French president Nicholas Sarkozy stressed over the weekend he would not accept an European Union-Mercosur trade agreement that could mean a loss of income for European farmers.
Uruguay which does not harvest transgenic rice has been consolidating as a growing European Union supplier and is a traditional provider for Mexico and Middle East countries such as Iran and Iraq.
The Chilean Federation of Fruit Producers (Fedefruta) will join with the Association of Exporters (Asoex) and nearly 50 other exportation and agricultural associations across Chile to present proposals to, and demand aid from, the government next Friday, May 20. They will convene in Requínoa, in Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins Region.
The inability of the United States Congress and the administration to move three stalled free trade agreements is hurting US economic growth, testified American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman before the House Agriculture Committee.
Brazil will harvest this year a record crop of 158.7 million tons, 6% higher than last year’s 149.7 million tons, according to the latest release from the country’s Geography and Statistics Institute, IBGE.
Soybean crop prospects in Brazil and Argentina, the second- and third-biggest exporters of the oilseed behind the U.S., have improved, researcher Oil World said in a report Tuesday. Growers in Brazil will produce 73 million metric tons of soybeans, up from a record 68.7 million tons a year ago, and farmers in Argentina will harvest 49.5 million tons, up 1% from a prior estimate.
Brazil may start leasing farm land to foreigners to find a way around new legal restrictions on land sales and attract more foreign investment, the agriculture minister said.
Argentine overseas sales of soybeans and by products reached 17.3 billion US dollars in 2010, equivalent to 25.4% of total exports, according to the latest report from the country’s statistics office INDEC. In 2009 the soy complex exports represented 23.3%.
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.
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.