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Daily Archives: May 15, 2020
Boosting the booze: Ingredient innovations and ‘healthier options’ key to survival for APAC alcohol sector – FoodNavigator-Asia.com
Posted: May 15, 2020 at 7:46 am
As of last year, healthy growth was still being predicted by experts for the alcoholic beverage market in APAC, such as by analyst firm Mordor Intelligence which expected a CAGR of 4.41% for the sector between 2020 to 2025, and Statista which expects revenue for the market to hit US$540bn in 2023, up from US$480bn in 2019.
Much of this growth was, and still is, expected to come from China, which holds held the largest market share of alcoholic beverages in the region, followed by Japan, India, and Australia.
However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has hit many F&B industries hard, and alcoholic beverages have felt the brunt of this, especially with lockdowns throughout the region banning foodservice operations such as restaurants and hotels, thus depriving the sector of its major source of business.
In Australia, for instance, trade body Alcohol Beverages Australia (ABA) has reported that overall alcohol consumption in Australia is lower than it was at the same time last yeardue to pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants closing.
Our beer, wine and spirits producing members are all telling us that sales lost through on-premise pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants has only marginally been made up for by an increase in packaged retail liquor sales, said ABA CEO Andrew Wilsmore.
Indications are that overall sales and volume loss range from 10% to 30%, with many small producers even more severely impacted as they are unable to access the retail channel or have had to close their cellar/brewery/distillery door.
These findings have been echoed by alcohol beverage firms throughout the APAC region. According brewery giant Asahis public relations manager Kristin Chiu, the firm also saw a decrease in sales from the food service sector (restaurants, cafes, hotel), especially after Japan announced a month-long nationwide state of emergency.
Sapporo Breweries Public Relation Manager Yasuhiro Nagumo reported similar findings, telling us that beer sales in March 2020 only reached 89% compared to the same period last year, and that more people were purchasing alcohol on e-commerce during this period.
It seems that there are fewer opportunities to drink alcohol at restaurants, and more opportunities to drink at home. As a result, more consumers are buying alcohol through e-commerce, he said.
Kavalan Distillery Taiwans first whiskey label has also seen the impacts that lockdowns can have on alcohol sales. Its Global Public Relations Officer Kaitlyn Tsai told FoodNavigator-Asia that although it managed to maintain its local Taiwanese revenue because the country did not impose strict lockdowns, restriction in its other markets worldwide meant a drop in overseas sales.
The negative impact cannot be quantified at this moment, but it is not as severe as expected and recent sales are gradually recovering, said Tsai.
That said, it has not all been doom and gloom for the firm as off-trade sales (retail) have increased since the pandemic, as has e-commerce which has soared.
Product innovations with local ingredients have been particularly prominent in the industry, as can be seen by Kavalan having focused on fruits native to Yilan, the district where its distillery is located in, for its newest whiskey launch.
Our number one selection whiskey this year will look at more subtropical fruits like mango, pineapple, and green apple, whereas the number two will be have floral and herbal notes. As for our first gin in the portfolio, we will include the normal juniper and anise, but also include fruits native to Yilan like red guava, starfruit and kumquat, said Tsai.
The same has been seen in the craft beer sector as well, for example Singapore sustainable brewery Crust Brewing, which brews beer from surplus bread, has created a beer using ulam raja (the Kings salad) which is a herb commonly consumed as a raw vegetable by communities in the South East Asian region.
Crust was also impacted by COVID-10 and had to shift more to direct consumer sales from its previous B2B business model to survive, as well as put a lot more focus on collaborations with local breweries, e.g. launching a 12-pack of mixed beers, each one from a different brewery.
We started off as a B2B company, but when COVID-19 hit we saw a lot of investment interest and commitments affected, which was understandable given the situation, so we made a shift to selling more B2C, and surprisingly, have done pretty well given everything, Crust Founder and CEO Travin Singh told us.
It did affect us quite badly at the initial stage, but right now I would say were doing better than when we were only doing B2B.
Watch the video below to find out more.
In addition to COVID-19, the industry has also had to deal with changes such as a rising health awareness trend amongst APAC consumers a major challenge for the industry, especially as alcohol is not commonly associated with health.
It is for this reason that many major brands have opted to widen and diversify their portfolios, adding healthier choices in hopes of retaining consumer interest.
HEINEKEN APAC Marketing Transformation Director Sarah Maddock told FoodNavigator-Asia. [In] recent years, consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Y drinkers, have increasingly become more health conscious and that drove the introduction of Heineken 0.0 to the market, [giving] the consumer a zero-alcohol Heineken with only 69 calories and without compromising on taste.
These drinkers [are] also a generation that prefers lighter, easy to drink beers which is why we put Tiger Crystal (light brew with 4.3% alcohol as compared to regular 5%) in multiple countries, and Heineken Silver (smoother brew) in Vietnam were put on the market for that reason as they take away some of the bitterness that traditionally appeals to more mature beer drinkers.
This is not to say that Heineken and Tiger have not been impacted by COVID-19 though Although she chose to remain coy on details, HEINEKEN APAC Heineken and Tiger Brand Director Maud Meijboom said that some impact has been seen, though it has widely differed based on brands and channels.
Where countries have had to close F&B outlets and implement some form of lockdown as part of safe distancing measures, yes, we see an impact on the sale of our beers, Meijboom told us.
The impact differs by brand, for example whether they have a significant footprint in the F&B outlets. For newer products it also depends on what channels we are looking at. For example, new products we have launched in retail are performing in line with the trend in that channel.
Low-to-no-alcoholic beverages are a must-mention here when it comes to the rise of the health trend in alcohol, and apart from Heinekens Heineken 0.0, other big firms such as Kirin have also picked up on this.
Kirin Brewery recently released its non-alcoholic beer, Kirin Greens Free in Japan to meet demands of consumers with increasing health concerns, and the firms Corporate Communications spokesman Ataka Takashima told us that this was an important area for the firm.
Non-alcoholic beers constitute just 5% of all alcohol in Japan and while it may not seem much, it has been growing 3% over the last three years, he said.
Japans alcohol tax will be reformed in October this year, which will likely lead to [more] existing beer consumers shifting to non-alcoholic beers.
Kirin also has another non-alcoholic beer option with a health focus, Kirin Karada Free, which claims to reduce body fat.
Another direction that the alcoholic industry in APAC has taken is to innovate using unique ingredients such as hemp and dairy.
One example is Australias The Cannabis Co., which has become known for its hemp-based gins. Its secret ingredients are called terpenes, essentially natural organic compounds, rich in flavour and aroma, that are found in cannabis and hemp.
We carry three very distinct, premium gins in our current portfolio: The Myrcene (40% ABV/alcohol-by-volume), The Jilungin Dreaming (42% ABV) and the High Seas Navy Strength (58% ABV), The Cannabis Co. Brand and Strategy Director Martin Dybalski told us.
The terpene myrcene provides The Myrcene Gin with a bright, fresh, grassy herbaciousness, whereas limonene provides Jilungin Dreaming with delicate, lingering notes of candied citrus and b- caryophyllene provides the High Seas Navy Strength with a sweet, dry and spiced profile.
[All] three are very distinct from one another, [and although] its a little unfair comparing a premium to a regular product, Id say the biggest differences between our gins and regular gins are found in aromatics, complexity and quality of grain spirit/mouthfeel.
Although Dybalski made sure to emphasise that the firm makes no health or therapeutic claims for its products, many terpenes are being studied for potential health benefits.
[A] lot of terpenes found in Hemp are being studied for their potential medicinal benefits, with some early research showing promising anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-carcinogenic effects, he said.
That said, innovating with this unique product carries with it some unique challenges too.
[One] of the most immediate obstacles were facing is building our digital presence on platforms like Facebook, as at present, Facebook policy prohibits advertising of any consumable hemp or Cannabis products across the platform globally, he added.
Another example in this category is Hong Kongs OH CBD beer, which claims to be anti-hangover according to Henry Leung, founder of the start-up OH5 Company.
Although more research is still needed to be done by scientists to look into the effects of combining CBD and alcohol, however we believe there is certain therapeutic value that can be present, he said.
Some reports have suggested blood alcohol level can be lowered while reducing some of the alcohols toxic effects on the liver.
Bottom line is, the way our body takes in and metabolise CBD and alcohol is complex, and everybody is different, an individuals response to a CBD infused beer is largely dependent on genetics. So, everyones experience may be different.
OH CBDs beer contains a citrus flavour with floral notes, inspired by hops and hemp. According to Leung, hops and hemp are both are from the Cannabaceae family, and are close relatives.
He added that he also faced challenges with his unique product in Hong Kong, because the awareness of CBD there is relatively limited.
Unlike in Canada and US, they have many CBD products like chocolate, candies, coffee, and even cocktails mixed with CBD oil, he said.
OH CBD had planned to release its second batch of beer at the end of February, but also had to also production due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the coronavirus, no one is going out now, so we are focusing on promotion, creating awareness of our products, and working on recipes, said Leung.
Dairy has also been a rising star in alcoholic innovation for instance, Lewis Road Creamery and Kahlua teamed up to form a liqueur enriched with cream.
We re-mixed our fresh, rich cream with Kahlas original and legendary coffee liqueur, [blending] 100% Arabica coffee with subtle aromas of vanilla and chocolate combined with rich cream, Lewis Road Creamery General Manager Nicola O Rourke told FoodNavigator-Asia.
We also blended fresh New Zealand cream and real, rich chocolate with a touch of triple distilled premium spirits [to form our] Chocolate Liqueur.
[Both] these liqueurs are different as they dont have unnecessary additives, just liqueur and our fresh homogenised cream as it should be.
Another rising trend in the APAC alcohol industry is sustainable production, such as reducing food waste or using recycled water.
This is growing particularly quickly in Singapore, such as with Singhs firm Crust Brewing which brews beer using fresh surplus white bread as a means to minimise food wastage in the country, where food wastage rose 30% to 40% from 2008 to 2018.
The bread is used to substitute 30% of grains in beer production [and we have] plans to further reduce waste, including using spent grains, the by-product from beer production as a possible animal feed or fertiliser, Singh said.
The company is currently developing a bread-based spirit as well.
Craft brewery Brewerkz is also in collaboration with Singapores national water agency, Public Utilities Board (PUB) to brew beer using treated water using NEWater, Singapores own brand of recycled water.
While the sector certainly faces it challenges, most experts remain optimistic about its future prospects.
Kavalans Tsai emphasised to us that drinking in Asia, such as in Taiwan, has traditionally been associated with business occasions, but has gradually evolved to become a social experience.
These days with economic development, more Asians, especially the younger generation, arelikely to associate drinking with personal occasions and enjoy alcohol purely for fun, she said.
China wine industry expert Emilie Steckenborn also told us that millennial consumers in China are likely to lead the e-commerce boom for the wine industry in China, which is slowly emerging out of its lockdown.
E-commerce can provide rich information about a wine at [younger consumers] fingertips, which they crave, plus they can get reviews and descriptions of flavour, origin, storage conditions and so on even face-to-face retail businesses may not know some of this information, she said.
All in all innovation and flexibility, whether it comes to marketing, retail or product innovation, is clearly the way forward for alcoholic beverage firms in APAC both big and small to make it through the current crisis and those that master this are likely to emerge stronger.
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Q&A: What is ‘unmasking’? – The Southern
Posted: at 7:42 am
Answer: During routine, legal surveillance of foreign targets, names of Americans occasionally come up in conversations. Foreigners could be talking about a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent resident by name, or a foreigner could be speaking directly to an American. When an American's name is swept up in surveillance of foreigners, it is called "incidental collection." In these cases, the name of the American is masked before the intelligence is distributed to administration officials to avoid invading that person's privacy.
Unless there is a clear intelligence value to knowing the American's name, it is not revealed in the reports. The intelligence report would refer to the person only as "U.S. Person 1" or U.S. Person 2." If U.S. officials with proper clearance to review the report want to know the identity, they can ask the agency that collected the information perhaps the FBI, CIA or National Security Agency to "unmask" the name.
Unmasking requests are common, according to Michael Morell, former CIA deputy director and host of "Intelligence Matters" podcast.
"Literally hundreds of times a year across multiple administrations. In general, senior officials make the requests when necessary to understand the underlying intelligence. I myself did it several times a month and NSA adjudicates the request. You can't do your job without it," he said.
Morell emphasized that unmasking is not the same as declassification. "When a name is unmasked, the underlying intelligence to include the name remains classified so leaking it would be a crime."
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Q&A: What is 'unmasking'? - The Southern
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National Intelligence Report Shows The FBI Never Gets Warrants For Its Backdoor Searches Of NSA Collections – Techdirt
Posted: at 7:42 am
from the 'shows'-is-perhaps-a-strong-word-for-something-hidden-17-pages-in... dept
The Intelligence Community's latest transparency report [PDF] contains even more evidence of the FBI's inability to follow the law when helping itself to the NSA's collections. The infamous "backdoor searches" of the NSA's Section 702 collections -- which sweep up millions of electronic communications every year -- have always been a problem for the FBI. (But it's a problem the FBI likely doesn't mind having.)
Communications and data related to US persons are supposed to be minimized before being accessed by the FBI. The FBI may have permission to access this collection, but the impossible-to-stop "incidental" collection of US persons' communications means the FBI is supposed to use warrants when searching the data using US person queries. This mandate only applies to certain cases: criminal investigations not related to national security. The built-in minimization procedures are supposed to take care of the rest of the agency's backdoor searches, supposedly ensuring the FBI can't use a foreign-facing communications collection to spy on Americans.
In practice, this almost never works. It certainly didn't work in every case listed in the ODNI's latest report. Elizabeth Goitein, writing for Just Security, says the report contains more depressing admissions from the FBI. Every time the FBI has accessed US persons communications in cases where it's required to get a warrant, it hasn't bothered to get a warrant.
As minimal as this requirement is, the 2019 statistical transparency report reveals that the FBI has failed to comply with it in literally every relevant case. According to a table in the report, there were six instances in 2018 in which the FBI reviewed the contents of Americans communications after conducting a backdoor search in a criminal, non-national security case.
[...]
The same table indicates that the FBI obtained a warrant to review the contents of those communications exactly zero times. Similarly, for 2019, the table lists one instance in which the FBI ran a backdoor search in a criminal, non-national security case and reviewed communications content, but zero instances in which it obtained a warrant.
There's another caveat that could have salvaged these warrantless backdoor searches, making them compliant with the law. But, nope. This one doesn't work either.
[T]he requirement to obtain a warrant applies only when the investigation has reached a particular stage (namely, when it is designated as a predicated investigation). A footnote in the ODNI report, however, states that the Department of Justice reported each instance to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as a compliance incident. That means the warrant requirement appliedand was violatedin each case.
The news that the FBI violated the warrant requirement in every backdoor search fitting these parameters should have been front page news for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. But the ODNI apparently doesn't want this sort of information to be easily discernible in its ironically-named "Transparency Report." As Goitein points out, this news was buried in a footnote and inferred from a table on page 17. No public statement has been made by the ODNI or the FBI about its inability to secure warrants when warrants in the few instances are required.
Some may shrug this off as being of limited importance because there were only six violations. But that number only covers a single month in 2018 and those were only discovered because the DOJ decided to engage in some oversight for a change.
It's not like it's tough to adhere to the minimal demands Congress has made of the FBI when searching 702 collections. But apparently the FBI isn't up to it.
[T]here is nothing complicated about the requirement Congress imposed; it should have been an easy matter to educate FBI agents about their new obligation. There is no imaginable excuse for a compliance rate of zero percent.
The requirement has been on the books since the beginning of 2018. The FBI still couldn't find a way to comply with the warrant mandate several months later. This isn't acceptable, not when the agency is using a foreign-facing collection that's subject to almost zero oversight to search for communications incidentally swept up by the NSA's dragnet. It has continually abused this privilege to search unminimized communications and engage in domestic surveillance while pretending to be only interested in foreign terrorists. The FBI is a serial domestic abuser. For too many years, Congress and the FISA Court have been its enabler.
Filed Under: 4th amendment, backdoor searches, constitution, fbi, nsa, surveillance, warrants
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The NSA has Values and Baby Monitors Go Hi-Tech – CTech
Posted: at 7:41 am
Interview | Former NSA chief: Values must not be compromised in the name of security, not even during a pandemic. Mike Rogers, who was named head of the NSA at the height of the Snowden scandal is acutely aware of how fragile the public trust is in the intelligence entities of the democratic nations. Read more
AI baby monitor startup Nanit raises $21 million. Nanit develops a machine learning and computer vision-based monitor that tracks and analyses babies sleep. Read more
Israel Innovation Authority doubling down on strapped tech startups. Sagi Dagan, Vice President, Growth Division says the authority is determined to give the industrys good companies a longer runway to survive the pandemic. Read more
Bucking the trend, Spot.IM announces major employee recruitment. "We have the power to recruit workers, even at times like this, because we are funded by people and companies that believe in us and our unique solution," says CEO. Read more
Automated legal contract startup LawGeex raises $20 million. LawGeex develops software that automates legal contract reviews for customers including HP and General Electric. Read more
Pitango leads $5 million seed round for digital health startup Alike. Currently still in stealth mode, Alike develops an AI-based system that helps patients monitor their own condition. Read more
Fuson leads $17 million round for Israeli autotech company IRP. IRP develops energy-efficient high-performance engines and controls for electric vehicles. Read more
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The NSA has Values and Baby Monitors Go Hi-Tech - CTech
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Blame NSA for May 9 Disaster – Referee Wilson Sey, man in centre of the fateful game – GhanaWeb
Posted: at 7:41 am
Sports News of Wednesday, 13 May 2020
Source: ghanaiantimes.com.gh
Referee Jacob Wilson Sey
Retired referee Jacob Wilson Sey, who was at the centre of the May 9 Disaster game between Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko that saw 127 football fans lose their lives, has fingered the then National Sports Council (NSC) now Authority, as the main course of the disaster.
Opening up on the events that led to one of the worst stadium disasters in Africa 19 years ago, he stated emphatically that the then NSC simply did not take their responsibilities seriously enough, insisting that the blame should be laid at their doorstep.
The then NSC at that time did not play their role well at all. How can all exit gates be locked at that particular point in time when the game was over,? he quizzed, adding that is not the practice across the world.
Throwing light in an interview with Kumasi-based FOX Fm on the purported incident that led to the crowd violence on the day, the then Takoradi-based referee revealed that he ignored an infringement in the lead-up to the Ishmael Addo equaliser.
Hearts made a move towards the goal area of Kotoko. During that move, there was an infringement which my assistant F.D. Arthur raised his flag and that foul was going the way of Hearts and not Kotoko as being stated in some quarters.
According to him, Hearts Emmanuel Osei Kuffour had the power to move on; so I signaled my assistant to put down the flag and allowed play to continue and the fast-paced Ishmael Addo picked the ball and scored.
The thing is that the normal Ghanaian football fan will say because the flag was raised the goal should not be allowed without knowing the reason behind the decision.
In refereeing, if you are about to take an infringement that would be a disadvantage to the attacking team, you do not have to whistle but rather give them the advantage and that is what I applied during the game. Most fans got the interpretation wrong on the day.
Revealing how he was appointed as the centre-man for the game, Mr Sey said he together with referee McCarthy and Essel Walker were the three centre referees and two assistants picked for the game. However, on the morning of the game at the pre-match, a lot was cast and the mantle fell on him.
He stated that as match officials, they did their work to the fullest according to the dictates of the trade.
The educationist further revealed that on that fateful day, comments before and during the game from persons whom he thought were so responsible, affected the game.
People were preaching blood-bath should they lose. Hearts were on top during that time even though both teams played well. However, because Kotoko had some back-up players, most people felt that was their time. The manner Kotoko defended in that game was so good and beautiful.
He expressed no regrets for officiating that particular game, but was sad seeing innocent souls perish because of the negligence of the Sports Authority.
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Blame NSA for May 9 Disaster - Referee Wilson Sey, man in centre of the fateful game - GhanaWeb
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