Agriculture
AgricultureFAO January food price index shows oil and fats up, cereals down, dairy and beef unchanged
FAO Food Price Index held steady at 210 points in January 2013 after three straight months of decline. Increases in oil and fats prices offset lower cereals and sugar quotations while dairy and meat values remained substantially unchanged. The pause in the Index's decline tallies with a significant upward revision in FAO latest forecast for 2012 world cereal production. This is now estimated at 2.302 million tonnes - 20 million tonnes up on December's forecast.
Very poor year for Argentine pears and apples exports last year; 2013 prospects improving
Brazil's high fruit demand didn't prevent the general collapse of Argentine export of pears and apples. The exchange rate lag was a determining factor in this trading debacle, but better prospects are expected for 2013.
Argentina’s industrial production down in 2012, first time in a decade
Industrial output dropped 1.2% in 2012 compared to the volume registered in 2011, Indec national statistics bureau reported on Thursday. The Industrial Monthly Estimator (EMI) stated that industrial production dropped 3.4% in December when compared to the same month of 2011
Monsanto reaches agreement on patent royalties with Brazilian soybean farmers
Monsanto the world’s biggest seed company agreed to waive two years of royalties on its Roundup Ready soybean seeds for Brazilian farmers who agree to forgo claims in a patent dispute.
Argentina’s wheat crop down to 10 million tons; 2011/12 planted area 25% less
Argentina will produce 10.1 million tons of wheat this season, the agricultural ministry said, citing extreme weather as the reason for cutting back its previous estimate of 10.5 million tons. With almost all of the harvest already collected, Argentina is looking at a thin wheat harvest, compared with the 14.1 million tons collected in the 2011/12 crop year.
Anywhere from 30 to 50% of world food production lost to waste, says engineers’ group
The report “Global Food: Waste Not Want Not” by the UK’s Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) has found that 30-50%, or 1.2-2 billion tons, of produced food is wasted by poor storage, bad distribution and exacting quality standards in the developed world.
Corn-seed sales in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico help Monsanto with record earnings
US agricultural giant Monsanto Tuesday posted a large increase in quarterly earnings on strong results in corn seed sales in the US and Latin America and better sales of pesticides. The St Louis-based corporation said net income for the first quarter was 339 million dollars, up from 126 million a year earlier.
NZ farm workers wage increase above rising costs: 37.000 US dollars per annum
![At 45.410 NZ dollars (approx 37.000 US dollars), the average farm employee earned 8.567 NZ dollars more than the average personal [mean] annual wage and salary income earner](/data/cache/noticias/38999/140x90/nz-farmers.jpg)
New Zealand farm workers are doing better than their counterparts in other industries when it comes to wage rises. A Rabobank-Federated Farmers survey has shown farm workers recorded an overall average salary rise of 4.9% in the year to October, 2010.
Blackouts and agriculture collapse forecasted in drought stricken north-east Brazil
North-east Brazil is suffering its worst drought in decades, threatening hydro-power supplies in an area prone to blackouts and potentially slowing economic growth in one of the country's emerging agricultural frontiers.
Brazil posts smallest annual trade surplus since 2002; sales to Argentina drop 20.7%
Brazil posted its smallest annual trade surplus in a decade last year as a sluggish global economy curbed demand for its products despite government efforts to boost exports. Brazil's trade surplus fell 35% to 19.44 billion dollars from the prior year, the weakest performance since 2002, Trade Ministry data showed on Wednesday.
