October 2004 Edition
LATINOS
With around 39 million people, Latinos have overtaken African-Americans as the largest ethnic minority in the United States. The Latino population is not only the largest minority, it is also growing by three per cent a year, compared with 0.6 per cent in the rest of the population. And Latinos are getting richer; their income now accounts for about eight per cent of America's GDP and is expected to reach 10 per cent by 2010. The Latino population is also a marketing man's dream with around 75 per cent living in just seven states, many in just four counties.
SHOES
In the past 25 years, U.S. women's shoe sizes have grown more than men's. Part of the reason is that women nowadays are more athletic. The average womans' shoe size was a six or seven 40 years ago. Today, the average is between 8.5 and nine.
FIRE
Jewel beetles lay their eggs in the bark of smouldering trees. The habitat may be harsh but it is safe from the beetles point of view with no predators, competition or the deadly sap of living trees. Forest fires though, occur unpredictably, and the beetle needs a way to locate them from a distance. Evolution has provided the beetles with a heat detector that can sense a fire from a distance. Scientists have now constructed a replica artificial prototype of this sensor which has significant commercial applications.
MIGRANTS
The number of international migrants has more than doubled since 1970, one in every 35 persons is now a migrant. In 1970, money sent home by international migrants to developing countries through official channels amounted to $2-billion. By 2003 the figure was $93-billion. If unofficial transfers are also counted, the volume of such remittances could be double this amount. These figures are staggering, exceeding the $68.5-billion that rich countries currently spend on official development assistance.
EDIBLE
Soon, hungry summer picnickers will be able to eat their sandwiches and other food without removing the wrapping. Scientists have developed a wrapping that not only keeps food fresh but can also be safely eaten. The film, which contains natural preservatives, can be fortified with vitamins and minerals. Used in liquid form, it can also be sprayed on fresh foods such as fruit to keep them fresher.
WINE
For the majority of vineyards in the French wine industry, these are tough times. Domestic consumption is down, foreign competition and the weakness of the dollar have battered exports, overproduction is rampant and need changes are thwarted by obsolete rules and regulations. The Bordeaux appellation comprises well over 10,000 wine properties, most of them small (about 20 acres or less). Industry figures predict that 600 to 1,000 smaller producers may be forced to close over the next few years.
CONSUMPTION
Luxembourg now leads the world in alcohol consumption. In 2002, its residents consumed an average of 12 litres of pure alcohol per person, in the form of beer, wine and spirits. Mexicans, by contrast, enjoyed only around a quarter as much. Some countries have been curbing their drinking. In France for example, alcohol consumption fell by 30 per cent between 1980 and 2002. Over the same period however, beer-loving Czechs increased their alcohol intake by 12 per cent.
RICE
Global warming could have a severe effect on rice production according to scientists working in the Philippines. Researchers studied 12 years of rice yields and 25 years of temperature data to work out how they are linked. Yields dropped by 10 per cent for each degree of warming, an alarming trend since rice is the staple diet for most of the world's expanding population. World rice production must increase by about one per cent every year to meet the demand of the planet's bulging population.
PRIDE
Uruguay's national anthem at more than five minutes, is the longest. Qatar's is the shortest at 32 seconds. Greece's anthem has 158 verses. The British were the first off the blocks with their anthem: God save the King was first sung in 1745. The tune is shared with Liechtenstein. Most places happily managed without a national anthem until the end of the 18th century, by which time Spain, Britain, France and Austria had adopted them.
COTTON
China, the world's biggest producer and consumer of cotton, looks set for a record harvest this year. Even so, this will not be enough to satisfy demand which in April pushed cotton imports up 186 per cent more than in the same month last year. Since 1999, the Chinese government has relaxed its control of the cotton industry. Farmers no longer have to sell part of their crop at set prices and no longer have the certainty of guaranteed purchases by the state. As a result, private traders have surged into the market.
CLEANING
Researchers in Hong Kong have come up with what could be the next big thing in fashion: self-cleaning clothes. They have coated cotton fabrics with an ultra-thin layer of titanium dioxide.. The chemical has a photo-catalytic effect when put under ultraviolet rays like sunshine. As long as the fabric is exposed to light, it will continue to break down carbon based materials that are on the coating's surface and the dirt disappears without being washed. Unfortunately blue dyes also disappear. Next on the agenda is to test if body odours and wine stains will also disappear.
BLIND
Scientists in New Zealand, investigating the health of guide dogs, have found that at least one in 10 working dogs is seriously short-sighted. Some of the so-called seeing-eye dogs have such poor vision that they would be prescribed glasses if they were human.
SHOPS
Napoleon called England a nation of shopkeepers but high streets have changed significantly over the past 10 years. Butchers and bakers are fast disappearing but the number of candlestick makers has more than trebled thanks to the country's obsession with home make-overs and alternative therapies. In Yellow Page listings, aromatherapists have increased by 5,000 along with dieticians and cosmetic surgeons. Grocers are down by 59 per cent followed by butchers, down 40 per cent; hardware shops, down 34 per cent and bakers, down 20 per cent.
FOOD
In the 1990s. KFC sold 11 pieces of chicken each year for every man woman and child in the U.S. Fried chicken is the most popular meal ordered in sit-down restaurants in the U.S. The next in popularity are: roast beef, spaghetti, turkey, baked ham and fried shrimp. Argentina and Uruguay lead the world in the consumption of beef with the U.S. third. People in Hong Kong eat on average 103 pounds of poultry per person each year.
PEPPERS
Mexican chili farmers, under pressure from cheap foreign peppers, want to give their products the same international brand protection as French champagne or Parma ham from Italy. Growers at a recent congress have decided to push for Mexican varieties to be origin-controlled, meaning Jalapeno-type chili peppers grown in countries like China and the U.S. would have to be called something else. Mexico, boasting 120 varieties of chili peppers, now ranks just fourth in the world market. China is fighting India for the lead position with the U.S. third.
RETAIL
The small-format value retail stores, including dollar stores, are forecast to remain a high-growth darling of mass retailing over the next five years with an estimated 8,000 more stores opening across the U.S. Sales growth estimates for 2004 are 7.5 per cent and an average of 6.2 per cent though 2008.
POTATOES
Starch food consumption has fallen 50 per cent since 1975 with the sale of potatoes dropping 4.5 per cent in the last year alone while people are buying more fruit and vegetables. But leading promoters of Idaho's signature commodity see little interest in shifting any production to a new lower-carbohydrate potato developed in Florida. With 30 per cent fewer carbohydrates, five years of testing in Florida has produced a new variety that scientists say tastes good, has a shorter growing cycle, is disease-resistant and handles extreme weather conditions.
PUMPS
In the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, dozens of faulty gas pumps short-changed both customers and retailers last year. More than 100 pumps tested by Measurement Canada, were found to be pouring less or more gas than the customer paid for because of wrongly calibrated fuel flows. There was no evidence any of the infractions were caused by deliberate adjustments to the pumps and most of the large-volume errors actually hurt the retailers rather than the customer.
TRANSACTIONS
The Food Marketing Institute has requested the Federal Reserve investigate the rising costs of fees for electronic transactions. Food retailers handle over half of all PIN-based and signature based debit transactions. In its request to the Federal Reserve, the FMI notes that there have been 11 credit\debit rate increases this year: PIN fees have increased 267 per cent since 1999: electronic payments volume has increased 500 per cent from 1989 to 2000 and card associations have collected over US$29-billion in 2003 on interchange fees.
FRAUD
A green baseball cap is the latest weapon in Europe's fight against farm fraud. A yo-yo size satellite receiver on the cap collects global positioning signals beaming down from seven military satellites in orbit more than 300 kilometres above. The information is fed to a research scientist holding a hand-held computer who walks the edge of a field that would once have taken surveyors a day to survey. Within minutes the computer calculates the area of the field. That's the EU's answer to swindlers who have bilked the EU budget for more than $125-million a year in subsidies for non-existent crops.
BEDBUGS
They are about one-eighth inch long, reddish-brown in colour, with oval, flattened bodies, they are world travellers hitching rides in suitcases and clothing, and world-class squatters equally happy in four-star hotel rooms, homeless shelters and luxury apartments. They can lay 500 eggs in a lifetime and can wait a year for a meal. They were common in North America 50 years ago but the widespread use of DDT almost eliminated them. But they remained prevalent elsewhere in the world. Now, as a result of immigration and increasing international travel, these bloodsucking parasites are on the move again. The good news is that they don't transmit disease, but they do feed on humans.
KIOSKS
The Canadian self-service kiosk industry seems to be making a comeback after months of false starts and languishing returns. Some players have reported up to a fourfold increase in business in 2003 compared with the previous year. More than 250,000 high-tech kiosks are expected to be installed in North American stores and public areas by 2005. Digital photography kiosks, airline check-ins and retail self check-out are among newer applications.
CASHBACK
Police in England are mystified by the robber who broke into a bank and stole $211,300. A week late he broke into the bank again and returned most of the money.
Thank you for reading the A & A Economic News Digest. For more information visit our website www.aacb.com or contact A & A Contract Customs Brokers Ltd. at strehler@aacb.com.
Past issues of the A&A Economic News Digest can be found at http://www.aacb.com/publications/ed/index.asp
With around 39 million people, Latinos have overtaken African-Americans as the largest ethnic minority in the United States. The Latino population is not only the largest minority, it is also growing by three per cent a year, compared with 0.6 per cent in the rest of the population. And Latinos are getting richer; their income now accounts for about eight per cent of America's GDP and is expected to reach 10 per cent by 2010. The Latino population is also a marketing man's dream with around 75 per cent living in just seven states, many in just four counties.
SHOES
In the past 25 years, U.S. women's shoe sizes have grown more than men's. Part of the reason is that women nowadays are more athletic. The average womans' shoe size was a six or seven 40 years ago. Today, the average is between 8.5 and nine.
FIRE
Jewel beetles lay their eggs in the bark of smouldering trees. The habitat may be harsh but it is safe from the beetles point of view with no predators, competition or the deadly sap of living trees. Forest fires though, occur unpredictably, and the beetle needs a way to locate them from a distance. Evolution has provided the beetles with a heat detector that can sense a fire from a distance. Scientists have now constructed a replica artificial prototype of this sensor which has significant commercial applications.
MIGRANTS
The number of international migrants has more than doubled since 1970, one in every 35 persons is now a migrant. In 1970, money sent home by international migrants to developing countries through official channels amounted to $2-billion. By 2003 the figure was $93-billion. If unofficial transfers are also counted, the volume of such remittances could be double this amount. These figures are staggering, exceeding the $68.5-billion that rich countries currently spend on official development assistance.
EDIBLE
Soon, hungry summer picnickers will be able to eat their sandwiches and other food without removing the wrapping. Scientists have developed a wrapping that not only keeps food fresh but can also be safely eaten. The film, which contains natural preservatives, can be fortified with vitamins and minerals. Used in liquid form, it can also be sprayed on fresh foods such as fruit to keep them fresher.
WINE
For the majority of vineyards in the French wine industry, these are tough times. Domestic consumption is down, foreign competition and the weakness of the dollar have battered exports, overproduction is rampant and need changes are thwarted by obsolete rules and regulations. The Bordeaux appellation comprises well over 10,000 wine properties, most of them small (about 20 acres or less). Industry figures predict that 600 to 1,000 smaller producers may be forced to close over the next few years.
CONSUMPTION
Luxembourg now leads the world in alcohol consumption. In 2002, its residents consumed an average of 12 litres of pure alcohol per person, in the form of beer, wine and spirits. Mexicans, by contrast, enjoyed only around a quarter as much. Some countries have been curbing their drinking. In France for example, alcohol consumption fell by 30 per cent between 1980 and 2002. Over the same period however, beer-loving Czechs increased their alcohol intake by 12 per cent.
RICE
Global warming could have a severe effect on rice production according to scientists working in the Philippines. Researchers studied 12 years of rice yields and 25 years of temperature data to work out how they are linked. Yields dropped by 10 per cent for each degree of warming, an alarming trend since rice is the staple diet for most of the world's expanding population. World rice production must increase by about one per cent every year to meet the demand of the planet's bulging population.
PRIDE
Uruguay's national anthem at more than five minutes, is the longest. Qatar's is the shortest at 32 seconds. Greece's anthem has 158 verses. The British were the first off the blocks with their anthem: God save the King was first sung in 1745. The tune is shared with Liechtenstein. Most places happily managed without a national anthem until the end of the 18th century, by which time Spain, Britain, France and Austria had adopted them.
COTTON
China, the world's biggest producer and consumer of cotton, looks set for a record harvest this year. Even so, this will not be enough to satisfy demand which in April pushed cotton imports up 186 per cent more than in the same month last year. Since 1999, the Chinese government has relaxed its control of the cotton industry. Farmers no longer have to sell part of their crop at set prices and no longer have the certainty of guaranteed purchases by the state. As a result, private traders have surged into the market.
CLEANING
Researchers in Hong Kong have come up with what could be the next big thing in fashion: self-cleaning clothes. They have coated cotton fabrics with an ultra-thin layer of titanium dioxide.. The chemical has a photo-catalytic effect when put under ultraviolet rays like sunshine. As long as the fabric is exposed to light, it will continue to break down carbon based materials that are on the coating's surface and the dirt disappears without being washed. Unfortunately blue dyes also disappear. Next on the agenda is to test if body odours and wine stains will also disappear.
BLIND
Scientists in New Zealand, investigating the health of guide dogs, have found that at least one in 10 working dogs is seriously short-sighted. Some of the so-called seeing-eye dogs have such poor vision that they would be prescribed glasses if they were human.
SHOPS
Napoleon called England a nation of shopkeepers but high streets have changed significantly over the past 10 years. Butchers and bakers are fast disappearing but the number of candlestick makers has more than trebled thanks to the country's obsession with home make-overs and alternative therapies. In Yellow Page listings, aromatherapists have increased by 5,000 along with dieticians and cosmetic surgeons. Grocers are down by 59 per cent followed by butchers, down 40 per cent; hardware shops, down 34 per cent and bakers, down 20 per cent.
FOOD
In the 1990s. KFC sold 11 pieces of chicken each year for every man woman and child in the U.S. Fried chicken is the most popular meal ordered in sit-down restaurants in the U.S. The next in popularity are: roast beef, spaghetti, turkey, baked ham and fried shrimp. Argentina and Uruguay lead the world in the consumption of beef with the U.S. third. People in Hong Kong eat on average 103 pounds of poultry per person each year.
PEPPERS
Mexican chili farmers, under pressure from cheap foreign peppers, want to give their products the same international brand protection as French champagne or Parma ham from Italy. Growers at a recent congress have decided to push for Mexican varieties to be origin-controlled, meaning Jalapeno-type chili peppers grown in countries like China and the U.S. would have to be called something else. Mexico, boasting 120 varieties of chili peppers, now ranks just fourth in the world market. China is fighting India for the lead position with the U.S. third.
RETAIL
The small-format value retail stores, including dollar stores, are forecast to remain a high-growth darling of mass retailing over the next five years with an estimated 8,000 more stores opening across the U.S. Sales growth estimates for 2004 are 7.5 per cent and an average of 6.2 per cent though 2008.
POTATOES
Starch food consumption has fallen 50 per cent since 1975 with the sale of potatoes dropping 4.5 per cent in the last year alone while people are buying more fruit and vegetables. But leading promoters of Idaho's signature commodity see little interest in shifting any production to a new lower-carbohydrate potato developed in Florida. With 30 per cent fewer carbohydrates, five years of testing in Florida has produced a new variety that scientists say tastes good, has a shorter growing cycle, is disease-resistant and handles extreme weather conditions.
PUMPS
In the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, dozens of faulty gas pumps short-changed both customers and retailers last year. More than 100 pumps tested by Measurement Canada, were found to be pouring less or more gas than the customer paid for because of wrongly calibrated fuel flows. There was no evidence any of the infractions were caused by deliberate adjustments to the pumps and most of the large-volume errors actually hurt the retailers rather than the customer.
TRANSACTIONS
The Food Marketing Institute has requested the Federal Reserve investigate the rising costs of fees for electronic transactions. Food retailers handle over half of all PIN-based and signature based debit transactions. In its request to the Federal Reserve, the FMI notes that there have been 11 credit\debit rate increases this year: PIN fees have increased 267 per cent since 1999: electronic payments volume has increased 500 per cent from 1989 to 2000 and card associations have collected over US$29-billion in 2003 on interchange fees.
FRAUD
A green baseball cap is the latest weapon in Europe's fight against farm fraud. A yo-yo size satellite receiver on the cap collects global positioning signals beaming down from seven military satellites in orbit more than 300 kilometres above. The information is fed to a research scientist holding a hand-held computer who walks the edge of a field that would once have taken surveyors a day to survey. Within minutes the computer calculates the area of the field. That's the EU's answer to swindlers who have bilked the EU budget for more than $125-million a year in subsidies for non-existent crops.
BEDBUGS
They are about one-eighth inch long, reddish-brown in colour, with oval, flattened bodies, they are world travellers hitching rides in suitcases and clothing, and world-class squatters equally happy in four-star hotel rooms, homeless shelters and luxury apartments. They can lay 500 eggs in a lifetime and can wait a year for a meal. They were common in North America 50 years ago but the widespread use of DDT almost eliminated them. But they remained prevalent elsewhere in the world. Now, as a result of immigration and increasing international travel, these bloodsucking parasites are on the move again. The good news is that they don't transmit disease, but they do feed on humans.
KIOSKS
The Canadian self-service kiosk industry seems to be making a comeback after months of false starts and languishing returns. Some players have reported up to a fourfold increase in business in 2003 compared with the previous year. More than 250,000 high-tech kiosks are expected to be installed in North American stores and public areas by 2005. Digital photography kiosks, airline check-ins and retail self check-out are among newer applications.
CASHBACK
Police in England are mystified by the robber who broke into a bank and stole $211,300. A week late he broke into the bank again and returned most of the money.
Thank you for reading the A & A Economic News Digest. For more information visit our website www.aacb.com or contact A & A Contract Customs Brokers Ltd. at strehler@aacb.com.
Past issues of the A&A Economic News Digest can be found at http://www.aacb.com/publications/ed/index.asp
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