On 17 November, the Phka Rumduol jasmine variety rice was crowned the World’s Best Rice for the fifth time at the TRT (The Rice Trader) World Rice Conference which took place in Phuket, Thailand
Crops
Viking Malt’s latest ‘Finmalt project’ works towards constructing ultramodern malting plant

The new plant has become one of the largest investments in the food and beverage sector of the Finnish industry in the recent years. (Image source: Symaga)
Viking Malt´s latest project has become a reference for both the Finnish company and Symaga, due to its dimension and by being the storage plant for which Symaga has manufactured the different kinds of hopper silos up to the current date
New Zealand welcomes pomelo and lemon imports from Vietnam
On 15 November, an announcement ceremony was held to officially reveal that Vietnam’s pomelo and lemon would be exported to New Zealand
Exploring sustainable techniques of rice cultivation
A team of researchers based in Europe used the Canadian Light Source to understand how to make fertiliser nutrients more available to rice plants
Philippines becomes second country to approve genetically modified eggplant after Bangladesh
A statement by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) announced that Philippines had officially granted regulatory approval for the commercial cultivation of Bt eggplant, becoming the second country after Bangladesh to approve the splicing of a pest-resistant gene taken from the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacterium into the well-known vegetable