Presidents and Ketchup

Welcome back, Food Junglers! After a brief break to settle back into London, I'm excited to resume operations with even more exciting things in the pipeline. Of course, during my time away from the keyboard, the global food industry has continued to serve up some fascinating developments. Let’s dig in.

This week:

🚰 The water problem in southern Spain persists.

😡 Kamala Harris picks a fight with America’s Big Food.

🇳🇱 A supermarket pushes plant-based in the Netherlands.

🍅 Heinz struggles to find the right tomatoes.

🥔 A Dutch company is making a new kind of potato…

CLIMATE
SPANISH WATER WOES

Severe drought has officially made tap water undrinkable in Spain’s Costa Blanca region, forcing holidaymakers and locals to queue at distribution points for free bottled water to cover basic needs.

As water levels have dropped and salinity has increased, tap water has been deemed unsafe for drinking or cooking. The drought has also caused €65 million in agricultural losses.

Officials claim that overdevelopment, climate change, and unrestricted tourism during the summer months have exacerbated the problem.

ZOOMING OUT: Joan Sala, representative of the environmental group Accio Ecologista-Agro, states, “We’re already entering a climate emergency”, citing poor rainfall as the main reason. Whether the winter will bring more water remains to be seen.

POLICY
BIG FOOD VS. KAMALA

In an effort to rally supporters for her presidential campaign, Kamala Harris is calling for a federal ban on price gouging by some of the biggest companies in the American food industry.

Blaming corporate greed for food-price inflation, Harris said her administration would set rules barring big companies from exploiting consumers to amass excessive profits on food and groceries, although she hasn’t specified what constitutes “excessive profits”. 

Many food executives have since hit back, claiming that costs - from labour to cocoa - have surged in recent years and that profit margins must be maintained to fund the development of new products.

ZOOMING OUT: Snack giant Kellanova’s CEO, Steve Cahillane, stated that the company “makes no excuses or apologies for trying to protect our margins,” despite efforts to lower prices in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with grocery prices still around 27% higher than in July 2019, there remains room for improvement.

BUSINESS
DUTCH GO NUTS FOR PLANT-BASED

Lidl Netherlands will permanently lower prices on its plant-based meat and dairy substitutes, making them equal to or cheaper than traditional animal-based products.

The initiative aims to encourage Dutch consumers to adopt more sustainable dietary choices amidst environmental concerns while also setting a precedent for other supermarkets in the region.

Lidl has already become the first supermarket to launch a hybrid minced meat product - comprising 60% beef and 40% pea protein - as 50% of the Dutch population consumes minced beef weekly.

ZOOMING OUT: Lidl is one of the few supermarket chains that is actively embracing their sustainability goals as it aims to increase its plant-based protein sales to 60% by 2030. Indeed, this represents a great next step for the grocer.

SUPPLY CHAIN
A TOMATO STRUGGLE

Extreme and persistent heat is preventing Heinz ketchup from producing the tomatoes they need for their trusted ketchup formula.

California, where all the tomatoes for Heinz ketchup sold in the US are grown, experienced its hottest July ever with some areas frequently recording daytime and nighttime temperatures above 38 degrees celsius (100 Fahrenheit).

As a result, the ketchup company is researching a way to develop a new variant of tomatoes that are resilient to heat, water stress, and excessive soil salinity.

ZOOMING OUT: The company produces 660 million bottles of ketchup per year, but representatives are unsure about this season’s yields. If the numbers fall below what’s expected, it is likely that Heinz will look elsewhere to grow tomatoes for their iconic sauce.

THE BRIGHT SIDE
CLIMATE-PROOF POTATOES

I’ll admit that I’m not a biotech specialist, but as a fan of potatoes, I couldn’t resist telling you all about this company I came across while reading the Wall Street Journal.

Solynta is a Netherlands-based company that has figured out a way to make potatoes that are resistant to erratic weather patterns.

Founded in 2007, the Dutch company works with potato varieties that possess two sets of chromosomes, instead of widely grown commercial varieties that have four.

As a result, they have been able to produce potato varieties - without genetic engineering or gene editing - that are blight-resistant and require less pesticide use.

The team is currently selling its seeds in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia, and is working on producing a type of “brick-shaped” potato that will be used to maximise French fry yields, while minimising food waste. Food Jungle DEFINITELY approved ✅

BEFORE YOU GO…

• The Global FoodBanking Network provided 1.7 billion meals to more than 40 million people in 2023.

• One-in-six dairy products in US retail stores contained signs of inactive bird flu virus this summer, regulators said in the latest bird flu study.

• About 68 million people in Southern Africa are suffering the effects of an El Nino-induced drought, according to a recent study.

• Kroger has filed a motion for preliminary injunction against the US Federal Trade Commission’s administrative proceeding.

• Soybean prices have risen as a slump in the dollar outweighed the strong US crop forecasts that had driven futures down for several weeks.

• McDonald’s have announced that they will be investing $1.3 billion into the UK and Ireland over the next 4 years.

• Nestlé CEO, Mark Schneider, is leaving the company, as the company grapples with slowing sales growth and a slumping share price.

TAKE A BREAK

If you’re interested in some quality ORIGINAL journalism on what’s been going on in the food industry, look no further than Green Queen.

Founded in 2011, by Sonalie Figueiras, the team looks to analyse and discuss the latest news in food, from cultivated meat to food waste. Thoroughly recommend! 🤩