
European Union Agriculture ministers will be meeting this week in Luxembourg to discuss the current trade negotiations with Mercosur, according to European Commission sources.

With stronger local currencies Mercosur main beef exporters, Brazil and Uruguay are finding it more profitable to supply their domestic markets than exporting, in spite of growing international demand.

Paraguay’s 2010/11 soy bean crop covers 2.830.000 hectares (twice the area ten years ago) and the expected yield is between 2.900 and 3.100 kilos per hectare according to the latest satellite pictures in hands of the Paraguayan Chamber of Grains and Oilseed Exporters, Capeco.
So far the record yield dates back to 2003 with a national average of 2.915 kilos.

United Nations chemical experts have recommended that two pesticides - endosulfan and azinphos methyl - and one severely hazardous pesticide formulation - Gramoxone Super - be included in the Rotterdam Convention's Prior Informed Consent procedure.

Boosted by agriculture Paraguay's economy grew an all time record of 15,3% in 2010, following on a 3.8% contraction in 2009, according to the latest release from the Central bank.

Argentina’s 2010/2011 grains and oilseeds harvest is estimated to have reached 100.46 million tons, which is above last year’s according to the latest technical report from the Ministry of Agriculture released this week.

United States farmers have called on the US government to approve the free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama because Mercosur countries are taking a bigger share of US agriculture exports to those countries.

European Union agriculture ministers at the weekend rejected capping subsidies to Europe's biggest farms but compromised on a fairer share-out of funds between farmers in Eastern and Western Europe.

Brazil stands on the brink of becoming an agricultural superpower and is one of the few countries in the world with the climate, technology, farming practices and the sheer quantity of land to be able to satisfy the surging global appetite for food in the coming decades.

More than a dozen factors, ranging from declines in flowering plants and the use of memory-damaging insecticides to the world-wide spread of pests and air pollution, may be behind the emerging decline of bee colonies across many parts of the globe.