Analysis & Opinion 2010

• UK Dairy Exodus Continues as Feed Costs Climb
  Britain's dairy farmers are facing a significant increase in the cost of feeding their cows following a sharp jump in the price of feed grain and poor silage crops this year, industry sources said on Tuesday.
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• Beer Finds Favour Over Spirits in Slow Recovery
  Big brewers like Anheuser Busch InBev are seen as a better bet than spirit giants Diageo and Pernod Ricard to gain from the uneven world recovery in which only emerging markets are showing strong growth.
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• Food Safety a 'Priority' for U.S. Senate
  Passing food safety reform legislation this year is a "priority" for the U.S. Senate, said a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, as Congress feels pressure from consumer groups to act following the latest recall to highlight weaknesses in the system.
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• India can be food processing outsourcing hub: Sahai
  India could become a global outsourcing hub for food processing by 2012 to meet the world food demand, Minister for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai said on Tuesday.
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• EU-Australia Wine Trade Agreement Enters into Force
  A new agreement governing the wine trade between Australia and the European Union enters into force tomorrow (1 September 2010).
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• Food crisis caused by biofuels?
  There are conflicting opinions over a World Bank report which suggests biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75%.
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• EU: Demand for Organic Products Continues to Grow
  EU-27 demand for organic products continues to grow. This offers opportunities for US exporters of organic food ingredients and unprocessed products, in particular. Recent discussions between the U.S. and the EU on an equivalence agreement could further enhance these trade opportunities.
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• Brazil: The World's 21st Century Breadbasket
  Brazil has for centuries been known as a leading producer and exporter of the world's breakfast, or softs commodities -- orange juice, coffee, sugar and cocoa.
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• Big Food and Beer Cushioned from Grain Rise
  Russia's drought and temporary ban on grain exports is set to hit Europe's smaller food and drink groups more severely than larger groups which are either not so dependent on grain or have bought forward at fixed prices.
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• Big Food Groups Set to Ride Out Higher Wheat Costs
  Big brand-led food groups are showing their advantages over smaller and private-label food makers when the price of wheat soars, helped by their forward buying, pricing power and more flexible cost structures.
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• Biofuel impact on food prices ‘less than initially thought’
  Although the World Bank doesn't completely disclaim an affect of biofuels production on food prices, it does state that the single biggest issue in food prices are energy prices.
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• Drought-Led Food Squeeze Next Worry for Emerging Mkts
  A food price crisis may be the next stumbling block for emerging economies, even as their bonds and stock markets rally in relief at an easing of the euro zone's debt crisis.
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• US Wine Consumption Maintains Growth Trend
  A difficult economy may be forcing Americans to do without some things, but wine isn't one of them. Consumers are buying more each year.
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• UPDATE 2-Russia has "issues" with new US poultry deal-NCC
  Russia has raised "further issues" with a trade agreement that was supposed to have restarted U.S. poultry exports to that country after a six-month ban, U.S. chicken industry sources said on Tuesday.
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• Barry Callebaut CEO Says Dislikes Speculators, Respects Armajaro
  The chief executive of Barry Callebaut, the world's biggest chocolate maker, has a distaste for speculators who have driven up cocoa prices to their highest in more than three decades, but respects commodities firm Armajaro, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
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• New Zealand Market Opens up for European Raw Milk Products
  EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli has welcomed the decision by the New Zealand government to open the New Zealand market for European raw-milk products.
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• Russian Denies Export Ban as EU Wheat Hits Peak
  Russia on Tuesday denied market talk it was restricting grain exports, pulling European wheat prices back from contract highs but not ending concerns about the impact of Russia's worst drought in years.
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• Europe Heat Wave to Hike Flour Prices
  Surging European grain prices following a scorching heat wave in recent weeks are likely to raise flour prices, and farmers are facing higher bills for animal feed, industry executives and analysts said on Friday.
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• Food Standards Agency shake-up
  The Food Standards Agency in England is to lose its responsibilities for nutrition and labelling in a shake-up announced by the Government.
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• EU Exec Sees Sharp Growth in Organic Food Trade
  Imports of organic food products into the European Union are likely to increase sharply as demand outstrips domestic supply, a report published by the bloc's executive on Friday said.
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• Key Cocoa Contract Expires, Mrkt Eyes Dominant Player
  Cocoa market participants in London's NYSE Liffe exchange are worried that one player may take delivery of up to 230,000 tonnes of cocoa as the July contract expires, leading to a supply crunch in September.
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• EU angers all camps with move to relax GM crop restrictions
  The use of genetically modified (GM) crops in the EU could become more common over the next decade, after the European Commission yesterday unveiled plans that would give individual member states the freedom to decide whether or not to permit the production of GM crops.
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• UK Denies it Will Abolish Food Watchdog
  Health Secretary Andrew Lansley denied on Monday he was planning to abolish Britain's food watchdog but wanted to see some of its duties reassigned.
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• UK's Food Standards Agency to Be Abolished
  Britain's coalition government will abolish its food watchdog, set up to protect consumers after the mad cow disease crisis, and reassign its duties elsewhere, a government source said on Sunday
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• Argentina Food Import Ban Threatens EU Trade Deal
  Restrictions on food imports by Argentina could undermine renewed talks on a free-trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur group of South American countries, EU farm ministers and officials warned on Tuesday.
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• New Legislation Needed to Improve Food Price Transparency -EU
  New legislation is needed to ensure fair returns to farmers and transparent prices to consumers, by enforcing fair competition throughout the food supply chain, said Agriculture Committee MEPs on Monday.
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• Pesticides: Food in EU Now Safer Thanks to More Controls and Fewer and Less Harmful Residues
  Food in the European Union has become even safer over the past year thanks, in part, to the withdrawal from the market of harmful pesticides and the strengthening of the Union's border control activity. As of January this year, the EU has in essence established a common control border as regards certain fruits and vegetables.
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• Some Regulation of Food Futures Markets Desirable - FAO
  Some regulation of commodities futures markets is desirable, according to FAO, but any intervention should be cautious and stop short of imposing tight limits or an outright ban on such trading.
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• US: Market Overreacted to Corn Products Intl Acquisition – Analyst
  An industry analyst has said the market has overreacted to the acquisition of National Starch by Corn Products International.
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• Danone-Unimilk Alliance Portends Further Consolidation in EU Food Sector - Analyst
  Fitch Ratings says the announcement by Danone that it will be merging its fresh dairy business in the CIS with those of Russian company Unimilk indicates the potential for further consolidation in the European packaged food industry, driven by a need to generate growth and gain cost efficiencies.
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• EU Lawmakers Demand Stricter Food-Labelling Rules
  European Union lawmakers voted on Wednesday to strengthen controversial draft rules on food labelling that aim to fight rising levels of obesity in Europe.
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• EU Experts Issue Proposals for Milk Sector Reform
  The European Union should consider letting dairy farmers jointly negotiate contract terms, including prices, to strengthen their bargaining power with dairies, an EU expert group said in a report on Tuesday.
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• Price Impact of EU Food Standards Limited
  A senior European Commission official on Thursday backed the idea of forcing farm imports to meet European Union production standards, but said the move would not give EU producers a significant new price advantage.
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• EU to Overhaul GM Crop Approval System
  The European Union is to radically overhaul its approval system for genetically modified (GM) crops from next month, opening the way to large-scale GM cultivation in Europe, EU sources said on Friday.
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• South Africa: Food Prices to Start Rising in 2011
  South Africa's food prices will rise gradually from 2011 partly as the economic recovery gains pace, increasing the likelihood of more protests, the Agricultural Business Chamber said on Wednesday.
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• EU Dairy Exports to Russia Rising
  EU dairy exports and butter consumption are rising in Russia, according to an expert at Irish food board, Bord Bia.
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• PepsiCo Says Small Bottlers Have Greater Voice
  Small independent bottlers of PepsiCo Inc drinks have their strongest voice since the world's second-largest soft drink maker spun off Pepsi Bottling Group in 1999, a senior executive said on Tuesday.
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• UK: Cheese Market Growing
  A report commissioned by Irish Food Board, Bord Bia shows that the overall cheese category in the UK is growing at a rate of 2.8% and accounts for 26.6% of dairy sales at retail.
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• EU Approves Sale of Intervention Butter, Milk Powder
  European Union countries agreed on Thursday to open tenders for the sale of up to 25,000 tonnes of butter and 66,000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder (SMP) from the bloc's public intervention stores, officials said.
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• Bord Bia Launches Global Plan for Ireland's Food Industry
  Ireland should adopt a strategy of developing a world-class agricultural industry by 2016 and set itself the goal of becoming the most efficient, most highly innovative food and drink country in the world.
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• US Millers, Bakers Urge Caution in GMO Wheat Work
  As seed developers around the world work to develop a genetically modified wheat, U.S. millers and bakers - formerly staunch opponents of such efforts - are offering their support, but insisting they need to be more involved before any biotech wheat is brought to market.
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• Fishing Closed in Gulf Waters Affected by Oil Spill
  U.S. officials closed commercial and recreational fishing in a large swathe of waters hit by the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Sunday.
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• With Spike Done, Sugar Dissolves in Freefall
  A spike in raw sugar prices which powered the market to a 29-year peak just three months ago has been scuppered for good, and some in the trade are wondering if the fall will be as fast as the rise.
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• Return of Food Inflation to Aid Europe's Grocers, Suppliers
  Signs that food prices are starting to rise again could help Europe's traditionally defensive grocery and food manufacturing stocks to retain premium ratings even as the economic recovery gains hold.
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• India Announces Establishment of Mega Food Parks
  The Food Parks scheme has been discontinued by the Government after 10th Plan period. In the 11th Plan, the Government has approved a new scheme to establish 30 Mega Food Parks in the country with a view to provide farm proximate state-of-the-art infrastructure along the supply chain for food processing sector in the country on a pre-identified cluster basis with a strong backward and forward linkage and to provide value addition of agricultural commodities including poultry, meat, dairy, fisheries etc.
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• Meat, poultry industries await new antitrust rules
  Federal regulators are set to release the most sweeping antitrust rules covering the meat industry in decades, potentially altering the balance of power between meat companies and the farmers who raise their animals.
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• EU-Wide Approval of Stevia Sweetener Expected within Next 6-9 Months
  Today, the European Food Safety Agency published a scientific opinion on the safety of steviol glycosides as sweeteners in food. The agency concluded that steviol glycosides are not carcinogenic, genotoxic or associated with any reproductive/developmental toxicity.
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• UK Organic Sector Seeks Recovery from Hefty 2009 Loss
  Sales of organic products in the UK fell by nearly 13 percent in 2009, as consumers sought cheaper alternatives, but a small recovery is expected in 2010, Britain's largest organic certification body said on Monday.
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• Food industry to Obama: we'll improve nutrition
  The U.S. food industry is willing to let the White House take the lead on making foods healthier in schools, but said on Friday it could improve what is sold on store shelves without government intervention.
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• Drink Cos Seen Hurt as US Consumers Cut Back
  Most U.S. consumers plan to drink about the same amount or less this year, costing beverage companies about $8 billion in sales, according to a study release on Friday.
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• US Needs More FDA Food Inspections -Govt Report
  Federal inspectors are conducting fewer reviews of food manufacturing plants, with many facilities going more than five years without being checked, a government investigator said Wednesday.
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• Monsanto changes core strategy
  Company ‘unlikely’ to hit profit targets. Generic products force rethink
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• UK: Welsh Dairy Industry to Receive GBP 3.3 Mln in Aid
  The Welsh Assembly Government is investing £3.3 million into the Welsh dairy industry over the next three years which will aid in improving efficiency, sustainability and added value in the dairy supply chain.
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• Copa-Cogeca Urges EU Commission to Improve Drastic Situation in EU Fruit And Vegetables Sector
  Copa-Cogeca called on the EU Commission today to urgently improve crisis management and prevention measures in the EU fruit and vegetables sector, warning that the sector is in crisis, with a sharp fall in the value of EU fruit production of 12.7% seen in 2009.
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• UK: Corporate Takeover Rules Must Change in Wake of Kraft-Cadbury Deal, Says Nick Clegg
  The rules governing corporate takeovers must change in the wake of Kraft's takeover of Cadbury to ensure that they serve the UK economy, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg announced today.
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• EU Food Sector Rule Change Possible Despite Split
  The EU executive may propose changes to the bloc's competition rules giving food producers more power in their dealings with retailers, despite a Franco-British split on the issue, the Commission said on Monday.
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• Compulsory Labelling of Farm Produce Can Boost Farmers' Competitiveness, Says EU Parliament
  The compulsory labelling of farm produce gives consumers valuable information about food quality and can boost farmers' competitiveness, said the European Parliament on Thursday.
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• EU Farm Ministers Seen Split on Food Chain Rules
  An ideological split over European Union regulation of agricultural markets could prevent farm ministers from agreeing on measures to boost the power of producers in the food chain at a meeting in Brussels on Monday.
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• US Soft Drink Volume Decline Slows in Recession
  U.S. carbonated soft-drink sales volume fell 2.1 percent in 2009, its smallest decline since 2006, according to industry publication Beverage Digest, as soda's price attracted budget-conscious consumers.
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• Organic Foods Finding a Niche, but That's All
  The wave of organic packaged foods may have crested at mainstream retailers.
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• For food industry leaders, farm experience key
  Top food and agricultural industry executives say getting their hands dirty by planting crops or raising livestock in their younger days has proved invaluable in informing their current jobs.
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• First Lady to Food Makers: Hurry Up on Healthy Food
  Food manufacturers need to work faster to re-formulate and re-package food so that it is healthier for kids, U.S. first lady Michelle Obama said Tuesday.
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• Barry Callebaut Upbeat About Cocoa Prices, Eyes Asia
  Barry Callebaut AG, the world's largest chocolate-maker, expects cocoa prices to gain further this year on supply concerns in top cocoa regions in West Africa and a recovery in global demand.
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• More food deals on the table in 2010
  The appetite for deals in the food and grocery industries is picking up as buyers are more willing to spend in the stabilizing economy, the head of a food and retail industry consulting firm said on Monday.
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• UK Lawmakers to Grill Kraft Over Cadbury
  Kraft Foods Inc will be grilled by British parliamentarians this week amid claims the U.S. group backtracked on plans to keep a Cadbury plant open after its takeover of the British chocolatier.
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• German Chocolate Firms Attack Fund Cocoa Buying
  Investment fund buying of cocoa futures was forcing cocoa prices up and damaging chocolate makers, the association of German confectionery producers BDSI said on Thursday.
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• ADM Named Most Admired Food Production Company
  Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) was ranked the most admired company in the food production industry for the second year in a row by Fortune magazine.
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• 2010 Will Continue to be Turbulent, Says Arla Foods Chairman
  Despite a good company performance and recovery signs from the industry, Arla Foods Chairman Ove Møberg is not convinced that the recession is over.
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• Industry crackdown on salt could save U.S. billions
  Working with the food industry to cut salt intake by nearly 10 percent could prevent hundreds of thousands of heart attacks and strokes over several decades and save the U.S. government $32 billion in healthcare costs, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
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• China Extends Lead as Top Food Producer--WTO
  China extended its position as the world's leading food producer in 2008, when its agricultural production jumped 30 percent, measured by value, World Trade Organization data show.
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• U.S. Food Makers Look Overseas for Faster Growth
  U.S. food makers are looking overseas for more profitable growth over the next few years, as they often must rely on short-term price promotions to drive sales at home.
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• Kraft Acquisition Seen Driving Cocoa Consolidation
  Kraft Foods' purchase of Cadbury is likely to have repercussions throughout the cocoa supply chain as a newly created chocolate giant seeks to drive down costs.
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• Top Four Brewers Account for Over Half World's Beer
  The world's four biggest brewers now account for over half the global market for beer after recent deals such as Dutch brewer Heineken's takeover of Mexico's FEMSA, researcher Plato Logic said on Monday.
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• UK Organic Sales Start to Revive After Dip
  Demand for organic food and drink in Britain is starting to revive after a recession driven decline, Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, said on Wednesday.
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• Europe's Food Groups Look to Volume-Led Growth
  Europe's top food makers are set to report solid 2009 sales growth this month, coupled with outlooks for the coming year dominated by prospects for volume-lead growth as economies slowly recover.
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• Cautious Approach Needed for EU Out-of-Quota Sugar Exports
  Following the announcement by the European Commission to propose additional out-of-quota sugar exports for an amount of 500,000 tonnes, the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) reiterates its call on the Commission for a cautious approach, taking into consideration all interests at stake and potential dramatic consequences.
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• RPT-UPDATE 5-Russia seeks new chicken supplies as US talks end
  Russian chicken importers have begun seeking alternative suppliers, including Thailand, as talks with U.S. experts ended on Thursday without a commitment to reopen the biggest U.S. export market.
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• EU: 18 Million Euro Support for Promotion of Dairy Products
  The European Commission has approved 13 programmes in 11 Member States to promote milk and milk products in the European Union.
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• Italian Farmers, Industry Reach Milk Price Deal
  Italy's dairy industry has agreed to increase its buying price in the main producing region of Lombardy in the first half of 2010, raising the chances for a nation-wide price rise, farmers said on Tuesday.
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• UPDATE 2-Callebaut sees stagnant chocolate demand in 2010
  Barry Callebaut (BARN.S), the world's largest chocolate maker, is confident it will outperform a stagnant chocolate market this year thanks to outsourcing deals, and expects the industry to return to growth from 2011.
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• Bonduelle Holds Exclusive Talks with Butler Capital Partners on France Champignon Buyout
  Bonduelle group and Butler Capital Partners have announced the start of their exclusive talks over the transfer of France Champignon group, whose registered office is located in Saumur in the Loire Valley.
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