Arico’s Gluten Free Snacks Now Available at Fred Meyer Stores

dBusinessNews Portland (press release) - Portland,OR,USA oct. 6, 2008
Arico’s all-natural Cassava Chips and Cookie Bars are being sold in the Nutrition Centers of Fred Meyer stores in Alaska , Washington , Oregon and Idaho

Increasing distribution is evidence of growing demand for gluten-free foods

BEAVERTON, OR – October 6, 2008 – Arico Natural Foods, maker of high quality gluten- and dairy-free snacks, today announced that its products are available in Fred Meyer stores in the Pacific Northwest.

Arico’s all-natural Cassava Chips and Cookie Bars are being sold in the Nutrition Centers of Fred Meyer stores in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

The growing natural foods company now distributes its products to more than 1,500 stores in North America, including Fred Meyer, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Raley’s and many natural foods stores.

“We are so pleased that Arico’s ‘mindful snacks’ will be more widely available to shoppers throughout the Pacific Northwest,” said Arico co-founder and CEO Angela Ichwan.

About Arico Natural Foods
Arico Natural Foods was co-founded by husband-and-wife team Hermanto Hidajat and Angela Ichwan in Beaverton, Oregon in 2004. Inspired by Angela’s young niece, Ella, who follows a diet free of gluten and dair as an alternative treatment for autism, the pair set out to create a line of snacks that would be safe for those with restricted dietary needs, yet delicious enough to share. With an aim to promote “mindful snacking,” the company launched its first line of organic, whole grain, gluten- and dairy-free cookie bars in 2005. It has since followed with a line of cookie pouches and two more cookie flavors, as well as a line of all-natural cassava chips. A socially and environmentally aware company, Arico partners with Women for Women International to support women survivors of war and invests in wind energy projects through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) to offset the carbon emissions of its business operations. The company plants a tree for every new store that carries its cassava chips and participates in community events and fundraising walks nationwide to support those who live gluten free. For more information, visit Arico’s website at www.aricofoods.com

For more information, contact:
Lorraine Burke
Arico Natural Foods
Mobile: (503) 547-5691
Office: (617) 418-5268
lorraine@aricofoods.com

Gov’t to get tough with polluting firms

Viet Nam News - Hanoi,Vietnam 6 10 2008

The factory bought cassava from local farmers to use in its operations, so threats of its closure scare cassava growers. Thieu said that the blame for Phuoc Long no longer buying cassava rests on Phuoc Long farmers’shoulders. Thus, penalties against the factory could not be adjusted to cater to cassava growers’ concerns.


BINH PHUOC — The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) will make no concessions to polluting companies for any economic considerations,deputy minister Tran Hong Ha said last Friday.

The announcement comes in the wake of Vedan Viet Nam, a monosodium glutamate (MSG) producer, being fined for dumping untreated waste water into rivers in Dong Nai Province.

Fines levied against Vedan Viet Nam Limited Company and the Vedan starch factory in Binh Phuoc Province for dumping untreated effluents into rivers are in accordance with the law, said Ha.

The Phuoc Long Starch Factory, Vedan Viet Nam’s affiliate, was ordered to suspend operations for 10 days due to accusations of violating the same regulations as Vedan Viet Nam.

Truong Tan Thieu, chairman of the Binh Phuoc Province People’s Committee, said no official decisions have been made yet about permanantly shutting the starch factory down.

The factory bought cassava from local farmers to use in its operations, so threats of its closure scare cassava growers.

Thieu said that the blame for Phuoc Long no longer buying cassava rests on Phuoc Long farmers’shoulders. Thus, penalties against the factory could not be adjusted to cater to cassava growers’ concerns.

He urged farmers not to worry because the province still has four other factories to sell cassava to.

"If residents still cannot sell their cassava crops, the administration will help them find customers," he said.

According to Nguyen Tri Ngoc, director of MoNRE’s Department of Cultivation, many businesses are in need of cassava.

For example, demand for the root is still high at several food and animal feed processing lines.

Trinh Xuan Tuong, a cassava farmer in Long Ha Commune, Binh Phuoc Province, said his family had not been drastically affected by the ten-day suspension as harvest is not until November.

If Phuoc Long Factory is unable to buy his crops, he will still be able to sell to other factories in the nearby provinces or in neighbouring ones or dry the cassava for sale or personal use. — VNS

Suka works on dream

Fiji Times - Suva,Fiji Oct.6, 2008

In the last four months, Mr Solisoli, with the help of his two brothers Ravakalou Moceituba and Pita Vesikuru planted 7000 cassava plots, 200 yaqona plants, 1000 pineapples, 3000 dalo and 160 water melons.


RA lad Suka Solisoli hopes to save enough money in the next three years to build a house and buy a carrier to transport his crops to the market.

Mr Solisoli, whose family leases a 12-acre block of land at Lomaivuna in Naitasiri, realised after attending a leadership and entrepreneurship program at the Centre for Appropriate Technology and Development that land was his biggest asset.

Mr Solisoli, 24, feels you don't have to be well schooled or a learned scholar to succeed in commerce. You just need to have the right attitude and a passion for business.

In the last four months, Mr Solisoli, with the help of his two brothers Ravakalou Moceituba and Pita Vesikuru planted 7000 cassava plots, 200 yaqona plants, 1000 pineapples, 3000 dalo and 160 water melons.

Last month Mr Solisoli earned $200 from the sale of cabbage, which he planted after completing his studies at Nadave and will harvest 1000 pineapples in December.

And this is just a part of the vast bush land that they have leased.

Mr Solisoli, who dropped out of school at Form 4, added that the the only difficult he faced was acquiring yaqona and cassava cuttings, manure and chemicals.