BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday launched a 150 percent special export tariff on nitrogenous fertilizer and synthetic ammonia, a move to satisfy domestic demand, according tothe customs tariff commission (CTC) of the State Council.

The commission said the special tariff on the two products would last through the end of this year. The previous tariff for the two fertilizers was 100 percent.

The commission also said the 100 percent special export tariff on other fertilizers has been extended to the end of this year.

On April 20, the country started collecting a 100-percent special tariff (a tariff yet again levied on export fertilizers in addition to the common tariff rate) on all fertilizer exports and some fertilizer-related raw materials through Sept. 30, a period of high domestic demand. www.chinaview.cn

 

Expatriate New Zealander David Mahon has worked in Beijing for more than two decades. His private equity firm Mahon China Investment Management Limited has been in operation through the time of China's emergence as a true global economic power.

His company represents the China-based investments and interests of a variety of international financial and industrial groups.

Mr Mahon himself has direct responsibility for the management of 19 Chinese companies. He also advises a range of companies across a variety of sectors on all aspects of their China operations, from strategy development to facility establishment and partner negotiations.

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Q: China is a big, growing, complex market. Where do the opportunities lie for New Zealand companies?

DM: New Zealand companies are often relatively small businesses, and they can feel that China is just too large to take on. Yet there's a great deal of 'know how' in New Zealand and that's the thing that is most required in this market at the moment. China is developing very rapidly, particularly in areas such as food and beverage where products are taking on an entirely different quality and type, presenting opportunities for large and small food companies or those developing food related technology. The size of a business shouldn't be a major barrier to considering China.

Benefits

Rice cookers are popular and fit today's lifestyle. The all-in-one convenient cooker makes perfect rice every time, and can prepare entire meals with little to no tending! Many cookers can steam meat and vegetables as the rice cooks, providing whole meal options. Other uses include soups, stews, breakfast cereals, and even desserts.

With the versatility of rice and the variety of cooker sizes, consumers can cook for one or cook for a crowd.

How to Use

In general, combine rice and water in the cooker. Press button to start and when finished cooking, it will stop automatically by sensing a rise in temperature and change in moisture content that occurs when rice has absorbed all the liquid.

Types

There are many brands, styles, sizes and features available. Care should be taken to follow individual manufacturer's directions when preparing rice or meals.

Pot-Style Rice Cookers

Fuzzy-logic rice cookers have computer chips that direct their ability to make proper adjustments to cooking time and temperature. Unlike basic rice cookers, which complete tasks in a single-minded, mechanical manner, the process behind the fuzzy-logic rice cookers needs a bit more explanation.

 

The fuzzy sets theory, first proposed by Berkley professor Lotfi Zadeh in 1965, laid the groundwork for fuzzy logic, which he also put forward in 1973. Fuzzy sets theory has to do with mathematical sets, or groups of items known as elements. In most mathematical sets, an element either belongs to the set or it doesn't. For example, a sparrow would belong to a set of birds, but a bat wouldn't. In fuzzy logic, though, elements can belong to sets in varying degrees. So since a bat has wings, it might belong to a set of birds -- but only to a certain extent.

 

Fuzzy logic is basically a way to program machines so they look at the world in a more human way, with degrees of truth. Instead of cold, hard parameters and strict data sets, fuzzy logic assumes a more practical approach. Using numbers, it incorporates non-definitive words like "slightly" or "almost" into its decision-making processes.

 

As a result, the use of fuzzy logic in rice cookers helps to ensure properly cooked rice because it gives the appliances the ability to make judgment calls similar to those a person might make, albeit typically better than those a hungry, impatient person might make.

 

 

Photo courtesy Consumer Guide Products
Zojirushi's NHS-06 3-Cup Rice Cooker on the left uses basic rice-cooker technology; Zojirushi's NS-ZCC18 Neuro Fuzzy 10-cup version cooks with the help of fuzzy logic.

An example of when fuzzy logic might be called into action is when the rice is cooking too fast on a hot day. In a typical scenario, the fuzzy logic algorithm will take the form of an if/then statement such as, "If the rice is too hot, and it is continuing to heat up fairly quickly, then the heating element needs to be turned down."

 

While fuzzy-logic rice cookers function under the same premise as basic models, their mathematical programming can deliver a slew of customized cooking options. The trick to these capabilities is the rice cookers' ability to react, making precise fluctuations in cooking time and temperature depending on the program selected. These may include different keep-warm and quick-cook cycles for the optimum cooking of rice varieties like sushi rice, porridge rice, mixed rice, white rice, sweet rice and brown rice. Some models also offer texture settings, allowing people to select hard or soft and sticky or wet rice.

But even with all these features, fuzzy-logic rice cookers are not the most advanced rice cookers available. That prize goes to the models that also use induction heating.

Burned chunks or gooey paste can be the disappoin ting result of rice gone wrong, but with the use of a rice cooker, the odds even up for even the klutziest in the kitchen.

Rice is a staple in many people's diets around the world. The grain is especially important, both nutritionally and culturally, in Southeast Asia, so it's no surprise that Japan introduced the first household electric rice cooker. That first model was made by Toshiba in 1955, and other companies soon joined the market, adding innovations that expanded the abilities and features available in rice cookers. Replacing the conventional cast-iron pots of the day, which cooked over a coal stove, rice cookers freed Japanese homemakers from the tiresome task of carefully monitoring endless pots of rice .

Rice cookers are geared primarily for rice but can be very versatile in their uses. Some people even use rice cookers as their primary cooking tool, for everything from spaghetti to spare ribs to scrambled eggs.

For a closer look at how rice cookers operate -- from the more basic models to the high-tech ones laden with all the bells and whistles -- let's begin with how they know to progress from one step of the cooking process to the next.

 

Rice Cooker Basics

Rice needs two things to evolve from a hard, little grain to big, fluffy morsels -- lots of water and lots of heat. For this reason, cooking rice happens in four phases:

1. Sitting in water
2. Boiling
3. Absorbing water (steaming)
4. Resting

Rice cookers automatically guide rice through these four stages. The appliance consists primarily of amain body, an inner cooking pan, an electric heating plate, a thermal-sensing device and some buttons.

Water and rice sit inside the cooking pan while it's inserted into the rice cooker's shell. The pan's weight depresses the thermal-sensing device, and the heating plate quickly brings the water to a boil. The sensing device is a small, spring-loaded thermometer that gauges the temperature of the pan's contents. It's set into the bottom of the rice cooker's main body.

The inner workings of a typical rice cooker

Simple rice cookers usually warm their contents by transferring heat from the heating plate to the cooking pan, and the type of metal used can improve that transfer. Some metals -- copper and aluminum for example -- are highly conductive. In other words, they transfer their heat easily. A wide range of materials can be used for the cooking pan, and each type may affect the overall time it takes to cook the food.

The process for cooking the rice is simple. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius), and once it reaches a steady boil, it won't get hotter. As long as there is water in the pan, the temperature should be stable. Once the rice absorbs all the water in the pan, the temperature will start to rise. The rice cooker senses this change and will either switch off or switch to a warming cycle. At this point, the rice has finished cooking and entered the resting stage.

While most rice cookers do not speed up the cooking process noticeably, they can accomplish the task with less mistakes and less fuss than the average person armed with a stovetop pot, especially when the cookers are equipped with fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic lets a rice cooker react to what's happening in the pan, and we'll explore how it does this on the next page.