European farm leaders have left Members of the European Parliament in no doubt about the ‘catastrophic impact’ on EU agriculture of a trade agreement with Mercosur, reports the Friday edition of the UK’s Farmers Guardian.
Automobile production in Brazil fell 4.9% and sales dropped 5.5% in April from March, the national automakers' association said on Friday.
Cargill Inc and the world’s largest grain processor Archer-Daniels-Midland Co, are planning to invest about 560 million US dollars in new bio-fuel refineries in Brazil.
United States employers in April added more jobs than forecast. Payrolls expanded by 244,000 last month, the biggest gain since May 2010, after a revised 221,000 increase the prior month, the Labour Department said Friday in Washington.
Uruguay’s April consumer inflation, 0.34%, the lowest since last November came as a relief for government authorities, but the accumulated rate of the last twelve months was 8.34%, well above the Central bank 4% to 6% target. Furthermore compared to April 2010 inflation was almost double: 0.18% vs 0.34%, according to the country’s Statistics Institute, INE.
Commodity prices fell on Thursday for a fourth day, following weak economic news from Europe and the US. Oil prices were down 10% at one stage, with US light, sweet crude ending the day below 100 US dollars a barrel.
Spain has lost its 12-year battle with Argentina over the use of the name La Rioja. The northwestern Argentine province of La Rioja was founded by a Spaniard in 1591; the Spanish were also responsible for introducing vines to the region, reports Decanter.com.
Food prices remained virtually steady in April after falling in March following eight months of successive increases, FAO announced Thursday.
Citrovita and Citrosuco of Brazil won European Union antitrust approval for their merger plan to form the world’s largest wholesale supplier of orange juice.
Economic growth in much of Latin America remains strong, propelled by rising commodity prices, easy financing conditions, and stimulative policies. Growth exceeded 6% in 2010, and while it is projected to moderate to about 4¾% in 2011, the IMF says countries should remove the policy stimulus on a timely basis.