Agriculture

• Tuesday, March 30th 2010 - 23:00 UTC

  Quake impact leaves Chilean farmers short of storage, cooling and irrigation

  

  Chile’s annual fall harvest season continues apace, notwithstanding earthquake damage to Chile's roads, irrigation systems, electric grid, packing houses, and other infrastructure.

• Friday, March 26th 2010 - 21:34 UTC

  Quake destroyed ports limit Chilean grape industry exports

  

  Chile’s fresh fruit business has been whip-lashed the past weeks by the 8.8 earthquake which struck February 27, at the height of the fresh fruit export season. Large shipments of table grapes - roughly four million cases - and other fruit had to be stored while authorities worked over time to get port facilities operating again.

• Tuesday, March 23rd 2010 - 22:10 UTC

  Uruguay on the world’s viticulture map with its distinctive Tannat wines

  

  Argentina has its Malbec; Chile has its Carmenere and now Uruguay, not to be out-classed by its more famous wine-producing neighbours, is taking the world of viticulture by storm, with its distinctive Tannat wines.

• Tuesday, March 23rd 2010 - 03:03 UTC

  Cuban farmers pushing for greater autonomy to produce and sell crops

  

  Cuban farmers are pressing for greater autonomy to produce and sell their crops, blaming government inefficiency for Cuba’s falling food output despite agricultural reforms introduced by President Raúl Castro.

• Wednesday, March 17th 2010 - 00:43 UTC

  Uruguay enjoys record crops but 2010 prospects not so clear

  

  Uruguay expects for this year a record export of grains and oilseeds, however prospects for the rest of the year are not too clear given abundant crops worldwide which will have an impact on prices.

• Wednesday, March 10th 2010 - 05:46 UTC

  Brazil expects second best crop this year with 145.1 million tons

  

  Brazil will harvest a grain crop of 145.1 million tons this year, a volume very close to the record 145.8 million tons of 2008, said the government’s statistics office, IBGE on the basis of February field data.

• Tuesday, March 9th 2010 - 07:32 UTC

  Brazil/US WTO cotton retaliatory dispute takes off

  

  Brazil announced Monday it would levy a total of 591 million US dollars in retaliatory tariffs on US goods under a ruling against US cotton subsidies granted by a World Trade Organization last year. However Brazil also sent a conciliatory message.

• Tuesday, March 9th 2010 - 07:27 UTC

  FAO calls on politicians not to confuse bio-technology with “transgenic”

  

  The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization called for greater global support and funds to be invested in biotechnology research and regretted that so many politicians “do not understand that biotechnology is far more that Genetically Modified Organisms, OGM”.

• Monday, March 1st 2010 - 05:19 UTC

  “Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb” granted protected designation of origin

  

  UK growers of a particular type of rhubarb have hailed the decision to award it special status as “fantastic news for British food”. Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb, which is only grown in the 'Rhubarb Triangle' between Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds, joins products likes champagne and Parma Ham in having its name legally protected.

• Monday, February 22nd 2010 - 19:44 UTC

  Too much rainfall threatening Argentina’s record soybean crop

  

  Argentina’s record soybean crop may yield less than expected as continued downpours threaten to cause beans to rot and fungal diseases to spread, according to a Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange official quoted on Monday.