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.”
-30-
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.
Or
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.