Renewed Food Inflation Risk As Funds Eye Edible Oils

Less than two years after a surge in global food prices caused panic and riots around the world, investors are starting to return to vegetable oil markets and raising the spectre of renewed food price inflation. Billions of dollars change hands annually in the markets for palm, soybean and other vegetable oils, which are used

Australia Grain Farmers See Improved Prospects

Rain, lower input costs, a weaker Australian dollar and reduced interest rates have made Australia’s grain farmers more confident about prospects for the next 12 months as they prepare to plant winter crops such as wheat. But for all farmers, confidence fell to a two-year low in the March quarter on worries about global markets


China Poultry Industry Faces Downturn

The impact of bird flu and the economic slowdown may have cut China’s poultry numbers by about a third or more in the last month, executives in the poultry feed industry said March 3. Although China has not disclosed any significant outbreaks of bird flu or the extent of the impact on the industry, feed

EU milk farmers to absorb quota rise, price is key

“It’s very much a political deal… without maybe looking at what the best solution would be for the entire region.” – MARK VOORBERGEN, RABOBANK ANALYSIS BY JEREMY SMITH BRUSSELS/REUTERS Europe’s dairy farmers should gain more production flexibility after farm ministers agreed to a series of quota increases from 2009 but are unlikely to churn out