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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, September 21st 2024 - 09:00 UTC

Agriculture

  • Tuesday, May 14th 2024 - 10:31 UTC

    Australia planning to end live animals exports; processed lamb and mutton sales overseas booming

    Live export is controversial because of often-difficult onboard conditions for the livestock, triggering the response from animal welfare groups.

    Under the influence of animal welfare groups and declining profits, Australia plans to implement legislation to end the export of live animals in some four years time. Under the plan farmers who depend on such a trade will be helped to make the switch to domestic processing, which has turned into a booming success.

  • Monday, May 13th 2024 - 20:09 UTC

    Paraguayan beef granted entry into Canadian market

    It took Paraguay's producers almost three years and a half of learning and negotiating to reach this goal

    Canada's Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) greenlighted the entry of Paraguayan meat into their market with nine packing plants already authorized to start shipments. Paraguayan President Santiago Peña celebrated the good news with postings on social media. “I congratulate all the institutions and sectors involved for this important achievement,” he wrote.

  • Monday, May 13th 2024 - 10:48 UTC

    Brazil to buy rice from Mercosur countries to feed storm-hit Rio Grande do Sul

    “We're going to have to import rice from Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina,” Lula said upon announcing the initiative

    Brazil's National Supply Company (Conab) has been entrusted with purchasing one million tons of rice to feed the people of Rio Grande do Sul and avoid the intervention of middle people seeking a black market profit from the victims of the unprecedented storms. Under normal circumstances, Rio Grande do Sul accounts for 70% of Brazil's rice production.

  • Thursday, May 9th 2024 - 21:43 UTC

    April FAO food prices index slightly higher, vegetable oils and cereals climbing

    Maize export prices increased, influenced by a robust import demand amidst mounting logistical disruptions as a result of infrastructure damages in Ukraine and concerns about Brazil's production

    The benchmark for world food commodity prices edged higher in April, as higher prices of meat and modest upticks for vegetable oils and cereals outweighed decreases in sugar and dairy product prices, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported.

  • Monday, May 6th 2024 - 20:24 UTC

    Rich Chinese beef consumers are becoming more aware of traceability and Amazon deforestation

    Respondents would pay 22.5% more for Brazilian meat if it came with assurances that it was sourced from cattle raised in zero-deforestation areas.

    A survey conducted in Beijing and Shanghai between two renowned academic groups in China and Brazil, revealed that some Chinese consumers are willing to pay more for beef, provided it is not linked to deforestation in the Amazon and have a budding interest in traceability.

  • Sunday, May 5th 2024 - 12:03 UTC

    Campaign in several US states to ban sale of lab-grown “cultivated” meat

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has banned lab-grown meat, saying he will “save our beef” from the “global elite” and its “authoritarian plans”.

    Several US states, spear headed by Florida are on a campaign to ban the sale and distribution of lab-grown or “cultivated” meat. The process of making cultivated meat involves extracting cells from an animal, which are then fed with nutrients such as proteins, sugars and fats, and they were first cleared for consumption in the US in 2022. The end product is genetically indistinguishable from traditionally produced meat.

  • Saturday, May 4th 2024 - 10:59 UTC

    Japanese PM discusses Mercosur FTA with Paraguay's President

    Kishida underlined that Paraguay was a reliable partner

    Paraguayan President Santiago Peña and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met Friday in Asunción to strengthen bilateral ties as well as to further discuss a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). Peña, who holds the group's rotating presidency, expressed in a statement his “fervent desire” to “move forward with a free trade agreement between Mercosur and Japan.”

  • Monday, April 22nd 2024 - 12:28 UTC

    Downward revision reported for Argentine 2024 agricultural exports

    “Although a gradual recovery is expected, uncertainty persists,” the BCR said

    Argentina's 2024 exports of soybean, corn, wheat, sunflower, and barley have been projected to reach barely US$ 29.3 billion, which would represent a US$ 5.7 billion recovery from 2023 but a US$ 1.7 billion slump compared to the last five years' average, the Grain Stock Exchange in Rosario (BCR) announced in its latest Guía Estratégica para el Agro (GEA) report. The new figures represent an 18% downward revision from December's calculations.

  • Monday, April 8th 2024 - 19:35 UTC

    The rule on Paraguay's fresh beef exports to US held by Congress

    In remarks before the vote, Senator Tester said President Biden, “butchered” the decision on Paraguayan imports.

    The United States Senate last week passed a resolution overturning the US Department of Agriculture rule allowing Paraguayan fresh beef imports. The next step in the process in the House of Representatives where the show of bipartisan consensus is expected to be repeated, reported the US Beef Newsletter.

  • Thursday, March 28th 2024 - 11:31 UTC

    Uruguayan rural producers affected by stronger local currency

    “Supply and demand determine what the dollar is worth,” Central Bank President Labat has said

    Uruguay's rural producers underlined that the constant appreciation of the local peso against the US dollar was detrimental to their exporting activities and insisted that the appropriate exchange rate should be US$ 1 = UY$ 58 instead of UY$ 37.5, which represents a 3.9% drop so far this year.