Iron ore price rises
Iron ore prices climbed on Monday over concerns that a prolonged armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine could curb global supply. The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange ended daytime trading 2.7 percent higher at 705.50 yuan ($111.82) a tonne. On the Singapore Exchange, iron ore’s most-active April contract rose as much as 3.3 percent to $141.25 a tonne. According to Fastmarkets MB, benchmark 62 percent Fe fines imported into Northern China were changing hands for $138.09 a tonne during morning trading, up 2.6 percent compared to Friday’s closing. Any prolonged military campaign will severely impact annual iron ore exports totaling almost 70 million tonnes from Russia and Ukraine, eventually tightening the global balance. While Russia and Ukraine are not major suppliers of iron ore to China, the two countries now at war usually export the steelmaking ingredient to other European countries.
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Edible oil production not in sync with growth in consumption
India imports about 175,000-200,000 tonnes of sunflower oil per month and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has disturbed the sunflower oil supply. The domestic edible oil production has not been able to keep pace with the growth in consumption and the country is incurring heavy costs owing to its dependence on imports. Import growth in edible oils during the last decades is about 174 percent. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has once again highlighted that India needs to be self-sufficient in edible oils. Last month, India reported import of 1,019,997 tonnes of vegetable oils including 983,608 tonnes of edible oils and 36,389 tonnes of non-edible oils. The import of vegetable oils went up by 22 percent compared with February 2021 when India imported 838,607 tonnes of vegetable oils. India imports about 175,000-200,000 tonnes of sunflower oil per month and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has disturbed the sunflower oil supply. Just 152,000 tonnes arrived in India in February 2022 and the supplies could dry up if the war escalates.
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Ghana: Koica supports Ghana with agric equipment
The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has presented a number of agricultural equipment to the government, in support of rice production in the Central Region. The machines included two tractors and accessories, a combine harvester, laser land leveler, seed drill/ no-till seed planter, 18 power tillers and accessories, two transplanters and 10 rice threshers. The rest were 10 rice reaper binder combine harvesters, 18 rice winnowers, 30 water pumps, 18 grain moisture meters and 16 knapsack sprayers/ motorized mist blowers.
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Reduce sugar production and increase conversion to ethanol: Gadkari
Union minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari has called sugar factories to make a shift to conversion of sugar into ethanol, in line with the realities of changing times and the needs of the nation. The minister issued a warning to leaders of sugar and allied industries that if sugar production goes ahead as it does now, it will be harmful to the industry in times to come. Reminding them that as a country, we are rice-surplus, corn-surplus and sugar-surplus, Gadkari said that what is good for our future is to reduce production of sugar and increase production of ethanol. The minister was addressing the Sugar & Ethanol India Conference (SEIC) 2022 in Mumbai on Sunday. The conclave, organized by ChiniMandi, news and information portal for the sugar and allied industries, sought to bring together domestic & global industry experts to discuss the top challenges and risk response strategies in domestic and global sugar trade and the way forward to building a more innovative and sustainable Sugar & Ethanol sector in India.
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Oil prices jump again as EU considers Russian oil ban
Oil prices jumped more than $3 on Monday, with Brent crude climbing above $111 a barrel, as European Union nations considered joining the United States in a Russian oil embargo and after a weekend attack on Saudi oil facilities. Brent crude futures were up $3.40, or 3.2 percent, at $111.33 a barrel by 0958 GMT, adding to a 1.2 percent rise last Friday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $3.65, or 3.5 percent, to $108.35, extending a 1.7 percent jump last Friday. Prices moved higher ahead of talks this week between European Union governments and U.S. President Joe Biden in a series of summits that aim to harden the West’s response to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. EU governments will consider whether to impose an oil embargo on Russia. Early on Monday Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vershchuk, said there was no chance the country’s forces would surrender in the besieged eastern port city of Mariupol. With little sign of the conflict easing, the focus returned to whether the market would be able to replace Russian barrels hit by sanctions.
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PBC proposes plan for increasing dairy production
Pakistan Business Council (PBC) has proposed a ten-point plan to increase production and value-addition in the dairy sector across all provinces, which would also improve nutrition across the country. According to a study titled ‘Modernizing the Dairy Sector: Making safe milk and its value-added products ubiquitously’, PBC conducted discussions with the stakeholders and secondary research. It said that development of the dairy sector was not just important for the growth of Pakistan’s agricultural economy, but also to ensure that the people of the country were well-nourished. With just 5 percent of the total milk stock being currently processed, there was an opportunity to increase the availability of locally produced dairy products, it said.