Irish Distillers has been named 'Importer of the Year' at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2020. “We are incredibly proud that our whiskeys continue to impress both whiskey experts and connoisseurs around the world," said Tommy Keane, production director at Irish Distillers. Jameson Bow Street 18 Years Cask Strength also received Double Gold. Newcomer Midleton Very Rare Dair Ghaleach Knockrath Forest was also highly commended, achieving a Double Gold medal on its first outing at the competition, reinforcing Midleton Very Rare’s standing as the prinnacle expression of Irish whiskey.
Private label share is now above 30% in almost all of Europe, the latest edition of PLMA's International Private Label Yearbook has shown. This year's edition of the yearbook, which incorporates Nielsen data to the end of 2019, shows that private label has gained market share in 14 of the 19 countries surveyed, reports esmmagazine.com. In the UK and Germany, private label share remains above 40%, while in Italy, its share rose by two percentage points, its biggest gain to date.
Above-average rains last week in most of Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions could boost the last stage of the April-to-September cocoa mid-crop, farmers recently said. Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, is currently in its rainy season, which runs from mid-March to late October, when there are meant to be regular downpours. After a period of irregular and below-average showers, farmers were happy with the volume of rain last week."The amount of rain is good in order to have lots of cocoa towards the end of the mid-crop," said Alphonse Gba, who farms in the outskirts of the western region of Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa-belt.
Spain's lockdown, one of Europe's strictest, crushed the tourism trade and closed restaurants for around two months, meaning less thirst for cava - the beloved, fizzy alcoholic drink mainly produced in the northeastern Catalonia region."We face the perfect storm because it amplifies all the problems," said Damia Deas, chairman of the Institut del Cava business group representing 70% of cellars and also manager of the Vilarnau brand."(Coronavirus) affects the whole value chain."
Maxima Grupė has announced changes to its corporate structure that will see the retail operators in each country in which the group has a presence manage their respective real estate operations.“For faster and more effective business decisions, we are simplifying the structure of the Maxima Group – we will manage the companies from Lithuania and transfer matters relating to the management of real estate operations to each country’s retail operators," commented Jurgita Šlekytė, Maxima Grupė chief executive. As part of the new structure, the retail operations in Latvia and Estonia will be two-thirds owned by Maxima Grupė (67%) together with Maxima LT (33%).
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