{"id":6697,"date":"2021-12-12T07:16:36","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T07:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/?p=6697"},"modified":"2021-12-12T07:16:36","modified_gmt":"2021-12-12T07:16:36","slug":"commodity-conversations-news-monitor-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/2021\/12\/12\/commodity-conversations-news-monitor-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Commodity Conversations News Monitor"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The price for shipping a 40-foot container to the US West Coast from China<\/a> has moved higher in the past two weeks to $14,825. While that\u2019s down 28 per cent from a record of $20,586 reached in September, it\u2019s still more than ten times higher than in December 2019. Analysts worry supply chain disruptions will continue well into next year.<\/p>\n

The US House of Representatives has passed the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2021<\/a>, aimed at curbing the shipping container crisis by giving the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) more power to penalise ocean carriers and require more public disclosure. The World Shipping Council said that the bill was a political expression of frustration and not designed to fix supply chain problems. The legislation now moves to the Senate.<\/p>\n

US farmers have asked the US Department of Justice to investigate whether fertiliser companies are manipulating prices<\/a>. Since the 1980s, the US fertiliser industry has shrunk from 46 to 13 firms, with two companies, Nutrien and Mosaic, controlling 93 per cent of the North American potash market<\/p>\n

The market for manure<\/a> has heated up as farmers hunt for alternatives to phosphate- and nitrogen-based fertilisers. Manure is primarily a local market, and truckloads don\u2019t travel further than 80 kilometres. When fertiliser prices soared about a decade ago, farmers reintroduced hogs and cattle onto their land, in part for their manure. They may do it again.<\/p>\n

Fortune Magazine has a piece on the feed-additive industry<\/a> and its role in reducing methane emissions from cattle.<\/p>\n

Following California\u2019s record-breaking drought<\/a> and heat this year, the state has said that it won\u2019t give any water from the State Water Project to farmers next year unless conditions improve. An official from the California Farm Water Coalition said, \u201cFarmers will either have to pump groundwater, if they can, or they\u2019re going to be fallowing a lot of farmland.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARE) has forecast that Australia is heading to record gross agricultural production<\/a> of $78 billion this year despite flood and rain damage in the eastern states. ABARE forecasts export value at an all-time high of $61 billion.<\/p>\n

The FT writes that Silicon Valley continues in its efforts to \u2018solve\u2019 dinner<\/a>. The NY Times argues that Sri Lanka\u2019s countrywide move into organic farming<\/a> has led to disastrous food shortages and higher prices.<\/p>\n

The UN\u2019s FAO has published a report<\/a> criticising the \u2018disastrous\u2019 way farmers use plastic<\/a>. The FAO recognises the benefits of plastic in producing and protecting food but said the use of plastics had become pervasive and that most were single-use and were buried, burned or lost after use.<\/p>\n

The UK government may authorise the neonicotinoid<\/a> Cruiser SB for sugar beet. The sector says it needs the pesticide to protect seeds from a disease called virus yellows.<\/p>\n

Nature has published a report on research into sustainable rice production<\/a>. The authors argue that global rice production could increase by 32 per cent, and excess nitrogen almost eliminated by focusing on a relatively small number of cropping systems.<\/p>\n

Coffee leaf rust disease in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua is pushing coffee farmers to abandon their trees and migrate to the US. The fungal pathogen<\/a> has been revived by the humidity from the hurricanes Eta and Iota, which hit Central America in late 2020.<\/p>\n

The US EPA has retroactively reduced the 2020 biofuel blending obligation<\/a> for refineries by nearly 15 per cent from 20.09 to 17.13 billion gallons. For 2021, it has reduced the obligation from 20.1 to 18.5 billion gallons, but for 2022, it has increased it to 20.77 billion gallons. The EPA has also proposed rejecting the 65 pending applications<\/a> for small refinery exemptions – waivers requested by fuel producers.<\/p>\n

Bayer has joined Amazon and Bushel to help ethanol producers track carbon emissions across their supply chains. Project Carbonview<\/a> will enrol eligible farmers within 50 to 100 miles of selected ethanol plants in the Upper Midwest.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg has a short video on the effect that renewable diesel<\/a> will have on soybean demand and the interplay between the energy and agricultural markets.<\/p>\n

The BBC writes about the environmental impacts of Indonesia\u2019s biofuels policy<\/a>. All diesel fuel in the country now contains at least 30 per cent biodiesel, which will rise to 50 per cent by 2025. It would require an increase in the palm area of 1.2 million hectares – to about a quarter of all palm oil cultivated in the country. \u00a0An Indonesian court has rejected a bid<\/a> by two companies to reinstate permits for palm oil plantations in its easternmost region of Papua, which was seen as a test of the government’s pledge to contain deforestation.<\/p>\n

Mounting employment costs and worker shortages in Malaysia\u2019s palm oil sector<\/a> could mean the country losing its edge and ceding market share to Indonesia. An analyst with LMC said that workers now have more options for urban employment and are less willing to do manual labour. \u201cSoon, there will be no ‘cheap’ labour,” he added.<\/p>\n

In company news, Nestl\u00e9 is cutting its stake<\/a> in the French cosmetics brand L’Oreal to about 20 per cent, selling shares worth 8.9 billion euros.<\/p>\n

Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, the majority shareholder in Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), has said that the company might not remain in family hands forever. She added that she does not rule out a company listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cargill plans to eliminate trans fats<\/a> from its edible oils over the next two years, in line with a WHO goal of phasing it out of global diets by the end of 2023. Cargill is among the top three edible oil producers worldwide and is the first to announce plans to comply with the WHO’s goal.<\/p>\n

A cyberattack on the largest US cheese manufacturer has led to a shortage of cream cheese,<\/a> wreaking havoc on the country\u2019s bagel shops and bakeries. The attack occurred at the height of annual cream cheese demand. Perhaps worse, Australians may run out of beer<\/a> this Christmas. A shortage of wooden pallets is disrupting factory shipments.<\/p>\n

Finally, my latest book, Commodity Crops & The Merchants Who Trade Them<\/a> is now available on Amazon in paperback and ebook. A hardback version will be available shortly.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Commodity Conversations \u00ae 2021<\/p>\n

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The price for shipping a 40-foot container to the US West Coast from China has moved higher in the past two weeks to $14,825. While that\u2019s down 28 per cent from a record of $20,586 reached in September, it\u2019s still more than ten times higher than in December 2019. Analysts worry supply chain disruptions will … <\/p>\n

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