
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.

First vice-president of the European Union Parliament Irish lawmaker Mairead McGuinness has asked EU Commissioners for agriculture and trade for clarity on allegations that Brazil has sold meat that is unfit for consumption.

Argentina has the potential to increase food sales to the UK by 28% in the short term, from the current US$ 830 million to US$ 1.060bn, according to the president of the powerful farmers' organization, Argentine Rural Society, Luis Miguel Etchevehere, currently in London with a business mission sponsored by the Argentine foreign ministry, the Argentine-British Chamber of Commerce and the embassy in London.

The fallout from Brazil's rotten meat scandal accelerated Monday when China, a huge market, suspended imports and the European Union and South Korea demanded a partial ban. Another ban on Brazilian meat imposed by Chile sparked fears of a trade spat between the two South American partners.

Brazil's President Michel Temer has sought to reassure foreign trade partners that the corruption scandal engulfing the country's meat industry does not mean its products are unsafe. Meeting ambassadors from Europe, the United States and China to share a barbeque, Temer said his government remained confident about the quality of Brazilian meat.