22/08/2025

BIZ & FINANCE FRIDAY | AUG 22, 2025

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Nestle unveils method to boost cocoa yields

UK targets crypto networks helping Russia dodge sanctions LONDON: The UK on Wednesday announced a crackdown against eight individuals and entities that have helped Russia circumvent Western sanctions through financial and cryptocurrency networks based in Kyrgyzstan. London announced new sanctions against five organisations and three individuals, including the Kyrgyz-based Capital Bank and its director, Kantemir Chalbayev, “which Russia uses to pay for military goods”, the Foreign Office said. The Grinex and Meer cryptocurrency exchanges, which trade the A7A5“stablecoin” – a supposedly stable digital currency pegged to the rouble – have also been sanctioned. The token “has moved US$9.3 billion on a dedicated crypto exchange in just four months and is specifically designed as an attempt to evade western sanctions”, the Foreign Office said. “If the Kremlin thinks they can hide their desperate attempts to soften the blow of our sanctions by laundering transactions through dodgy crypto networks – they are sorely mistaken,” said Sanctions Minister Stephen Doughty. The announcement follows a similar move last week by the United States, which also targeted Grinex. The action comes “as the UK and international allies redoubled efforts to secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine”, the ministry said. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday chaired an online meeting of around 30 countries, following talks in Washington between US and Ukraine leaders. – AFP British regulator bans Sanex shower gel ad over racial stereotyping LONDON: Britain’s advertising regulator on Wednesday banned an advert for Sanex shower gel, owned by US consumer goods group Colgate-Palmolive, for suggesting black skin was “problematic” and white skin was “superior”. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it took action after two complaints that the TV ad perpetuated negative stereotypes about people with darker skin. The ad, which aired in June, showed two black models as having “itchy and dry skin which was shown to be problematic”, while a white model was depicted with smooth skin. “We considered that could be interpreted as suggesting that white skin was superior to black skin,” ASA said in a statement. The watchdog ruled the ad must not appear again, as it breached rules banning harmful or offensive advertising. Colgate-Palmolive told ASA that the ad used a “before and after” scenario to show the product was suitable for everyone, not to make a comparison based on race or ethnicity. The company did not respond to an AFP request for comment. ASA accepted the message was not intentional but warned the company to “ensure they avoided causing serious offence on the grounds of race”. – AFP

Climate Central research group found that “excessive heat can contribute to a reduction in the quantity and quality of the harvest” for cocoa growers. The report calculated that over the last decade, climate change had added an extra three weeks of above 32°C in Ivory Coast and Ghana during the main growing season from October to March – above the levels considered optimum for cacao trees. The surge in prices dampened demand while also pushing farmers to devote more resources to cocoa cultivation. That allowed prices to ease in recent months, with reserves being built up for the first time in four years. Since the beginning of 2025, prices have declined, and a tonne was worth around £5,600 on Wednesday. – AFP

Louise Barrett, head of the Nestle research and development centre for confectionery in York, England. “While this project is still at a pilot stage, we are currently exploring how to apply this innovation at a larger scale,” she said. Cocoa prices had been stable for around 10 years but began to soar in early 2023. A tonne of cocoa was worth £1,900 ($10,800) on the London commodities market in January 2023, shot up to £3,800 a year later, and reached a high of over £9,000 last December. The surge was the result of poor harvests in the leading producers Ivory Coast and Ghana, as unusually heavy rains, a cocoa pod disease outbreak and then drought took their toll. In February, a study by the

o Food giants seeks to cut down on waste as climate change hits harvests

GENEVA: Faced with climate change diminishing farmers’ yields, Nestle announced on Wednesday that it was working on a technique to produce chocolate by using up to 30% more of the cocoa fruit. Chocolate is traditionally made using only cocoa beans taken from inside the pod, meaning that a large amount of the fruit – including the pulp, placenta and pod husk – “remains largely unused”, the Swiss food giant said. Its researchers have “developed a patented technique that leverages all parts of the fruit inside the cocoa pod”, it said.

Everything inside the pod is collected as a wet mass that then ferments naturally, “unlocking the key chocolate flavour”, Nestle said. “The mass is then ground, roasted and dried into chocolate flakes which can be used to make chocolate without compromising the taste.” Nestle said the approach cut down on waste while helping farmers get more yield and value. “With climate change increasingly affecting cocoa yields around the world, we are exploring innovative solutions that could help cocoa farmers maximise the potential of their harvests,” said

Workers sun-dry cocoa beans in a courtyard in the village of Endaba in Cameroon. – REUTERSPIC

Uncertainty persists despite EU-US trade deal: Lagarde

BERLIN: The US-EU trade deal has eased but “certainly not eliminated” global uncertainty, European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday. Speaking at a panel at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Lagarde said the deal had left the effective US tariff rate for EU goods at between 12% and 16%. The tariff rate was “somewhat higher”than the ECB had forecast, she said, adding that President Donald Trump’s plans for sector-specific levies on pharmaceutical goods and semiconductors remain unclear. The ECB expects eurozone

That was seen as a sign of caution as policymakers waited to see what effects the US tariffs would have. In its last macroeconomic projections in June, the ECB lowered its inflation forecast to 2% for 2025 due to lower energy prices and a strengthening euro. At the same time it lowered its forecast for GDP growth in 2026 slightly to 1.1%. Lagarde said that new forecasts set to published in mid-September will take into account “the implications of the EU-US trade deal for the euro area economy”. – AFP

He had initially threatened steep 30% tariffs on EU imports but late last month Brussels and Washington reached a deal which lowered that to 15%, with the bloc trying to secure exemptions for certain sectors. However, in recent weeks Trump has raised the possibility of additional tariffs hitting certain sectors such as pharmaceuticals, which account for 20% of the the EU’s exports to the United States. The EU-US deal was struck a few days after a meeting of the ECB’s governing council at which it decided to hold interest rates steady after consecutive cuts.

activity to slow in the third quarter of 2025 after a strong start to the year. Lagarde said that “global growth has remained broadly steady so far” but cautioned that“this resilience has been mainly driven by tariff-induced distortions of economic activity”. She noted that, in the first quarter of the year, “importers boosted their inventories in anticipation of higher tariffs”. Trump has imposed painful import tariffs on countries around the world in an attempt to boost US manufacturing and reduce his country’s colossal trade deficit.