07.05.2008 Indian Retail joins GlobalGAP

Mumbai, 7 th May 2008 GLOBALGAP and QCI (Quality Council of India) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish the Indian National Technical Working Group (NTWG). The signing ceremony was held and announced at the Food Forum India 2008 event in Mumbai in the presence of food business and retail leaders.

“Hosting the GLOBALGAP NTWG fits our role we have been designated during the Food Safety and Quality Year by the Indian Government, which includes the nation-wide promotion of Good Agricultural Practices,” said Gridhar J. Gyani, Secretary General, QCI. “We will be the first contact point in the country for GLOBALGAP. The NTWG will be chaired by Dr. Mangala Rai, Secretary, Dept of Agricultural Research & Education, Ministry of Agriculture and DG, ICAR.”

Dr. Kristian Moeller, Secretary GLOBALGAP said: “Now we can link global implementation activities closer to the needs of Indian producers, while at the same time we gain qualified input from Indian experts and other stakeholders with respect to the differing legal and structural conditions that exist here in India. Having the voice of India on board, this is a major milestone on the journey towards global harmonization of good agricultural practice standards.” Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier, Managing Director, EHI Retail Institute congratulated the IMAGES GROUP, organizer of the Food Forum India, for bringing the key stakeholders together to provide the platform for initiating this process.

National Technical Working Groups are established voluntarily by GLOBALGAP members in countries where there is a need for clarification of implementation of GLOBALGAP on a local scale. The guidelines developed by this growing number of groups are approved by Sector Committees (SCs) and are published on the GLOBALGAP website. The groups are established and work in close cooperation with the GLOBALGAP Secretariat and the SC and support the GLOBALGAP implementation and continuous improvement based on specific area needs.

25.04.08 Retail in Ukraine

The Ukraine is among the TOP 5 countries for globalizing retail. About 40 million inhabitants with a high demand to reach Western European consumption levels are a real challenge. As a platform for retail and technical supplies since 2004 the exhibition MARHo in Kiev is of increasing importance. In 2008 on 4,810 square meters, 183 exhibitors from 7 countries had met which is an increase of 27 percent in space, 35 percent in exhibitors and 20 percent in visitors. The next MARHO will be in 2009 from 3rd March till 06th March.

17.04.08: Retail in the Czech Republic

One of the drivers of internationalization of retail in Central Europe is the Czech Republic. Each year in February the CZ Retail Summit prepare the platform for an international dialogue about the developments and trends. The CZ-universities are strongly linked within this communication-process between suppliers, retailers and education-sector. For the third year therefore Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier was teaching whithin an crash-course at the University of South Bohemian in Budweis

10.04.2008: Quality in Food Management

Since its original roots EHI Retail Institute high priority is given to the improvement of applied food management. Today EHI's daughter companies FoodPlus and Orgainvent stand for this segment.

But EHI supports also international conferences with its know-how. In April in Russia the conference “Manufacture and trade in a foodstuff: a condition, prospects of development and a professional training in the XXI-st century” will be supported. In May 2008 the Food Forum India in Mumbai organized by Images Retail expects 2500 captains of the food and restaurant businesses to discuss all aspects of the total food supply chain. The Forum culminates in the Images Golden Spoon Awards.

FFI will also provide an exhibition of country specific pavilions and workshops for interaction of foreign food brands/products with Indian retailers, distributors and importers. Foreign partners are organizations in food production, processing, supply chain and logistics, warehousing, cold storage and retail support. Among the members of the international Advisory Board is Prof.Dr.B.Hallier, president of the European Retail Academy and Managing Director of EHI Retail Institute.
 

01.04.08 CIRCLE-Conference

Initiated by Leeds Metropolitan University together with 5 partner universities a Center for International Research in Consumers Location and their Environment (CIRCLE) had been founded. Its annual conferences had taken place in 2004 in the UK, 2005 in Liechtenstein, 2006 in Croatia, 2007 in Italy, 2008 in Cyprus – its destination in 2009 will be Austria.

The CIRCLE conferences have two major goals:

• to check recent development in consumer behaviour and retailing
• to provide the opportunity for young scholars, practitioners and PhD students to have their work validated and benchmarked within the benevolent academic and professional community of colleagues from different international contexts.