Dried Fruits insights

[Reporter Jaenam Kang, Korea Agricultural and Fishery Newspaper] Jeju Island has started a 1/2 thinning project for citrus orchards this year to produce high-quality citrus fruits and increase farm income. Jeju Special Self-Governing Province announced that it will establish guidelines for the citrus orchard thinning project in 2025 and focus its administrative power until April. The province has been promoting a 1/2 thinning project for 994 ha of citrus fruits for 2,530 farms for the past five years from 2020 to last year, and plans to promote the project on a scale of 100 ha this year. Farmers who wish to thin should submit an application for thinning and proof of ownership of the citrus orchard to the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation or the local community center where the citrus orchard is located by the 28th.

As tariffs on American tangerines (mandarins) are scheduled to be abolished starting next year under the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the government’s quota tariff policy has led to a sharp increase in imports last year. Criticism has been raised that the government has taken the lead in opening up the import market by applying excessive quota tariffs to items that can directly compete with domestic tangerines. According to the Korea Customs Service, last year’s mandarin imports were 2,874 tons, nearly five times more than in 2023 (587 tons). Foreign mandarins were first imported into Korea in 2017. At that time, imports were only 0.1 tons, but they have been gradually increasing to 8.4 tons in 2018, 512 tons in 2020, and 529 tons in 2022. The sudden surge in mandarin imports last year, which had been only about 500 tons per year since 2020, is analyzed to be due to the lower tariffs caused by the Korea-US FTA and the government's application of quota tariffs in the ...

According to the Italian Tgcom24 website, blue crabs are an alien invasive species from the Atlantic Ocean, which now poses a serious threat to Italy's ecological environment. Italian experts have called on people to take advantage of natural enemies and solve this "alien invader" by cooking and eating. However, this method may no longer be applicable. In the spring of 2024, fishery workers in the Emilia-Romagna region reported that some blue crabs were found to be unconscious or dying, resulting in a significant drop in commercial value. Researchers at the Specialized Research Center for Aquaculture of the Venice Veterinary Institute found that a large number of blue crabs were infected with a pathogenic parasitic dinoflagellate called Hematodinium. This parasite can spread infection among crustaceans, resulting in a decrease in their natural population, which has an adverse impact on the ecological environment and fisheries. Although this parasite does not threaten human health, it can infect blue crabs with a disease called "bitter crab disease". As the name of the disease suggests, the meat of blue crabs infected with parasites becomes bitter and difficult to swallow after cooking. If you choose to eat blue crabs raw or undercooked, you may face potential health risks, such as infection with Vibrio, which can lead to acute gastroenteritis. From April to May 2024, researchers collected a total of 225 blue crab samples from seven lagoon areas in the three regions of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna, with at least 30 samples collected from each location to assess the health of blue crabs. Preliminary test results show that the infection rate of blood egg whipworms in different regions varies significantly. No such parasites were found in samples from Friuli-Venezia Giulia; the parasite infection rate of blue crab samples in Veneto was 33%; and the infection rate of samples in Emilia-Romagna was as high as 97%. At present, researchers still find it difficult to determine whether this blue crab "plague" will cause greater harm.