The White House announced on May 29 that it will publish a list of Chinese goods that will fall under new USD 50 billion tariffs on June 15, frustrating US farmers and Chinese trade negotiators who are struggling to keep up with the uncertainty and frequent reversals. Last week, the trade secretary claimed that the two countries had agreed to avoid imposing new tariffs. On the other hand, experts suggest that markets are now ignoring such announcements, while US grain farmers said they actually don’t expect the US to go ahead with the tariffs.
Bayer said it hopes to be able to start integrating Monsanto in two months, after the US antitrust regulators approved a plan for the USD 62.5 billion takeover. The new company would have annual sales of about EUR 20 billion, dwarfing sales of the two other competitors who were also recently engaged in mergers, namely DowDuPont who has EUR 12.4 billion in annual sales and ChemChina-Syngenta with EUR 11 billion in sales. BASF, the fourth largest agricultural supplier, is also expected to benefit as it plans to purchase assets worth USD 9 billion Bayer agreed to sell as part of the antitrust approval.
Cargill plans to have a 100% transparent and sustainable palm oil supply chain by 2020, according to the group’s supplier’s global sustainability director, who said 96% of the volume was already traceable to mills and 55% traceable to plantations. The company will be using a satellite mapping tool this year to identify and improve issues in the supply chain. The director said they are using lessons learnt from the soy and cocoa supply chain.
India’s Adani Group is likely to take over Shree Renuka Sugar‘s sugar segment from Wilmar Sugar. A board member of Renuka Sugar and a senior executive of Adani group said Adani Wilmar may be interested in adding sugar to its product mix and to leverage the latter’s distribution network. Wilmar International will also launch an open offer for a 25.14% stake from June 4-15 to help its arm Wilmar Sugar increase its stake in Renuka Sugar from the current 39%. Separately, Adani Wilmar reportedly increased its offer to acquire the bankrupt edible oil refiner Ruchi Soya group.
Nestle is downsizing its workforce in Switzerland by 5% and relocating some positions to Spain and Portugal in a bid to reduce costs, in part because of the strength of the Swiss Franc. It will also close its headquarters in Kenya. The CEO said the group will spend USD 706 million in restructuring this year. The Research Centre and the Institute of Health Sciences will be merged into a single entity to speed up the development of new products. Nestle wants to accelerate research efforts amid growing competition from smaller rivals and increasing preference for organic, vegan and gluten-free products.
In Spain, the company launched its first range of organic products which should grow to represent 10-15% of the turnover within 5 years. The regional head said this was in answer to consumer demand and that “Nestle has decided to bet heavily on organic products.” Meanwhile, in China, Nestle has sold its 95% stake in a raw milk powder factory.
And Pepsi bought Bare Foods Co, the maker of healthy chips made from beet or baked apples, to further expand its health-conscious food offering.
French MPs voted down a proposal to ban the use of glyphosate, although a presidential spokesperson clarified that the government was still committed to phasing out the use of the herbicide by 2021. In another twist, the Belgian government said recent scientific research on glyphosate did not conclusively show any health risks.
An investigation by The Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found an increasing number of industrial-scale beef fattening units in the UK – an area which is overall unregulated and unacknowledged – causing concern that the country’s agriculture is developing towards the type of industrial-scale farming common in the US. The environment secretary said they would fight against this US-type of farming but producers argue that it’s the only way to be cost competitive.
Organisations in the UK are working hard to redistribute food that would otherwise be thrown away. In 2017, the food bank Trussell Trust distributed 1.3 million parcels of food, up 13% from the previous year. Similarly, Charity FareShare gives food to some 750,000 people every week, an increase of 60% on year. Demand from food charities is increasing with an estimated 1 in 8 people experiencing hunger in the country.
In the first research of its kind, a study found that rice could have as much as 10% less protein, 5% less zinc and 30% less vitamin by the end of the century due to the increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the air. Rice represents half the calorie intake of around 2 billion people, which means the nutrient loss would have a significant impact on health.
This summary was produced by ECRUU
