Agriculture

• Friday, December 7th 2012 - 05:22 UTC

  Brazil helped by good weather heading for record soybean and corn crops in 2012/13

  

  Brazil held forecasts for a record 2012/2013 soybean crop with the latest estimate from Conab, the Brazilian crop bureau, at 82.6m tons, towards the top of the range of 80.1m-83m tons previously anticipated and representing a jump of more than 20% year on year.

• Monday, December 3rd 2012 - 05:57 UTC

  Brazil farmland prices quadrupled over the past decade outpacing inflation

  

  Prices for farmland in Brazil surged by an average 14% a year to nearly quadruple over the past decade, well outpacing inflation and nearly matching gains made by São Paulo's blue-chip Ibovespa stock index, a new study shows.

• Friday, November 23rd 2012 - 13:10 UTC

  Argentina wheat forecast down because of flooding in key parts of farm belt

  

  Argentina's government cut this season's wheat output forecast, citing three months of heavy rains that started in August and flooded key parts of the Pampas farm belt, the Agriculture Ministry said on Thursday.

• Saturday, November 17th 2012 - 06:04 UTC

  After dreadful year, great expectations in Argentina with 2012/13 soybean crop

  

  Argentine farmers will increase soy planting by almost 4% following a year of bad global crop weather. In the first soybean area estimate of the 2012/13 season, the Argentine Agriculture Ministry said 19.4 million hectares will be sown in the weeks ahead compared to 18.7 million hectares in 2011/12.

• Tuesday, November 13th 2012 - 23:04 UTC

  Brazil orange shipments to EU suspended after samples of black spot fungus found

  

  Orange shipments from Brazil to the European Union were suspended after EU officials found samples with black spot fungus, a Brazilian government official said.

• Friday, November 9th 2012 - 06:27 UTC

  FAO October Price Index: cereals and oils down; increases in dairy and sugar

  

  The FAO Food Price Index fell 1% in October 2012, and for the first ten months of the year food prices were on average 8% lower than in the same period in 2011. The Index dipped two points to 213 points from September's revised level of 215 points. The decline was largely due to lower international prices of cereals and oils and fats, which more than offset increases in dairy and sugar prices.

• Friday, November 9th 2012 - 06:05 UTC

  EU and ten Latinamerican countries end 20-year ‘banana dispute’

  

  The European Union and ten Latinamerican countries signed an agreement on Thursday settling the longest running series of disputes in the history of the multilateral trading system, better known as the ‘banana dispute’.

• Wednesday, November 7th 2012 - 04:27 UTC

  Soy crop prospects fin South America down: Argentina excessive water, in Brazil lack of rain

  

  South America’s crop prospects deteriorated because of excessive rainfall in Argentina and dry conditions in central Brazil, according to Oil World. Argentina’s estimated 55/56 million tons soybean crop could drop anywhere from 3 6o 6 million tons because of delays in sowing caused by torrential rains and flooding.

• Sunday, November 4th 2012 - 06:37 UTC

  Argentine farmers claim floods are delaying sowing and threaten expected 2012/13 boom crop

  

  Fourteen million hectares are affected by floods in Argentina’s prime farm land provinces and the presence of water jeopardizes the harvest of grains, according to farming sector leaders.

• Friday, November 2nd 2012 - 08:28 UTC

  Drought in US farms is helping Brazil’s exports of corn and ethanol

  

  Brazil's trade ministry said the country's exports of corn and ethanol rose in October as foreign buyers turned to Brazil after the worst drought in 50 years ravaged US crops.