On 18 September, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) received GBP3 million (about $3.9 million) from the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) for its cash and voucher assistance programme supporting conflict-affected communities in Sudan. WFP plans to use GBP2 million ($2.6 million) to support 220,000 displaced across Darfur with vouchers for four months, helping them to purchase a wide variety of food items from local shops.

On the eve of the EU Parliament and Council's decision regarding the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and the Southern African Development Community, the organisations representing the Spanish citrus sector have approached the European Parliament and the Government of Spain to ask for the tariffs on oranges imported from South Africa not to be lifted. They believe that this move (about which they had not been forewarned and which has not followed the due impact study) would be "a very tough blow for the sector."

At the moment South Africa has a tariff free period for exports to the European Union countries which ends on 16th October every year, when tariffs then increase to 16%. But this is about to change as, recently, the South African Customs Union signed an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union to extend the tariff free period over a period of ten years."The agreement has not come into force yet," explains Justin Chadwick CEO of South Africa's Citrus Grower's Association.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI), has introduced master training programme (MTP) for the promotion of cashew value chains in Africa. The programme, which seeks to create a pool of qualified experts along the cashew value chain to facilitate knowledge exchange, learning and innovation within the cashew sector in West Africa and beyond, is also to sustain its support for Ghana’s cashew industry. Mr Fredrick Yaw Alipui, Policy Advisor at the Ministry, said this during the the opening ceremony of the second session of the third edition of the Master Training Programme (MTP3/2) on cashew value chain promotion on Monday in Sunyani.

EU sugar prices increased again in May, according to new European Commission figures, as raw sugar imports fell compared with last year. Recently released data, based on informationsubmitted by EU sugar producers and refiners, shows the quota sugar price inMay was €433 per tonne. This is €5/t up on April and €14/t higher than the samemonth last year.

The coastal and inland fisheries, tropical climate and fertile soils of South Pacific nations support the production of fresh ingredients that are healthy, nutritious and vitamin rich. Although traditional Pacific cuisine based on these fresh local ingredients is alive and well in the homes of Pacific Islanders, much of the food served in the tourism industry is imported and fails to deliver an authentic South Pacific cuisine experience to visitors. Many Pacific tourism menus are based on Western-style dishes which require the importation of significant amounts of food from overseas (estimated to comprise up to 80-90% of food consumed in some tourism operations for example).

On Thursday 28 July, an agreement was signed between the governor of Nyandarua county in Kenya and a German delegation, which will see potato production increase in the Kenyan county. The German Government will help the county through the provision of high quality seeds, mechanization of the potato farming as well as value addition. The move according to the Government will help boost the potato production from the current 33 per cent of the national potato production with about 36,446ha of the crop cultivated annually to higher levels.

Producing high yield and quality coffee is a challenge for smallholder coffee farmers due to high investment in the production process. In addition, the farmers do not have a strong and sustainable links to potential buyers. These, coupled with rudimentary techniques at coffee washing stations (or wet mills) which affect quality of coffee, affect farmers' revenue and causes them to be vulnerable to coffee price volatility. To address the problem, Twin is currently implementing a project funded by Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), which aims to increase the capacity of targeted twenty smallholder farmers' organizations in Rwanda and Burundi. The project supports coffee farmers' cooperatives to access specialty coffee market.

International brewers in Africa are expanding their production of beers based on local ingredients, snapping up craft brewers and introducing more brands as low-cost beers gain popularity on the fast-growing but still poor continent. Diageo acquired a South African rival specializing in local beer last year, while SABMiller is opening new production lines in markets such as Zimbabwe where cheap competitors and illicit brews often out-sell more globally recognized competitors.

The Competition Commission of South Africa has approved without conditions the proposed launch of an ice cream joint venture in the country – Froneri – by Nestle and R&R Ice Cream. The commission said yesterday (14 July) that the plans raised no public interest concerns and were "unlikely to substantially prevent or lessen competition in any market". Nestle and R&R announced last April that Froneri would combine the companies' ice cream operations, operating in more than 20 countries, primarily in Europe, the Middle East, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, the Philippines and South Africa. Nestle and PAI Partners, the private-equity owner of R&R Ice Cream, will have equal equity stakes in Froneri.