Analysis by professional service firm Deloitte has revealed returns of Australian Stock Exchange listed agribusinesses have far-outperformed major stock indices locally, and abroad. In a new report, economists calculated the average return of 38 listed agribusinesses at 66.9 per cent, compared with the S&P ASX 300 index (-0.3 per cent) and the US S&P 500… Read more »
Australian exporters welcome news trade pact with China will commence before Christmas A wish, following news that the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) will enter force on 20 December. The timing of the ratification will deliver a rapid double tariff cut – the first upon ChAFTA’s implementation and another on 1 January 2016. David Minnis, chairman… Read more »
Australian farmers say an international agreement to scrap agricultural export subsidies will put them on a level playing field with their competitors from overseas. More than 160 member countries of the World Trade Organisation have agreed to remove the subsidies, which include direct payments, loans, tax breaks and other financial arrangements used by countries to… Read more »
New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has forecast horticultural export revenues during the year ending June 2016 to rise 16% to NZ$4.8 billion. The expected NZ$668 million boost is led by the recovery of the kiwifruit industry, significant increases in apple exports, continued growth from the wine industry, and assisted by likely favourable exchange rates…. Read more »
Australia’s GrainCorp has planned to invest more than $30 million in a 50-50 joint venture with Japan’s Zen-Noh Grain Corporation to enter into North American market. GrainCorp already runs two container loading sites in Calgary, Alberta, from where it will start operating after joint investment in the grain supply management field with Japan. The partnership… Read more »
Frost, hail, bushfires and variable rain have not stopped West Australian farmers recording an above average harvest this season. The state’s grain handler Co-operative Bulk Handling (CBH) said this year’s yield was up about 30 per cent. “It’s a well above average crop, we’ll probably look to receive about 13 million tonnes this harvest, so… Read more »
Australia’s wheat export volumes are expected to increase 2% to 16.9 million tonnes in 2015-16, according to the December quarterly report from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Science (ABARES). This forecast reflects slightly higher opening stocks, the forecast increase in production and demand growth in some key export markets. The value… Read more »
Australia cut its crop export forecasts, hacking by more than 1m tonnes its expectation for coarse grain shipments, citing factors from “strong competition” in wheat trading to Chinese corn subsidy reforms. Abares, the official Australian commodities bureau, cut by 580,000 tonnes to 16.95m tonnes its forecast for wheat exports from the southern hemisphere’s bigger shipper… Read more »
China’s imports and exports shrank again in November but there were signs a decline in domestic demand might be turning around. Customs data showed exports contracted by 6.8 per cent, accelerating from October’s 3.6 per cent. Imports declined 8.7 per cent, an improvement over the previous month’s 16 per cent fall. A fall in global… Read more »
RISING demand for lentils from around the world has helped push this year’s South Australian lentil crop to a record 189,000 tonnes worth close to $250 million. The latest Australian Crop Report made the optimistic lentil forecast yesterday with South Australia expected to produce well over half the nation’s lentil crop. With the lentil harvest… Read more »
Australian fruit exporters will soon enjoy improved access to the Thailand market after revised import protocols were finalized. Assistant Agriculture Minister Senator Anne Ruston, said the new conditions would make Thailand even more attractive for Australian exporters. “Fruit exports often require a range of treatments and conditions to meet importing country requirements—an important pre-requisite to… Read more »
Mango growers in Western Australia’s north are experiencing one of their hardest seasons on record, with fruit production down by 50 per cent. In the Kimberley, growers have seen a lacklustre season due, in part, to a split flowering this year. Further south in Carnarvon, mango trees were hit hard by Cyclone Olwyn’s damaging winds… Read more »
Australian dried fruit growers are hopeful a reduction in global sultana production will stabilise domestic prices. Drought in the United States and frost and hail damage in Turkey has led to an eight per cent drop in the international sultana crop. Chair of Dried Fruits Australia Mark King said prices for Australian growers will remain… Read more »
As world leaders meet in Paris to set a target to reduce carbon emissions, scientists and farmers fear even the ambitious aim of limiting global warming to two degrees would have huge impacts on Australian farm production, leading to more expensive food prices. Lesley Hughes, a professor of biology at Macquarie University and a councillor… Read more »
