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Fair Calendar


	Globus
	Politics & Markets
	Agribusiness
	Research & Innovation

Summer 09

Politics & Markets:

Feeding the world: The responsibility of industrial countries

Increases in agricultural production are central to long-term world food supply safety. Required are substantial investment increases in research and for development of rural areas in developing countries. But the industrial countries also have a special responsibility in the relief of hunger as exporters of grain and new technology

Two faces of Brazil

Brazil is a good example of agricultural productivity. But in areas behind the narrow coastal strip it can still be extremely undeveloped and better infrastructure such as improved roads is desperately needed to help open-up huge farmland areas with considerable potential.

Russia: The crisis leaves its scars

Russian farms are suffering under very low producer prices and restrictive bank credit availability. Devaluation of the rouble and state support policies have meant western machinery becoming markedly more expensive.

Agribusiness:

Beef: Comparing teh costs of feeding systems

It doesn’t matter whether the system is pasture, silage, feedlot or cut & carry, none is fundamentally superior. In international comparison it appears that beef price and production cost levels are more dependent on the respective factor and input costs than on production systems. Within individual economic areas, pasture systems do not necessarily bring more cost-efficiency than silage or feedlot systems.

Research and Innovation:

Ethanol grain: Easy to overestimate in Europe

Bioethanol plants should have brought more buoyancy to the EU grain market just like the situation in the US. But this hasn’t really happened in Europe. Firstly, demand lags way behind expectations and, secondly, many producers, especially in Germany, use molasses and sugar beet for ethanol production which keeps ethanol grain out on the fringes of this market.

Oilseeds: Who produces our biofuel?

Europe is the most important market for biodiesel. Various EU countries plan the introduction or increase of consumption targets and this should boost demand. However, the greatest increases in production are to be found outside the EU.

Winter 08

Politics & Markets:

Grain: A survivor in the current crisis

The stock exchange collapse drove agricultural prices in the cellar and reduced demand for some commodities. But it’s unlikely that the financial crisis will limit the upward potential of grain and oilseed markets over the long term.

Agribusiness:

Pig production: Risks and rewards of moving east

In Eastern Europe, investments involve high risks and for this reason knowledge of the social, climatic and political conditions is important. On top of this, own capital is necessary because credit on the spot is extremely difficult to arrange - and expensive. Opportunities exists above all for western-oriented weaner producers because there’s the possibility the countries looked at here may themselves specialise more in feeding pig enterprises.

Russia: Dairy farming with a future

Milk production is seen as the most promising farming enterprise in this area of Russia but here, as in Europe, producers are struggling with rising costs and sinking income. Following the price peak last year the earnings from dairy herds have significantly dropped. Farmers are therefore seeking ways to add value to their output and Alexander Lasutin is to process his own milk and open a retail dairy store in the nearby town for direct sales.

Research and Innovation:

Algae: Cultivation the new champion solar converter

Could algae deliver the raw material for biofuels instead of cereals and oilseeds? After all, fossil petroleum oil was also formed by the same material. The challenge lies in finding a way to produce fuel oil from algae immediately, instead of waiting millions of years for nature to do the trick. But direct conversion still needs a lot of development.

Always on-track for better yields

With the help of GPS guidance systems tramlines can be permanently established. Clearly separating track and rooting areas in this way can improve yields and protect the environment. Currently, the technical practicability as well as the labour and farm management effects of Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF) is being investigated under European conditions.

Autumn 08

Politics & Markets:

Record prices on the high seas

Sea freight costs will remain dear as long as the economy booms in China and India. Not maize, soybeans or wheat dominate the sea freight business but instead the demand from both countries for ore and coal. Resultant high freight costs not only negatively affect the import of soymeal. With grain too, northern Europe’s position is impaired with suppliers from Black Sea ports.

Speculators: You can bet they'll turn up!

The rise in cereal and oilseed prices in the last financial year was greatly increased by speculative buying by investment funds. Is the situation to be reversed now? Probably not, since the capital influx into agricultural commodities continues unabated.

The WTO negotiations: What went wrong

The EU is much more dependent on shipments of phosphate than for any other important agricultural input. Global production already limps behind demand which means it will be in short supply in the coming years and therefore expensive on the world market - and that means in Europe too.

Agribusiness:

British pig produktion: Welfare fails to protect market share

British pig production is in the doldrums. There are many reasons for this but mainly high costs from very strict animal welfare regulations are to blame. Whether the British sector is simply among the first to deal with this situation or has been outmanoeuvred in the European market by it, remains to be seen.

Survey: Every dairy farm plans expansion

What strategies do dairy farms use to prepare for hard times? 500 EDF members were asked and most plan business expansion and further specialisation of their business. In 2008/2009 expected investment averages 2700 € per cow half of which directly into the farm milk production enterprise.