central Florida town it created from scratch as a planning experiment known as " new urbanism." However, the company that has purchased the town has promised it will still put machines on the streetlamps in December to spray fake snow on Celebration's streets and it will continue to ship in perfectly coloured leaves in the autumn to decorate the pavement.
AUSTRALIA
Investors in Australia, a country with a population slightly larger than New York State, acquired US$2.4-billion worth of U.S. real estate last year, more than foreign investors from any country but Germany. While this was only a fraction of the US$114-billion worth of American real estate that changed hands last year, it represents a threefold increase from 2002. German investors bought US$3.6 billion in American property last year, down from US$4.4-billion in 2002.
BEAUTY
In the highly competitive world of beauty, the fight is on to capitalize on the growing male appetite for beauty products. In the last three years, the men's treatment sector of the beauty industry has seen major activity in terms of mergers and acquisitions and through product launches. Driving it all is a market that has grown some 70 per cent over the last five years and that boasts an estimated worldwide retail sales volume of US$600-million. This figure excludes toiletry items such as shaving cream or aftershave.
MINES
Danish scientists say they have developed a genetically modified plant that will detect unexploded landmines of which there are estimated to be about 100 million around the world. The plants are said to turn from green to red three to six weeks after they have been planted when their roots come in contact with nitrogen dioxide evaporating from the explosives in the soil. At least 26,000 people are killed or injured by mines every year.
CONCERN
A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey has asked 1,400 CEO's worldwide about the major concerns that they face. Their biggest concern is increased competition with 63 per cent considering it a threat. The next worry is overregulation (59 per cent), followed by fears of currency fluctuation (48 per cent). Global terrorism was ranked fifth at 40 per cent after anxiety over the loss of key talent, 45 per cent.
CARS
Toyota has now surpassed Ford of the United States as the world's No 2 automaker. Toyota has confirmed worldwide sales for 2003 of 6.78 million vehicles, up 9.9 per cent from 6.17 million the previous year. Ford says its 2003 sales slipped to 6.72 million vehicles, down 3.6 per cent from 6.97 the year before. The largest automaker is General Motors which sold 8.6 million vehicles in 2003.
SUCCESS
Companies with more women in senior management positions do better financially than those with less gender diversity in their upper ranks. A study by Catalyst Inc for the Bank of Montreal reviewed the performance of the 353 companies remaining in the Fortune 500 for four of five years between 1996 and 2000. Using two measures of financial performance, the study found that those with more women in their upper ranks tended to see superior performance.
TRENDS
A cash-strapped hospital in Lisbon, Portugal, has asked the local zoo to lend X-ray equipment usually used on elephants so it can treat overweight patients. As in many other countries, obesity has been rising in Portugal as dietary habits have changed.
COOPERATION
Mining and tourism interests in British Columbia have signed an historic agreement improving the often-poisonous relations between the two groups and encouraging investment in both sectors. The memorandum of agreement calls for the groups to work together on land use issues, recognizes a two-zone system for mining and mineral exploration and outlines a conflict resolution process. Under a two-zone system, mining and exploration would be prohibited in parks and some other protected areas but allowed, subject to applicable legislation in the rest of the province.
BOOKS
Mexico City's subway has begun lending books to riders in a new program aimed at reducing crime and fostering a more hospitable atmosphere for millions of commuters. The city plans to distribute seven million paperbacks in the next two years trusting commuters to return the books but not making it a requirement. Tokyo has dozens of tiny paperback borrowing libraries at subway stations
SOURCING
With sales of more than US$245-billion a year, Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in the U.S. More than 80 per cent of the 6,000 factories in Wal-Mart's worldwide database of suppliers are in China. Wal-Mart estimates it spent US$15-billion on Chinese-made products last year, accounting for nearly one-eighth of all Chinese exports to the United States. If Wal-Mart was a separate nation, it would rank as China's fifth-largest export market, ahead of Germany and Britain,
AUSTRALIA
The U.S. and Australia have reached a broad trade agreement, opening up some U.S. agricultural markets but leaving in place existing U.S. restrictions on sugar that had threatened to derail the deal. Two-thirds of agricultural tariffs between the two will drop to zero after the deal is approved. The proposed deal will also eliminate trade barriers and increase market access for both sides in the manufacturing and service sectors. Many Australian farmers are against the deal as it leaves key tariffs on Australian farm goods untouched while giving U.S. farmers free access.
HERBS
The World Health Organization has issued a 72-page document with advice to governments around the world on how to ensure that the US$60-billion herbal medicine business is safe and sustainable. The document covers cultivating, collecting and classifying plants with recommendations on quality control, storage, labelling and distribution. WHO looked at the guidelines used in China, Japan and the European Union as a base for developing its own recommendations.
SOUTH KOREA
After years looking east towards Japan and the U.S., South Korea is now looking west to China. Last year half of its foreign investment went to China and its exports increased 50 per cent. South Korean businesses invested US$2.5 billion in China in 2003 compared with only $50-million in Japan. South Korean companies signed deals in China at the rate of 12 a day, 22,0000 of them now have investments in China employing about one million Chinese workers.
HOME ENTERTAINMENT
In 1997, U.S. sales and rentals of DVDs represented one per cent of film studio revenues, last year it represented two-fifths of revenues. In 2003, Americans spent $22.5-billion on DVDs and videocassettes compared with $9.2-billion at the box office where receipts fell slightly for the first time in a decade. Particularly exciting for the movie industry is the fact that people are choosing to buy rather than rent DVDs as they mostly did with videos. Half the homes in the U.S. own DVD players. In 2002, only one-fifth did in Europe.
SCRAP
The U.S. exported an estimated 12-million tons of scrap steel last year, a 21-per cent increase from 9.9 million tons in 2002. Now, a growing coalition of steel producers and consumers are talking to the U.S. Commerce Department and considering whether to petition for a limit on U.S. exports of scrap steel. Experts claim that the growth in exports to Asia and elsewhere have sent scrap prices soaring to 30-year highs. If granted, the restriction on scrap exports would be the first in three decades.
CHICKENS
Mexico expects to start exporting chicken meat to the U.S. in the next few months. Canada is the only other country that exports chicken to the U.S. where consumers chew up 25.6-billion pounds of meat each year. Mexico produced 2.1 million tons of chicken meat in 2003 and 1.9-million tons of eggs, making it the world's 4th-largest chicken producer and 6th-biggest egg producer.
RETURNS
According to the International Mass Retail Association consumers return about US$200-billion worth of merchandise annually in the U.S. The cost of handling and disposing of these items comes to about $35-billion. Between five per cent and 30 per cent of a merchant's sales ends up being returned. On-line retailers have a much higher return rate.
Visa Canada cardholder returns peak in the December to January period when they represent about three per cent of overall sales.
TEA
Tea growers in India's north-eastern Assam state have warned that pests could cut output by between 10- and 15 per cent this year. The culprit is a breed of mosquito known as helpoletis which has attacked more than 25 per cent of Assam's plantations. Assam is India's biggest tea-growing region accounting for 55 per cent of the country's annual crop, The infestation comes at a time when India's $1.5-billion tea industry has been hit hard by overproduction and stiff competition from Sri Lanka and Kenya. In 2003, the country's tea exports fell to 190 million kilograms from 220 million the previous year
KNOWLEDGE
Thailand is to send up to 300,000 civil servants for monastic training, during which time they will be forced to shave their heads, don saffron robes and meditate, in order to improve their performance. The initiative will last up to eight days annually at temples throughout Thailand
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