Here’s a headline that I didn’t expect to see in my lifetime!

Disquieting sounds on a Summer’s morning 😱

It’s a “fasten seatbelts, market turbulence ahead” year. Inflation in farm input, ingredient & food prices, but food retailers are fighting tooth & nail to be the low price champion 😱 It’s on-trend for S. Korean consumers to slash spending. Something or somebody has got to give!

Unexpected 30 hrs in KL en route to Oz as airline cancelled KL-Brisbane portion of my flight! “Out of adversity comes opportunity”: time for my favourite lunch (or breakfast!) - Hainan chicken & rice + cold🍺. Malaysia’s short of restaurant staff - where’ve all the workers gone?

Are the beleaguered pork & chicken guys missing a dried meat marketing opportunity? Take a peek at famous-in-Malaysia Loong Kee of KL. The pork & chicken floss, with seaweed as an extra, & pork fluff get the digestive juices flowing. Pork to improve dental hygiene would be a 1st!

Just as night follows day, there’s a natural order for me visiting Sydney🇦🇺: am talk socks off on food trends; pm ferry to Manly (harbour bridge ✔︎ opera house✔︎), beach walk, fish & chips, schooner(s) of beer 🍺, tired & happy train to airport! But will then chaos prevail?😱

Aussies are right up there with USA and Argentina on meat consumption - 107kg/pc. The Friday night pub/club meat raffle had its genesis in war torn UK. Win the Steyne Hotel raffle & you can take home an entire carcass. If Aussies were cannibals, I’d be no more than a light snack!

It’s important in Vietnam to know the difference between “The Rules of the Road” and the rules of the road!

Front of wholesale F&V house (pic 1) and back of house (pic 2). Mind you, plant material is biodegradable and the fish thrive on it! The retail result (pic 3) looked good. Mÿ Tho VN

Uplifting news of the day for carnivores 🍷

But did he swallow? The world demands to know 🥩

Food price crisis for consumers. What about pig producers? It’s not just in UK that fresh pork has become a “free good”. In Fort Worth TX today. Pork loin & shoulder on special at £3.89/kg ($1.99/lb) in Albertsons. UK pork industry 7 quarters of -ve margins. Sadly, same in USA😱

FAO Global Food Price Index for September is down for 6th consecutive month. Mind you, it’s still at stratospheric levels! Has consumer food price inflation peaked? NO - earlier commodity price increases still to be passed through to retail. The squeeze on producers continues 😱

Great food retail theatre has fresh food excellence at its centre with opportunities to eat it where you buy it! Seafood is the litmus test and, for meat, put a shopper-friendly butcher out front! Check out Gourmet Market in Bangkok, handily located next to Siam BTS Sky Train.

Up Your Marketing Game to Make the Best of Challenging Times in Fresh Produce: The Case of Cucumbers supermarketsinyourpocket.com/2022/10/26/up-…

Coping with the Economic Crisis: What Will Consumers Do? supermarketsinyourpocket.com/2022/10/31/cop…

Fingers crossed that the next couple of years of economic turbulence ends as well as it did for Fred and Ginger 🙏🏽

It’s ”Trends 2023 Time” in the World of Food & Grocery Market Research! supermarketsinyourpocket.com/2022/11/23/its…

The spectre of a Dickensian workhouse Christmas beckons for income “Have Not” households. Thank goodness for chicken but what about chicken producers? £2.90/kg. in UK ($US1.58/lb.) defies economic logic in the face of spiralling input costs. Eggs are being rationed, chicken next?

“Are we there yet?” (i.e. out of the woods). World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2023 just out. Ranking of short- & longer-term risks by 1+K worthies. It makes salutary reading for agri-food businesses who may wish to recalibrate their forecasts for the next couple of years!