Sources say that ADM has approached an Asia-based company to create a consortium to buy Bunge in a attempt to bypass anti-trust regulation and to stand a bigger chance against potentially competing bidders. There seem to be further signs that Bunge is preparing for a takeover. First, SEC filings show that higher level executives at Bunge received USD 3.2 million in stocks last week. Second, investment group Continental Grain has reportedly increased its stake in Bunge to over 1% to push the company to sell itself. Meanwhile, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board, which manages over USD 7.5 billion, also increased its stake in Bunge.
Bunge has completed its acquisition of 70% of premium quality oil producers IOI Loders Croklaan. Bunge’s CEO said that value-added food and ingredients segment make now to 35-40% of the group’s portfolio
ADM has acquired 50% of Russia’s largest food and beverage producer Aston’s starch and sweeteners business – including two wet corn mills. This is the most recent of a string of investments and acquisitions of corn plants in the rest of the world. ADM forecast high fructose corn syrup and glucose and dextrose consumption will rise by 6% and 9.1% respectively by 2020.
Cargill and MV Cargo’s grain terminal in Yuzhne, Ukraine, is nearing completion and should be finished by the middle of the year. With a 5 million mt capacity, it will handle 10% of the country’s grain exports.
COFCO has created a “global asset management organisation” which will manage operating assets. The group has also reorganised its top executives as it pursues a policy of global growth. A company representative said COFCO now had a “solid organisational structure” that will allow them to continue to grow.
The Chinese government announced it was stepping up efforts to fight soil pollution, caused in part by fertiliser and pesticide contamination, amid increasing worries that crops are being grown in contaminated fields. As part of the plan, 6.67 million ha of land will be converted into forests. By 2020, 90% of the contaminated farmland (estimated at 3.33 million ha in a 2013 survey) should be safe to grow food again.
Soil pollution is not China’s only problem. Experts say the government’s plan towards the Camel Economy – an economy with lower water consumption – are moving much too slow. With close to 80% of the country’s water reserves in the South, the 12 provinces in the North – home to 38% of agriculture and 41% of its population – suffer from water shortage. To significantly reduce water consumption the government might have to increase the price of water and give up on plans to become self-sufficient in food, given that 62% of the water resources go into agriculture.
Local media reports that the first part of China’s South-to-North water diversion project – which consists of 1,432 km of mainly open water canals – has already helped millions of people since its inception in 2014. Some 13% of the diverted water can be used for agriculture.
Environmental and social groups have opposed the project, but the government has already moved on to the next phase. It continues to work on its ‘air corridor‘ which would divert water by evaporating it and then controlling its journey in the air through atmospheric interference. The Tianhe Project, which means “water in the sky” will eventually transfer 5 billion cu m of water per year.
Water shortages might be closer to home that you suspect. A quarter of the world’s 500 biggest cities are already facing water supply issues, and the top 11 cities most likely to run out of water include Sao Paulo, London, Tokyo and Miami.
Still on the subject of water, several fact-checking websites have debunked a story, first published in a Brazilian blog, that Coca-Cola and Nestle were in talks with the Brazilian government to privatise the Guarani Aquifer. The news caused someone to start an online petition against it, which was eventually removed after it became clear this was fake news.
What is real news, on the hand, is that Coca-Cola is launching an alcoholic drink, the first time in the history of the company. The alcopop will be launched in Japan, where the “Chu-Hi” (canned drinks with alcohol) market is thriving. The alcohol content is expected to be between 3-8%, which means it will compete with the beer segment. The company said this was an experiment which would probably only stay in Japan but was also a sign that the company is exploring new opportunities amid falling fizzy drink sales.
Following the UK Labour party’s proposal to ban selling drinks with a high sugar content to under 16s, Coca-Cola announced it was changing its existing kids education program and looking into new ways to contribute to the younger community. It will scrap its Real Business Challenge designed for children as well as Coca-Cola’s factories tours.
On the other hand, Nestle is investing CAD 51.5 million (USD 39.69 million) to expand its ice-cream plant to 60 million L in Canada. The plant is not able to keep up with demand, the company said.
Unilever has launched Growing Roots in the US. Every purchase will go towards funding and supporting urban farming throughout the country. Interestingly, the initiative was started by Unilever employees.
Lego announced that it has started using sugarcane-based polyethylene supplied by Brazil’s Braskem to make some of its elements at its Danish plant. In the UK, Deliveroo said it will now encourage manufacturers to switch to sustainable plastic packaging, such as sugarcane boxes.
The UK has only 63 small scale local abattoirs left, down from 96 a decade ago. A recent report by the Sustainable Food Trust found that the bigger abattoirs are squeezing the smaller ones out and making them unprofitable, in part because of the current ill-adapted legislation. The trust suggests setting up mobile abattoirs, something which is already working in Canada and New Zealand.
Big data is working to help eradicate malnutrition. A new map has been published showing child growth over the last 15 years in 5km by 5km scale maps of African countries. While the map shows improvement in some areas, it also shows that none of the African countries will meet the United Nations goal to end childhood malnutrition by 2030. The good news, however, is that the detailing of this map will help governments target the right areas.
Finally a Los Angeles fast food chain is experimenting replacing workers with robots. Click here to see a robot flipping burgers.
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