Global agriculture round-up - January 8

AUSTRALIA

Prices increased for mutton sheep, stores and lambs at the Casterton Saleyards due to diminished supply and growing demand from the regional trade and processors. About 18,000 head were sold including 7,000 meat sheep and 11,000 stores and lambs. Stores rose by $10-$20 (£5.60 - £11.20), topping $190 (£106) each; meat sheep sold to a top of $100 (£56); and ewe lambs topped $154 (£86).

 USA

An economist with Wells Fargo says rising dairy and meat prices will double the pace of US food inflation next year. According to Bloomberg, economist Michael Swanson says as livestock supplies shrink and the rebounding economy boosts demand, food prices may jump as much as 6 per cent in 2010. 

 INDONESIA

Besides prawn-rearing, another aquaculture-based opportunity to help the nation achieve self-sufficiency in food production is indoor soft shell crab farming. High meat content soft shell crabs can be reared by anyone without hectares of farmland or sea farm. They are produced in ‘cabinets’ and, according to ‘businessmirror’, the venture is said to have export potential.

JAPAN

Traceability is such, that a shopper can walk into a store and, equipped with a mobile-phone, find out the birth date of the piece of beef they are going to buy, plus its sex, breed, location of cattle, transfer status, transfer date and the owner’s name and address.

 RUSSIA

Poultry production in 2009 increased by 318,000 tonnes, while red meat increased by by 550,000 tonnes. Huge financial support provided by the national government is said to be one of the main reasons for success.

 INDIA

Dairy farming is not viable on a small scale to supplement income from rice-wheat cultivation, says Dr Rajinder Pal Singh, an Indian-Australian farm economist.

KOREA

Pork and beef exports to the US is nearly on the cards for South Korea as Washington has recognised it as free of foot-and-mouth disease and cattle plague.

SRI-LANKA

The prospect of having to import poultry products due to a shortage of chicken, and a steep rise in the price of eggs, remains. Industry officials put this down to a shortage of maize, which makes up 50 per cent of the poultry feed.

 BRAZIL

Beef exports are expected to begin a recovery after a difficult 2009 due to the financial crisis. A 10 per cent increase in volume is on the cards. Much of the recovery in exports will come from increased sales to Chile, China, North Africa and the EU.

HOLLAND

Imports of Danish piglets to The Netherlands have grown fivefold throughout 2009, according to figures from the Dutch Production Board for Livestock and Meat.

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