| Industry
News The
Daily Brief, which was brought to you by BNP Media and The Food Institute, will
cease publication on Feb. 28, 2011. The Food Institute knows that the Daily
Brief is a valuable daily resource that you depend on and we do offer alternative
electronic newsletters. A subscription to Today
In Food, a robust alternative to the Daily Brief, is available
for only $49.95 per year. Daily Brief readers who subscribe to Today In Food
by Mar. 18 will receive a Second Year for Free - two years for the price
of one! So Why Wait? Click
here to take advantage of this special offer. Sara
Lee expects to face $550 million in higher commodity costs
this fiscal year, and is trying to pass on many of the costs to consumers but
finding it difficult to raise coffee prices fast enough. Sara Lee is seeking to
offset some of the higher coffee costs by tweaking the ratios in its blended coffee
products and relying more heavily on less expensive Robusta beans. Meanwhile,
ConAgra Foods Inc. will offer two of its frozen meals for $5, instead of its earlier
two for $4, reported The Wall Street Journal. Full
Story (WSJ Subscription Required) 
Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. plans to spend $200 million inside the Dallas city limits over
the next few years on a dozen new and replacement stores. Two Neighborhood Market
stores are  planned,
reported The Dallas Morning News. Full
Story (Free Registration Required) Meanwhile, Walmart is looking
to develop four or five Neighborhood Market stores in the Reno, NV-area,
according to a broker at Colliers International, reported Northern Nevada Business
Weekly. Full
Story New!
The Feb. 23 edition of New Products Hits and
Misses with Phil Lempert features: Bella Lula Orangeade, Belle Chevre Breakfast
Cheese Coffee Flavor, Nature's Path Organic Ancient Grains Granola with Almonds,
Laurie's Buffalo Gourmet Black Bean and Garlic Tortilla Chips and Champion Raisels
Sour Lemon Blast. Click
here to view. Wegmans Food Markets will
not raise prices this year on about 40 staple products, including fruit, vegetables,
fish,  ground
beef and coffee. The chosen items in most cases carry the Wegmans brand, reported
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Full
Story Kraft Foods Inc. plans to overcome rising
ingredient costs and a stagnant packaged-food market by spending more on its
most profitable brands. Kraft will raise marketing spending by 10% on the 20 brands
that make up two-thirds of its revenue and hurry new product development. Kraft
also expects commodity costs to rise $700 million to $800 million this year, particularly
for cheese, dairy, meat and coffee, reported Crain's Chicago Business.
Full
Story (Free Registration Required) International
News PepsiCo, Inc. and the Inter-American Development
Bank entered into a five-year partnership to spur social
and economic growth in 26 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. The
partnership's inaugural project was launched in Mexico with an agriculture initiative
that seeks to significantly expand commercial sunflower production. Full
Story 
Jammin
Java Corp. entered into a distribution partnership in Canada with United Natural
Foods Canada, a division of United National Foods Inc. (UNFI). UNFI Canada will
be focused on marketing the brand to big box stores in the country. Full
Story Health News Moderate
drinkers saw a 14% to 25% reduction in heart disease
compared with people who never consumed alcohol, according to a study published
in British Medical Journal, reported BBC News. Full
Story Washington
News A
Republican proposal before a Colorado House committee would repeal the state's
2.9% sales tax on soft drinks, which was enacted in March 2010, reported
The Associated Press. Full
Story
| The Food Institute will present The
State of the Economy: A Retail Perspective, a one-hour webinar,
on Tuesday, Mar. 1 from 12 noon to 1 p.m. (EST). Featuring Mike Jackson, retired
president and COO, SUPERVALU, and Marc de Speville, partner, Food Retail Research
Redburn Partners, the webinar will present detailed analysis and insight into
what is happening, and what the future holds, for the U.S. retail market. Food
Institute president Brian Todd will moderate. To learn more and register, click
here. | | The
Minnesota House Civil Law Committee approved the Personal Responsibility
in Food Consumption Act, sending it to the full House, reported TwinCities.com.
Full
Story (Free Registration Required) Market
News Total frozen fruit stocks were down 9% from last
month and down 14% from a year ago. Total frozen vegetable
stocks were down 11% from last month and down 9% from a year ago. Total red meat
supplies in freezers were up 8% from both the previous month and last year. Frozen
pork supplies were up 14% from the previous month and up 10% from last year. USDA
Cold Storage Report 
Accumulated
biotech crops exceeded one billion hectares in 2010, 15 years after commercialization,
according to the annual report released by International Service for the Acquisition
of Agri-biotech Applications. The U.S. led the list with 66.8 million hectares,
followed by Brazil, Argentina, India and Canada. There is considerable potential
for increasing the biotech adoption of the four current large hectarage biotech
crops - maize, soybean, cotton and canola - which represented almost 150 million
hectares in 2010 from a global potential of double that hectarage at over 300
million hectares. Full
Story |
