
Australian lawmakers are demanding a review of foreign investment rules to stop foreign mining companies, including those from China, buying up prime farmland.

The European Union has published its long-awaited budget, which will see spending on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) frozen for the next seven years and make 30% of direct support conditional on ‘greening’.

Dutch and British health officials advised people to avoid raw sprouts and seeds after scientists linked an outbreak of E. coli in France to a highly toxic one in Germany that has killed 47 people.

Global rice production is expected to touch 476 million tons in 2011, on the back of improved weather conditions, as the influence of La Niña is expected to neutralize by June, United Nation’s body FAO said.

The inflation for food items in Latin America and the Caribbean reached 7.4% in May, according to FAO. The sharp rise in the regional prices was attributed to an even sharper increase in food prices which on a world wide basis rose 37% in May compared to world food prices in May 2010, the FAO said in a report from its regional headquarters in Chile.

Soy export taxes for the 2010/2011 crop will represent 8 billion US dollars for the Argentine Treasury compared to 6.3bn in the previous season, according to estimates from the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.

Argentina's trade surplus in May rose 29% from the previous month, thanks to high prices for the country's exports of grains and manufactured goods, the national statistics agency said Thursday.

Mercosur full member Paraguay’s economy expanded 4.6% in the first quarter of 2011 compared to a year ago boosted by agriculture in spite of a slowdown in cattle farming and construction, according to the country’s Central bank latest report.

In spite of bouts of Asian rust and the appearance of the ‘green stem syndrome’, GSS, Paraguay harvested a record 8.3 million tons of soy beans with a yield of 2.917 kilos per hectare and a 7.1% expansion of the area dedicated to the oilseed.

The G20 farm ministers’ summit in Paris agreed on Thursday measures to tackle high food prices in a deal that steered clear of divisive details and paved the way to greater international cooperation on sensitive agricultural issues.