Staple food prices rose in August even as grain prices fell and the outlook for global cereal production improved. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 165.6 points in August, up 1.9% from July and almost 7% from a year earlier. The monthly jump was mostly driven by cheese and palm oil quotations, while those for wheat, maize and rice all fell.
The Falkland Islands Development Corporation (FIDC) announced that three UK horticultural specialists will visit the Falklands next month in order to appraise the potential for future horticultural developments. The three consultants will be the Islands for a week and will hope to identify profitable, commercial opportunities for Falkland businesses.
The World Shearing Championships Committee finds another gear as the World Event quickly approaches. Being held in Invercargill, Southland, New Zealand from the 9th to the 11th February in the ILT Stadium Southland, not only is the committee excited about hosting this event but Southland and New Zealand is getting behind a first in the South Island and only 5th time being held in New Zealand over a 40 year period (1980, 1988, 1996, 2012 – Masterton)
Canada's Agrium and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan said they would combine, a deal that would create a fertilizer and farm retailing giant with pro-forma enterprise value of US$36 billion but also trigger U.S. regulatory scrutiny.
If beef is not included, there won't be any agreement, said Uruguay's foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa in anticipation of next week's meeting of European Union and Mercosur coordinators to adjust the list of goods and services the two blocks will formally exchange in mid October, the first formal meeting of its kind in fourteen years.
Falkland Islands farmers produced 1.7 million kilos of wool last year and also provided 44,000 sheep to the abattoir, according to the 2015/16 Farming Statistics recently compiled by the Department of Agriculture. This work was carried out by just 281 people recorded as living on the farms; 151 on the East, 105 on the West and just 25 scattered around the 11 farms on outer islands.
The British Embassy in Montevideo, the Uruguayan Rural Association (ARU) and the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technologies (Cuti) are inviting to take part in the Agro Hackathon which is scheduled to take place during the coming Expo Prado agricultural show.
Uruguayan port charges and fees from port operators and shipping agents are the cause of fresh produce being so expensive in the Falkland Islands, Stanley Nurseries Tim Miller told Penguin News this week. Montevideo port costs add 75-100%, “on top of actual SAAS (shipper) freight costs. In UK similar operations add a mere 20% to the SAAS freight cost said Mr. Miller.
A lower-than-anticipated domestic corn supply is pushing prices up, putting pressure on Brazil’s pork and poultry sectors, and forcing the government to intervene, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) said in its latest report.
The Falklands Business Climate Survey strongly suggests that 2014 and 2015 were two very good years for the Islands economy and its business community, which translated in profits and higher levels of turnover, particularly 2015. However survey respondents predictions for this year and onwards aren't as rosy with many businesses anticipating lower turnover and investments, but not necessarily profits, while the overall average rating for the Islands' economy weighed between “average” and “good”.