Tanzania blows hot and cold over biofuels

Tanzania blows hot and cold over biofuels

By Alan Beattie

Published: May 28 2008 20:30 | Last updated: May 28 2008 20:30

Last year, by one estimate, the government of Mozambique received bids from foreign investors to buy a remarkable 110,000 square kilometres of land, more than an eighth of the entire country.

More than a century after the last “scramble for Africa”, when European imperial powers fought to colonise the continent, the global boom in biofuels is causing a stampede into one of the world’s biggest areas of uncultivated terrain.

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Rice Slumps to Two-Month Low on Increased Supply, Fewer Curbs

By Jae Hur

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- Rice tumbled to the lowest in more than two months on speculation higher output and lifting of export curbs will boost supplies, alleviating a global food crisis that sent the price to a record last month.

Rice for July delivery on the Chicago Board of Trade fell as much as 4.1 percent to $17.70 per 100 pounds after declining by the daily limit for the past three days. The world's output of milled rice will rise to a record this year, the Food and Agriculture Organization forecast on May 22.

Rice, the main food for half the world, has lost as much as 29 percent since it was driven to a record $25.07 last month on trade curbs imposed by China, Vietnam and India. Cambodia lifted a ban on overseas shipments this week, and Vietnam has said it may allow new export contracts to be signed from the end of June.

``Speculators have been fleeing the market following recent supply news,'' Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager of the research department at IDO Securities Co., said today from Tokyo.

The July contract fell 64.5 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $17.805 per 100 pounds at 12:35 p.m. Singapore time, after declining by the daily limit of $1.15 yesterday. The contract earlier fell to the lowest since March 20. The price is still 69 percent higher than a year ago.

Provincial leaders from Vietnam's Mekong Delta, the nation's main rice-growing area, have asked the government to raise the country's 2008 export target back to 4.5 million metric tons from 4 million tons, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported today. Vietnam on March 30 had cut the annual target by 11 percent to 4 million tons to ensure local supplies and curb inflation.

Social Unrest

Record prices for food and energy, including wheat, corn, soybeans and palm oil, have stoked concern about shortages and caused unrest from Haiti to Egypt. Cereal prices will stay high for ``some time,'' threatening stability, the FAO said in a report yesterday.

``In some poor countries, increased food-import bills might lead to substantial widening of the current account deficit,'' the FAO said. Eritrea, Niger and Botswana are among those most vulnerable since they import all their oil and at least three- quarters of their wheat, rice and corn, the FAO said.

Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, yesterday cut the benchmark export price of white rice by 7.5 percent from a record, according to Sompetch Anuchon, an official at the Thai Rice Exporters Association. The price of 100 percent Grade B white rice dropped to $960 a ton from $1,038 last week.

Farmers across Asia have boosted rice production to take advantage of the higher prices. Global output of milled rice in 2008 will be 445.3 million tons, compared with last year's record 435.2 million tons, according to the FAO.

``Concerns over tight supplies will ease this summer as many producers in Asia will harvest their crops,'' Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst at Tokyo-based broker Okachi & Co., said today. ``This will help some producers remove their export curbs.''

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German milk strike spreads to other European countries
AFP - Wednesday, May 28 07:14 pm

BERLIN (AFP) - With food costs soaring around the world, German dairy farmers began a strike over falling milk prices Wednesday in a protest that a European milk body said is spreading to other countries.

Nearly 30,000 German dairy farmers halted milk deliveries to retailers Wednesday on the second day of their strike, according to the European Milk Board, based in the western German city of Hamm.

It said deliveries dropped by some 60 percent in Switzerland's Zurich region and in the Netherlands, where the Dutch Dairymen Board urged its 4,000 producers to "keep milk on the farm."

Austria's IG Milch dairy association weighed in with a call on the country's 43,000 dairy producers to halt deliveries in protest at the milk price.

"We urge all producers to cease delivery to dairy factories completely from Thursday," said the federation's president, Ewald Gruenzweil.

He warned consumers, especially hospitals, kindergarten nurseries and schools, to start stocking dairy products.

"We're predicting (supermarket) shelves to empty rather quickly as people start hoarding, following this determined action in Germany and other European countries," Gruenzweil added.

Germany's BDM dairy federation, which represents almost half of the country's producers, said it had also received "declarations of support" from Belgium, Luxembourg and "parts of France."

"I expect more countries to join the strike," deputy president Stefan Mann told the Frankfurter Rundschau daily.

The strike in Germany, Europe's biggest milk producer, began on Tuesday as farmers heeded a call by the BDM to stop supplying milk in order to force up prices that are currently hovering between 28 and 34 euro cents (0.43-0.53 dollar cents) per litre (2.2 pints to the litre).

"We plan to decrease the flow to the food industry further still in coming days and then supermarkets will start feeling the pinch," said Hans Foldenauer, a spokesman for the BDM.

Germany opposed a decision by European Union agriculture ministers in March to allow a bloc-wide increase in production of two percent as part of a larger plan to phase out dairy subsidies by 2015.

Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer warned there was a risk the move could lead to "new milk lakes and butter mountains," a reference to surplus production in Europe triggered in 1984.

Milk prices increased by an average 8.1 percent in the EU last year but have slipped back since reaching a peak in the autumn.

The BDM said that milk prices agreed between suppliers and supermarkets have fallen by as much as 15 euro cents per litre compared to last year, while dairies' operating costs have risen.

It is demanding that the milk price be pushed up to 43 cents per litre.

The Swiss farmers' trade union Uniterre said some 100 dairy producers in the west of the country voted Wednesday in favour of joining a delivery strike in the German-speaking part of Switzerland in support of German producers.

"We have been negotiating about the milk price for years without any success. So we can only conclude that a strike is the only way forward," a union representative told the ATS news agency.

Switzerland's Big-M union said the 200 producers in the Zurich region had delivered virtually no milk on Wednesday.

The milk price protest seemed set to spread to Romania next week.

Romanian agricultural trade union Agrostar said dairy farmers would stage a three-day picket outside the French embassy in Bucharest and the headquarters of dairy company Danone to demand better prices for their milk.

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World Bank studying food aid to ease crisis: source
AFP - Wednesday, May 28 11:16 pm

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The World Bank is studying the creation of a special fund to help combat aspects of the global food crisis which is threatening an increasing number of developing nations, a source said Wednesday.

The source, who requested anonymity, but is familiar with the matter, said the issue was to be discussed by the board of the multilateral Washington-based institution on Thursday.

Escalating global prices of foodstuffs such as corn, rice and wheat have sparked protests in many countries, particularly less developed states, and raised concerns that many of the world's poor will face increased hunger problems.

The source said the precise amount of aid that could be provided has not yet been finalized, but another source said the fund could amount up to 200 million dollars.

"This is more for things like school feeding programs, food for work programs," said the first source who spoke with AFP, adding that the funds would likely be disbursed quickly if the program is approved.

It is envisaged that any funds put together would provide targeted and limited relief rather than trying to tackle or ease the problem of food shortages and spiking commodity prices on a broad basis.

The World Bank declined to comment.

The multilateral institution, the World Food Organisation and other aid groups are due to hold a meeting on Thursday to discuss ways to deal with the global food crisis.

Senior officials including World Bank president Robert Zoellick will meet on the sidelines of an African development conference in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, the Bank's Tokyo office chief Kazushige Taniguchi said on Friday.

Top officials from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) are also expected to attend, he said.

An international summit hosted by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization is also set to address the crisis.

The FAO's estimate of the number of hungry people in 2002-04 was 862 million, including 830 million in developing countries.

Large food-producing countries such as Brazil have recently moved to halt certain food exports to deal with sharp increases in food prices in their domestic markets.

Rising populations, strong demand from developing countries, increased cultivation of crops for biofuels and increasing floods and droughts have sent food prices soaring across the globe.

Japan wants to make the global food situation one of the major themes of the Group of Eight summit it will host in July.

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Help For Poorest With Rising Fuel Bills
By Sky News SkyNews - 45 minutes ago

New measures aimed at helping vulnerable and elderly people with their fuel bills are being announced today by the Government.

The proposals will see assistance given to households to improve their energy efficiency and cut costs.

They will also ensure they are on the best value tariff with their gas and electricity providers.

Campaigners have dismissed the plan as a mere "reshuffling" of old ideas and say it does not go far enough to alleviate fuel poverty.

Fuel poverty is said to occur when a household pays more than 10% of its income on energy bills.

Among the measures being announced is a pilot scheme to ensure people applying for Warm Front grants are referred to their energy supplier for tariff advice.

In addition £150,000 will be ploughed into watchdog Ofgem's national awareness campaign on social assistance for the vulnerable.

Ministers have also pledged £3m to encourage microgeneration - small scale alternative energy schemes - among fuel poor communities.

Environment Minister Phil Woolas said: "Encouraging energy efficiency is crucial because it really does cut costs.

"These new measures will make homes across the country more energy efficient and give people at risk of fuel poverty a boost where they need it most."

But Ed Matthew, warm homes campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: "The new fuel poverty measures announced today won't fix the problem - people will still be left out in the cold.

"The only way to warm up our four million fuel poor homes is to super-insulate them and help them produce their own energy.

"The Government must stop reshuffling the same tired old ideas and instead jump-start a widespread and strategic programme of energy efficiency and renewable energy."