
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) praised Argentina’s Law on Rural Lands (Ley de Tierras Rurales), stating that the measure could serve as an example for the region. FAO has invited Argentine representatives to expound their experience with the law at a workshop to be staged next week in the Colombian capital of Bogotá.

Brazil is to top the world soybean production league for the first time, thanks to the incentive to farmers provided from resilient prices and a weak Real, overtaking the US, whose hopes have been dented by drought.

CHS Inc., a United States farmer-owned cooperative and a global agribusiness, announced it has opened an office at Montevideo, Uruguay, making it the fourth South American nation in which CHS has operations.

The foreign trade performance of Latin America and the Caribbean reflects the weak global economy. Regional export values are expected to grow by just 1.5% in 2013 (3% in volumes and -1.5% in prices) - which is similar to the 1.4% growth observed in 2012.

Freezing cold temperature from heavy frosts are estimated to have killed at least 4.000 head of cattle in landlocked Paraguay, according to the primary reports from the country’s National Animal Quality and Health service, Senasa.

Uruguay and Argentina presidents Jose Mujica and Cristina Fernandez seem to have ironed out differences, at least in public and in the pictures, during the inauguration of a gasoline and diesel de-sulphuring plant in Montevideo, which was financed with Venezuelan funds and Argentine technology.

Almost 70% of the groundwater stored in parts of the United States' High Plains Aquifer, a vast underground reservoir that stretches through eight states, from South Dakota to Texas, and supplies 30% of the US irrigated groundwater, could be used up within 50 years unless current water use is reduced, a new study finds

“Until when will we allow ideology to prevail over economics, markets, competitiveness grounding the great vessel of Brazilian trade in the port of little regional pretensions”, asks Katia Abreu in a column published in Folha de Sao Paulo openly criticizing the administration of Dilma Rousseff for its Mercosur policy and the results of the recent Montevideo summit.

New Zealand's government has stepped up efforts to contain the fallout from a scare over contaminated products made by dairy giant Fonterra. Officials have been sent to Fonterra facilities in New Zealand and Australia to oversee the flow of information.

China has approved its first shipment of genetically modified Argentine corn, Buenos Aires-based trade sources said, which could mean that the Asian giant may eventually import GMO crops from other producers like the United States.