Sector Risks | StrategicRISK Global

Agriculture

Shiitake happens: Taiwan’s veg smuggling row exposes a wider supply chain risk

Taiwan has accused Chinese firms of routing banned Napa cabbage and shiitake mushrooms through Vietnam, relabelling them as Vietnamese, and shipping them past a ban on more than 1,000 Chinese agricultural products. A $410 forged certificate of origin and up to $15,800 in profit per container explain why the case ...

Sector focus: Why water scarcity is moving from an ESG issue to an operational threat

Factories are shutting down, supply chains are fracturing and regulators are tightening the tap. For risk managers across Asia Pacific, water scarcity has moved from the sustainability report to the risk register.

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Chemical

PFAS crackdown expands to new sectors amid extended EU timeline

European regulators have published an updated proposal to restrict PFAS under REACH, alongside a new timeline that pushes the scientific evaluation process out to the end of 2026. Risk managers must prepare for a protracted but far-reaching regulatory shift.

How a major European petrochemical firm de-risked its ethylene cracking expansion

Managing the risk of a major ethylene cracking expansion program is not for the faint-hearted. GleeYM program and risk management consultant Yasir Masood explores the proactive strategies that mitigated a multitude of challenges, from safety to supply chain delays and special permits.

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Communication, Media and Tech

RiskWorld 2026: why faster risk data is becoming critical

ICEYE’s Stephen Lathrope reflects on his key takeaways from RISKWORLD 2026, where climate, cyber and geopolitical risks highlighted the need for faster, more reliable data to improve situational awareness, response and recovery.

Case study: how ABB is making ERM work in a decentralised business

At ABB, enterprise risk management has been redesigned around business language, accountable risk owners and longer-term signals. Mike Devine explains why a risk on a heat map is not the same as a risk being managed.

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Construction

SR Q2 2026: Reflections at 40,000 feet

Recent conferences have left me more convinced than ever that platforming risk voices is our raison d’être. Innovators are telling me that it’s all about improving decision-making, and this issue is dedicated to helping you do that.

Construction firms warned cyber attacks could derail project delivery

Risk managers can no longer afford to treat cyber as an IT issue on construction projects. QBE warns that ransomware and system disruption can quickly turn into delays, disputes and escalating costs.

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Energy, Power and Utilities

Case study: how Siemens Energy is quantifying risk without losing judgement

Siemens Energy has rebuilt its enterprise risk management process around shorter reporting, broader risk inputs and a quantified scoring model designed to help leaders focus on the exposures that need action.

Case study: how E.ON is turning climate risk data into better business decisions

E.ON’s Kristin Barev explains how the energy group is using climate risk analytics to support asset planning, resilience investment and cross-business decision-making.

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Financial Services

Middle East conflict driving nuanced repatriation people risk

Broker senior managing director warns that employees’ desire to depart the Middle East amid fluctuating geopolitical conditions is ‘not an insurable risk’ for global firms – but it can shift ‘the way their business operates’

Disruptive, not destructive: How operational risk leaders are responding differently to the West Asian conflict

As conflict in West Asia sends disruption through cyber systems, supply chains, energy markets and shared infrastructure, Dr Luke Carrivick, executive director at ORX, argues that operational risk leaders must respond to a faster, broader and less geographically contained threat than the Russia-Ukraine war.

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FMCG

Case study: how The Co-operative Group put value creation at the heart of risk management

Former Co-op head of risk and governance Stefan Gershater explains why risk teams need to stop leading with registers, controls and heat maps, and start with the business objectives they are trying to protect.

How AI is pushing risk management from control to strategy

At Risk-!n, Lisa Bechtold of Nestlé and Mindy Simon of Aon said AI can help risk managers make faster, better-informed decisions, but only if organisations get the data, governance and accountability right.

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Healthcare, Life Sciences and Pharma

Case study: how Sonova is using audit to close the ownership gap

At Sonova Group, a legal leader’s move into internal audit has exposed how known risks can fall between functions, and why lateral moves can strengthen risk ownership.

Rising tensions, rising threats: How geopolitics impacts cyber security

David Ferbrache of Beyond Blue argues that as geopolitical conflict increasingly spills into the digital domain, organisations in critical supply chains must prepare for destructive cyber attacks designed to disrupt, disable and destabilise.

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Hospitality, Leisure and Travel

Regulation watch: Martyn’s Law forces businesses to test terrorism response plans

New terrorism legislation will require businesses to strengthen preparedness, assess venue exposure and protect staff and visitors, Markel International’s Tim Woodhouse told Airmic delegates.

World Cup and staycations set to test hospitality resilience

As millions of consumers prepare to watch matches in pubs and bars, hospitality venues are being urged to treat the summer trading boost as an operational risk test, not just a revenue opportunity.

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Manufacturing

Manufacturers face severe ransomware losses as cyber controls fail

New Resilience analysis finds ransomware accounts for 90% of incurred manufacturing cyber losses, despite making up just 12% of claim volume, highlighting the need for better MFA validation, vulnerability management and incident response.

Sector focus: Why water scarcity is moving from an ESG issue to an operational threat

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Retail

Case study: how a single phone call cost Marks & Spencer £300m

A social engineering attack through a third-party helpdesk forced retailer Marks & Spencer into an online order shutdown that decimated profits. The incident provoked serious questions about vulnerabilities in detection, response planning, and outsourced risk.

European product recalls hit record high as regulatory complexity grows

Record levels of product recalls across Europe highlight growing regulatory scrutiny, supply chain pressures and expanding lifecycle liability risks facing manufacturers and risk managers.

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Transport and Logistics

Benelux cargo crime grows more sophisticated as criminal networks target logistics weak spots

New analysis from TT Club, BSI Consulting and TVM suggests cargo theft in Benelux is becoming more organised, more digitally enabled and harder to spot, raising fresh questions for risk managers about subcontractor controls, secure parking and supply chain visibility.

Case study: Building risk resilience into a high-stakes infrastructure expansion

In major infrastructure projects, the real test of risk management is not identifying threats but managing how they intersect. In this port expansion, resilience depended on building a framework that could respond as those connections shifted over time.

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