However we expect things tobe much better on the offshore front this quarter as the firm has bagged new contracts in the region and firm oil prices have stimulated interest in offshore drilling.
Security or the lack of it remains the key challenge: Chinese enterprises have already bagged three multibillion dollar investment projects, but they won't be able to go forward unless conditions get safer.
"This bagged produce, whether it's lettuce or spinach or melons, is what I consider tobe a potentially hazardous food, " says Michael Doyle, a microbiologist who heads the food safety center at the University of Georgia.