T&G Global, the fruit marketing firm controlled by Germany's BayWa, wants to sell its food processing subsidiary T&G Foods as the apple processing business has been hurt by a decline in fruit volumes and a slide in apple juice concentrate prices.

The company reviewed the unit's operations and determined it's non-core and consequently should be either sold, rationalised or closed, it said in a statement. Expressions of interest close on Nov. 15.

“Despite the best efforts of T&G Foods’ management and staff, the business has struggled to counter the current impact of the significant decline in the volume of fruit for processing in New Zealand and the continued worldwide decline in the commodity price of apple juice concentrate," chief executive Alastair Hulbert said.

Depending on the timing and outcome, T&G may incur a significant after-tax loss due to a write-down in the net book value of T&G Foods’ assets and other associated costs, it said. At this stage the negative impact to the T&G Group is estimated to be about $14 million.

It noted, however, any negative impact will be largely offset by a fair value gain of approximately $14 million from T&G Group’s investment in Grandview Brokerage announced in March, a joint venture in the US that will improve its access to the American fresh produce market.

"Consequently, T&G does not expect a material income statement impact to arise for the year ended 31 December 2017," it said.

T&G Foods has the capacity to process up to 200,000 metric tonnes of apples and other fruit at its two manufacturing sites, one in each of Hastings and Nelson. It processes apples into apple juice and has also diversified into the production of higher margin fruit ingredient products including diced apple for the food services industry, apple sauce in bulk and small format pouches for retail consumers.

While the apple industry has been converting orchards to new apple varieties and in the last five years has added more than 2,500 hectares of orchards, the volume of apples available and suitable for processing has been in significant decline and has negatively impacted T&G Foods trading, it said.

The shares last traded at $3.35 and are down 0.7 percent over the past 12 months.

|nA businessDeskrelease on ShareChat  ||  October 16,  2017   |||

#5 - James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis made powerful arguments in favour of the Earth as a self-regulating system, and as the last century drew to a close the theory arrived massively in New Zealand academic and media life. It’s central contention is that the planet is self-regulating organism and that the heavy output of “carbon” actually carbon dioxide from industrial processes along with its associated “greenhouse” gas methane from living creatures is interfering with this natural order

The position nowThe flap remains still largely confined to the intelligentsia and has failed to break into the electoral realm as a whole. Proponents, supporters and “deniers” viewing alternating extremes of chills and heat waves from their own divergent points of view. James Lovelock himself has become one of these telling The Guardian that it is “ just as silly to be a climate denier as it is to be a believer” and claiming that fracking and nuclear power should power the UK, not renewable sources such as windfarms.

| MSC Newswire Big Frights of Our Times Series #5  || Monday 16 October 2017   |||

AgResearch is entering into a major programme to prepare New Zealand for the new era of digital agriculture.

The programme will identify the barriers to taking up new digital technologies on and off the farm, and will develop a technology roadmap to support the industry's transition.

Many farmers are already using technologies such as sensors on their farms connected to their mobile phones or devices. However there is enormous potential for uptake of exciting new tools, alongside digital platforms that can bring together and analyse large amounts of data from different sources across the farm to guide decision-making.

"There are huge gains on offer from digital agriculture in terms of productivity, the environments we farm in, and pressures on farmers," says AgResearch Research Director Greg Murison.

"It's crucial that New Zealand - as an agricultural nation and exporter - stays ahead of the game.

We want to support the industries as best we can to do that. We believe our programme will be among the first of its kind where a system-wide analysis of digital agriculture has been undertaken in New Zealand."

"There's a lot of smart people and companies developing these new digital tools for farmers. Our role is looking at the big picture of adoption across New Zealand, and how best to measure and interpret the data essential to the operation of these tools. We are already collecting data from the likes of our Tokanui research farm, where for example we are digitally tracking the movements and behaviour of the cows."

"We are also focused on the testing and trialling of new technologies that become available - to see how they can be integrated into New Zealand farming systems, and what value they can bring for our farmers.

We have recently partnered with Australian firm Agersens to trial its new virtual fencing technology in New Zealand. This technology uses collars on the livestock that enable farmers to restrict, move and monitor their animals - from anywhere and anytime - via an app."

A component of digital agriculture is precision agriculture, where variability of crops is monitored, measured and responded to with the purpose of optimising returns and preserving resources.

The International Tri-Conference for Precision Agriculture in 2017 will be held in Hamilton from October 16-18.

Visit www.precisionagriculture.org.nz for more information.

| A TheCountry release  ||  October 13,  2017   |||

Tetra Pak has strengthened its product offering for ice cream manufacturers with the acquisition of Big Drum Engineering GmbH, a leading supplier of filling machines for the industry.

The deal further extends the company’s ability to provide end-to-end solutions for food and beverage companies around the world, and reinforces its global leadership in the sector.

Tetra Pak already provides a full range of ice cream equipment, including raw material storage, mix preparation, continuous freezing and inclusion systems, as well as production solutions for moulded and extruded ice cream products. The acquisition of Big Drum will strengthen the company’s presence in the “filled” ice cream segment (e.g. tubs and cones) which represent approximately half of the global packaged ice cream market.

Monica Gimre, Executive Vice President, Processing Systems at Tetra Pak said: “This acquisition means we can now provide an even more extensive range of production solutions for ice cream manufacturers and expand our collaboration with them. This, in turn, will allow us to deliver even greater value, by securing efficiencies in technical service across a number of different lines, and offering portfolio-wide support to their product development and marketing activities.”

Big Drum, which is based in Edertal, Germany, is a leading provider of medium-to-high capacity filling machines for the global ice cream market. It is a highly-respected supplier to major brands, and is recognized for its innovation, quality, and performance.

Hans-Peter Trosse and Matthias Ruppert, Managing Directors of Big Drum, jointly stated: “We see significant growth opportunities through Tetra Pak. We are convinced that we will be able to provide stronger support to our customers, thanks to Tetra Pak’s worldwide presence, extensive sales and service channels, technical support and expertise in food manufacturing.”

Following the acquisition, all Big Drum managers and employees will remain with the company at their current location.​

| A TetraPak BigDrum Release  ||  October 4,  2017   |||

#4 - The privacy hysteria floated into political life in the 1970s with the widespread introduction of computerisation in the public sector notably in two quite divergent areas – crime and health. The fervour was largely whipped up from Australia and as each waved peaked public sector administrators would ask “who has been over?”

The position nowFacebook and all the other “social media” have reversed this position as whole sectors of the community cannot tell people they have never actually met enough about themselves. What was considered highly personal and thus confidential as recently as the 1990s is now willingly, and indeed, enthusiastically surrendered into cyberspace. It is not understood by many users that in the photos and news they happily transmit about their jobs, dogs, holiday, relatives, state of health, and curious absences that they are in fact freely and enthusiastically transmitting information that was the subject of the panic at the end of the last century.

| MSC Newswire Big Frights of Our Times Series #4  || Friday 13 October 2017   |||

#3 - This scare was the harbinger of all the other panics on ingestibles that continues today. The background was that New Zealanders short, but fast flowing waterways failed to collect the minerals required for healthy teeth. The result was that New Zealand teeth were among the worst in the developed world requiring among other things mass adult extractions and huge purpose built dental clinics for children

The position nowThe unselfish insistence by the dental profession that fluoride had to be introduced to the public water supply brought this situation under control. Unselfish because it did the dentists out of much of their business. The anti-fluoride campaign is now associated with the extremes of the Greens.

| MSC Newswire Big Frights of Our Times Series #3  || Thursday 12 October 2017   |||

Water utility Watercare is seeking expressions of interest (EOI) for construction of the new Central Interceptor wastewater project in Auckland, New Zealand.

Bids will be invited for the construction of the Central Interceptor in two stages:

EOI – open from 20 October 2017, and will pre-qualify up to four contractor consortia. Request for Proposal – held during 2018, to award a contract for construction of the works.

The EOI will be released via Watercare’s e-procurement portal, TenderLink.

Once completed, the Central Interceptor will increase the capacity of Auckland’s wastewater network.

An earth pressure balance (EPB) tunnel boring machine (TBM) will be used during construction, linking the 4.5 m diameter pipe to 4.4 km of sewers, ranging in size from 2.1 to 2.4 m in diameter.

The tunnel will be constructed between 15 and 110 m underground and will run for approximately 13 km between the suburbs of Western Springs and Mangere.

The TBM will be driven through weak sandstone and may encounter mixed face materials in Auckland’s geology, which is overlain with volcanic soils and rock.

The southern end of the tunnel will extend through marine and alluvial sediments, and then under the Manukau Harbour.

The main tunnel will terminate at a lift pump station that will be constructed at the Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Shafts for the station will be constructed using a D-Wall method and feature a dual cell configuration approximately 40 m deep; the cells will be 12 m and 26 m in diameter.

The pumps will deliver up to 6 m3/sec through two 1.4 m diameter high density polyethylene rising mains into the treatment plant.

Connections into the existing network built under urban central Auckland will be made via 16 cascade drop shafts that are between 25 and 70 m deep, ranging in diameter from 3 to 12 m.

Land for the shafts – which has already been designated to parks – is owned by Watercare, or its parent organisation Auckland Council.

An option exists to dispose of tunnel spoil at a landfill operation managed by Watercare.

Construction is anticipated to begin in 2019 and to be completed by 2025.

For more information visit the Watercare website.

| A Trenchless release  ||  October 11,  2017   |||

#2 - The notion of a world capsized by the weight of its uncontrolled population growth overlapped with the nuclear war fear. It began to dissipate during the 1960s with the advent of readily-available contraceptive science. Yet later in the last century is began to pick up renewed momentum through reports of population expansion in Africa and Asia.

The position now Recognition of this and action in Asia, most famously in China, has allayed these fears. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation report, the most recent comprehensive one on the topic indicates that world population is now stabilising. The population “bomb” syndrome is a rare panic in that it can be ascribed to a single person instead of to a collective. In New Zealand in 2013, Paul Ehrlich, his explosive deadlines still far behind him, nonetheless clung to his original postulation.

| Big Frights of Our Times MSC Newswire Series #2  || Wednesday  10 October 2017   |||

#1 - This was the first of the post World War 2 panics. It held that as a staunch Western ally, New Zealand would become a casualty of any nuclear war between the United States and the USSR.

The position now

According to USSR deep penetration agent Kim Philby, by now a KGB colonel in Moscow, New Zealand’s anti nuclear stance meant that it was removed from the USSR’s list of targets. Thus confirming that New Zealand, until its anti-nuclear era , a staunch United States ally, had been on it in the first place.  This threat, the most realistic in our series,  has recently resurrected itself  in the form of the North Korea rogue state and its ability

| Big Frights of Our Times MSC Newswire Series #1  ||  Tuesday 10 October 2017   |||

Big Frights of Our Times MSC Newswire Series

Starts Tomorrow Tuesday 10 October 2017

“Don’t’ worry,” the saying went “it may never happen!”

None of them have. So far.

In this series we look at the panics of our time. We assess them in the light of today. Were/are they justified? Who started them? What is the situation now?