A $70 million agricultural park will be built in Adelaide to supply Chinese shops with food and wine after an agreement between South Australian and Chinese governments. The industrial food park in Adelaide’s north will produce hundreds of containers of food and wine for China’s Shandong province, SA exporter Tony Royal says. “China’s expanding middle… Read more »
Earlier this month Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott sounded a warning on the impact to Australia’s economy if the recently signed China-Australia Free Trade Agreement were to fail. In a statement, Abbott said: “If Bill Shorten and the Labor Party try to reject the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement they will be sabotaging our economic future… Read more »
In the past decade from 2001-2011, the agriculture sector had an average contribution equivalent to 10.6 per cent of Fiji’s total GDP. This, according to the Fiji 2020 Agriculture Sector Policy Agenda report, meant the sector had actively employed about two-thirds of the labor force. In the 1990s, the contribution of agriculture was about 16… Read more »
Australia’s free trade deals with Japan and Korea have been in force for half a year, but agricultural exports are already up. Beef, grapes, wine and mangoes have shown the biggest rises in the first six months of 2015. The reports, from industry and government sources, come as Labor is under pressure to clarify its… Read more »
Tasmanian food and beverage producers are forging new trading relationships with China. Business talks are underway, despite Australia’s domestic political impasse on the China Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA). A number of the island’s agribusiness leaders are in China, and Tasmania’s Premier and State Growth Ministers will lead a trade and investment mission in China… Read more »
ALMONDS have emerged as Australia’s most valuable horticultural export for 2014-15, with annual export sales of $422 million, an increase of 14 per cent on the previous year. That’s according to the Almond Board of Australia which has just released its Almond Insights report. Sales for the first six months were up 54pc but a… Read more »
A falling Australian dollar is good news for farmers. The value of farm exports are estimated to increase by nearly half a billion dollars for every one US cent fall in the currency. That’s the analysis of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences prepared for its annual conference in Canberra. The… Read more »
The horticulture sector can expect gradually increasing returns over the medium term, with the gross value of horticultural production growing from a projected $9.5 billion in 2014-15, to $9.8 billion by 2019-20, in today’s money. The sector will be buoyed by the weaker Australian currency and increasing opportunities in Asia, as free trade agreements with… Read more »
AUSTRALIAN grain and oilseed production is forecast to rise over the next five years to reach 42.6 million tonnes by the end of the decade, but there are no spectacular price rises on the horizon. That’s the view of the national commodity forecaster, ABARES (Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences), which was… Read more »
The almond industry says this year’s harvest is still on track to be Australia’s biggest crop ever. Harvest has started in the major growing areas of Sunraysia, Riverland and Riverina this week and will continue until April, depending on weather conditions. The world’s demand for almonds is growing each year, especially from countries like India… Read more »
CARROTS could be key to beating cancer, according to scientists. They contain powerful cancer-busting chemicals, experts at Newcastle University have found. The natural compounds, known as polyacetylenes, protect the plant from attack by pests and diseases. They occur only in vegetables of the carrot family and a few other closely related species such as ginseng…. Read more »
Malaysia has stopped the import of two brands of apples from California because of fears that they could be tainted with the Listeriosis bacteria, reported Malaysian media. Agriculture minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the ministry had received a notice from the US authorities that the Gala red apples and Granny Smith green apples from California… Read more »
Frozen berries in New Zealand are free from Hepatitis A. New Zealand retailers have assured consumers that their berry products are safe from disease after a brand of frozen berries was recalled in Australia due to possible contamination. New Zealand Herald reports that a full national recall of Nanna’s frozen mixed berries was issued by… Read more »
Australia’s 2014-15 pulse crop just got a lot bigger, but the market largely shrugged it off. Total pulse production in the February Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) crop report was up 13 percent over the December estimate. That is a huge increase, but the 2014-15 winter crop harvest will still… Read more »
Up to 450,000 people may have eaten the frozen berries suspected of transmitting hepatitis A, as four more people were diagnosed with the disease on Saturday. 70,000 packets of the Chinese berries are sold each week in Australia, putting nearly half a million people at risk and sparking concerns over potential future cases. 18 people… Read more »
India, the world’s second-largest wheat grower, will harvest a near-record crop this year, expanding domestic inventories and widening a global grain glut. The crop may total 95.8 million metric tons in 2014-15, compared with an all-time high of 95.9 million tons a year earlier, the Agriculture Ministry said in an e-mailed statement. Rice production will… Read more »
Exports of Southern Hemisphere apples are expected to fall 5% in 2015, but pear exports should jump about 4%. About 1.7 million metric tons of apples will be exported from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa this year, according to the annual forecast from the Brussels-based World Apple and Pear Association. About… Read more »
Australian wheat farmers will face an increasing challenge keeping up with their neighbours’ appetite for bread and noodles. Demand from Indonesia, the Philippines and three other Southeast Asian nations is set to jump 40 per cent to 13.2 million tons by 2020, said Greg Harvey, chief executive officer of Interflour Group, one of the region’s… Read more »
