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May 11, 2015 – DUBAI – The Global Pulse Confederation (GPC) is pleased to announce AGT Food and Ingredients (AGT Foods) as a new sponsor of the GPC’s International Year of Pulses (IYOP) campaign in 2016. AGT Foods has committed $500,000 in cash and in kind toward activities that GPC and its partners are organizing to promote pulses around the world.
“IYOP is a truly unique opportunity to get the message out and raise the profile of pulses” says Huseyin Arslan, Chairman of AGT Foods and newly elected Chairman of the Global Pulse Confederation. “We aim that with this contribution this message can go a long way to help consumers to recognize what are pulses and understand their nutritional benefits and the sustainable benefits they provide to food systems.”
In December of 2013 the UN General Assembly declared the year 2016 as International Year of Pulses. The GPC, as the global pulse association is organizing a wide range of events and projects that will focus on the role that pulses can play in addressing some of the greatest challenges that we face today such as food nutrition and food security, productivity and environmental sustainability, as well as pulse market access issues.
The sponsorship will support Global Pulse Confederation’s social media campaign explaining the benefits of pulses. Recognizing that the social media is a vital part of the consumer’s social life nowadays, AGT Foods is funding this project to create online content geared to engage social media users all over the world, with new recipes and nutrition facts. The sponsorship will also include an in kind contribution to launch a consumer promotion campaign in USA and Canada.
“With the International Year of pulses coming, we want to make consumers aware that when they eat pulses, whether beans, lentils, chickpeas or peas, or select foods that use pulse ingredients in them, they not only benefit their health but also the environment” concluded Murad Al-Katib, president and CEO of AGT Foods “Pulses truly are the future of food.”
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Contact for further information:
Omer Al-Katib, AGT Foods, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Gavin Gibson, Executive Director Global Pulse Confederation: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Paulina Ceballos, GPC’s secretariat for the international year This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
About AGT Food and Ingredients Inc.
AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. (AGT) is a processor of value-added pulses, staple foods and ingredients for export and domestic markets as well as a supplier of retail packaged and canned foods to retail and food service sectors. Through its offices and processing facilities located in some of the best agricultural growing regions in Canada, the U.S., Turkey, China, Australia and South Africa, merchandising and sales offices in the U.K., the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and India and origination offices in Russia, AGT produces a full range of pulses and specialty crops including lentils, peas, chickpeas, beans and canary seed as well as food ingredients such as pulse flours, proteins, starches and fibres. Through its subsidiaries in Turkey, the Arbel Group, AGT also produces staple foods such as Arbella Pasta, rice, and milled wheat products, including bulgur and semolina.
About GPC
The Global Pulse Confederation is head quartered in Dubai and licensed under the Dubai Government authority, Dubai Multi Commodity Centre (DMCC). GPC is the not for profit peak body for the whole global pulses industry value chain. As the sole international confederation for the industry it enjoys membership from 18 national associations (federations) and over 600 private sector members in an industry worth over $100 Billion at the retail level and over 60 million tonnes in pulse production and distribution in over 55 countries.
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May 11, 2016 – DUBAI – The Global Pulse Confederation (GPC) has welcomed Pulse Canada as a sponsor of the GPC’s International Year of Pulses (IYOP) campaign in 2016. Pulse Canada has committed $1.2 million in staff support and fiscal contributions toward the activities that GPC and its partners are organizing to promote pulses around the world.
“Pulses will play an important role in improving the health of people in both developed and developing countries.” said Gordon Bacon, CEO of Pulse Canada. “A partnership with the GPC makes sense for farmers in Canada and for the Canadian trade.”
In December of 2013 the UN General Assembly declared the year 2016 as International Year of Pulses. The GPC is leading the pulse sector industry to organize a wide range of events and projects in celebration of the IYOP.
Pulse Canada team is donating their time and resources to co-ordinate various activities for the International Year, including a major event at the New York Academy of Sciences on November 19, 2015 that will help to kick off the year. Nutritionist from all over the world will gather at the Sackler Institute in New York to focus on the benefits of pulses to a healthy diet and set a new global agenda for pulse nutrition.
More importantly, Pulse Canada is leading and co-funding the development of brand for pulses that will be launched for 2016. The creative elements of this project have been commissioned to the internationally renowned ad agency Leo Burnett, who also undertook a series of marketing researches and concept testing evaluations. Once the pulse brand is ready, Pulse Canada and partners are planning to roll out a consumer-facing campaign in the USA and Canada to make pulses a part of consumers’ daily diets.
“The brand will focus on core values of pulse contributions to nutrition, health and sustainability.” said Gordon Bacon. “We see a bright future for pulses in a wide range of foods.”
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Contact for further information:
Gavin Gibson, Executive Director Global Pulse Confederation: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Courtney Hirota, Director of Marketing & Communications, Pulse Canada, (204) 925-3782,
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Paulina Ceballos, Global Pulse Confederation secretariat for International Year of Pulses
About Pulse Canada
Pulse Canada is the national association representing growers, traders and processors of Canadian pulse crops. Canada is the world’s largest supplier of pulses, with annual exports reaching more than 150 countries.
About GPC
The Global Pulse Confederation is the not for profit peak body for the whole global pulses industry value chain. As the sole international confederation for the industry it enjoys membership from 18 national associations (federations) and over 600 private sector members in an industry worth over $100 Billion at the retail level and over 60 million tonnes in pulse production and distribution in over 55 countries.
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Dry beans have been always present in diets, even long before biblical times. Archaeological evidence has been found of dry bean use in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, India and China. Despite beans once being a staple of diets and having widely known nutritional benefits, people are not eating enough beans.
According to the Bean Institute, dry beans are an excellent source of water-soluble vitamins such as thiamin and folic acid and a good source of riboflavin and vitamin B6, as well as phytochemicals. They are low in fat, high in fiber and packed with protein. Dry beans provide a rich source of vitamins and minerals.
With all of those great properties, there is no doubt that consumption will have positive health impacts, and preventing cancer might be one of them. With funding from the U.S. Dry Bean Council, two researchers from the Colorado State University conducted research to find out if beans have anti-cancer properties.
The researchers used chickpeas, beans and cowpeas and found that the incidence of cancer in regular consumers was reduced by almost 50%. Moreover, the experiment was replicated with the exact same results. Such outcomes led the researchers to a five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to better understand the cancer inhibiting activity of common beans, specifically white kidney beans.
Would it be possible to isolate the chemical properties of white kidney beans to make an anti-cancer pill? Read the full story in the International Food Trader Magazine here.
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You probably know lentils: yellow, brown, green, orange, etc. The ones you buy dry and can cook in soups, stews, salads, burgers and many more recipes. There is however, one type of lentil you might have seen before and you didn't realize is also a member of the pulses family.
Water lentils is one of the world's smallest, floating, flowering plant, that has been ignored for centuries since it tends to get pushed away, and covered by larger, more bulky plants. Water lentils are gaining global awareness since it grows and reproduces faster than any other leafed plant, it can be harvested every day. Furthermore, 98% of the post-harvest water can be recycled for the new crop.
Read the full story here.