Brazil's beef exports should return to normal levels between April and May as the country's efforts to reverse import bans have started to bear fruit in the wake of a food safety scandal that surfaced last month, industry group Abrafrigo said.
Global food prices monitored by FAO fell in March amid large available supplies and expectations of strong harvests. The FAO Food Price Index averaged nearly 171 points in March, marking a 2.8 percent drop from the previous month while remaining 13.4 percent above its level a year earlier.
A move announced recently by Mexican diplomats may be a precursor of what could be happening in the coming months with the trading of major commodities involving the country’s trade war talks with the U.S.
The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) is pushing to have meat removed from the proposed trade deal between Europe and Mercosur in the wake of Brazil’s meat scandal. The move could scupper the entire trade deal given the importance of the meat industry to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
JBS SA, the world’s largest meat packer, has suspended production at 10 plants in Brazil. The action comes as the company works to rebound from the fallout of an anticorruption investigation launched by the Federal Police in Brazil.
Worldwide markets have been slamming their doors on Brazilian meat since revelations that rotten product was being sold with faked certificates, but the agriculture minister said Thursday “the worst of the process is over.”
Falklands Landholdings, FLH, has managed an excellent 2016/17 wool clip in a year with bullish prices, reports the Penguin News latest edition. A total of 138,302 sheep have been shorn producing 342,980 kilos of clean wool and all packed into 2,653 bales over the last five months.
United States biodiesel producers asked the government to impose antidumping duties on imports of biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia that it says have flooded the US market and violated trade agreements. The move by the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) trade group comes after two years of tension between US and foreign producers over soaring imports that the group says have threatened the profitability of domestic producers.
Brazil won a major victory as it battles to restore credibility amid a tainted meat scandal, with China, Egypt and Chile lifting their bans on its products. The three countries, which had totally closed their markets to Brazilian meat at the start of last week, said they would open them to all but the 21 Brazilian processing plants under investigation.
The adulterated meat situation in Brazil is no obstacle for the current trade negotiations between the European Union and Mercosur, said Eidta Hrdá, Managing Director for the Americas from the European External Action Service, currently in Buenos Aires.