China’s April coal output falls
China’s coal production in April fell to its lowest level since Oct 2022, statistics bureau data and Reuters records showed on Friday, as continuing mine safety inspections curbed output. Output was 371.67 million metric tons last month, down 2.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That was also down 7 percent from March. Lower output from China’s coking coal hub of Shanxi weighed on output after the local government ordered a series of safety checks during March-May following an uptick in deadly accidents, and told miners to curb excess production. The province mined 29 percent of China’s coal last year.
Pakistan’s rice-water dilemma
Pakistan is grappling with a dilemma. While striving to boost its rice exports to alleviate the country’s current account deficit, it faces the challenge of dwindling water resources needed to sustain the continuously increasing area of the highly water-intensive rice crop.
From FY12 to FY24, rice area has expanded from 2.57 million hectares to 3.62m hectares — reflecting a substantial growth of 40 percent. During the same period, total rice production surged by 46pc, from 6.2m tonnes to 9m tonnes (provisional estimates of the United States Department of Agriculture for 2023-24).
In fact, the actual rice acreage is even greater than what government statistics report for the Kharif crop, as they don’t account for a recent trend in some districts where farmers are planting two rice crops from mid-April to mid-November — within a single Kharif season — under wheat-rice-rice, potato-rice-rice, and other cropping systems.
New Zealand milk production forecast to fall
New Zealand fluid milk production is forecasted to be 21.2 million metric tons (MMT) in the 2024 market year, according to a recent US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report.
This is a decrease on the previous 5-year average of ~21.6 MMT, reflecting the decreasing herd numbers and the short-term effects of the following: El NinÞo weather pattern, softening revenue, high cost of debt servicing, and challenging feed and fertiliser prices.
Notably, New Zealand milk processing companies have strategically redirected their investments in recent years. They have shifted their processing capabilities from drying milk powder to more fresh products such as butter, cheeses, and creams.
OGDC sees significant boost in oil production
Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) has registered a significant increase in oil production from Nashpa Well-10 in Nashpa Development and Production Lease (D&PL), located in Karak District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The exploration and production (E&P) company shared the details of its production enhancement via notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday.
“Referring to our previously disclosed information dated September 13, 2023, regarding production enhancement at Nashpa Well-10 through Rigless interventions in the Hangu- Lumshiwal formation, it was reported that the Well’s production had been elevated to 1,340 barrels per day (bpd) of oil.
Low production, prices hit North Bengal tea plantations
Tea Planters Associations have written to the state government urging MNREGA jobs in tea gardens. They have requested a subsidy on electric bills also. More than 300 tea plantations from Darjeeling to Alipurduar are currently facing unprecedented challenges and are on the verge of collapse. First flush production is very low in tea gardens due to weather vagaries. Along with low production this year, the price of tea at the Calcutta auction has been unprecedentedly low. Tea was sold at an average price of just Rs 261 per kilogram in the Calcutta auction in the second week of May. Sandeep Singhania and Sanjay Dalmia sent a letter to Labour minister Malay Ghatak on behalf of the Tea Owners’ Association requesting the government to address the crisis in the tea industry. They have requested a subsidy on electricity bills also. Additionally, tea planters have requested that MGNREGA work be provided to tea plantation workers.
Olive oil production rises
Estimates about olive oil production in Greece are optimistic this year, although safer conclusions will be available in about a month’s time.
“At the moment we are in the flowering period and after about a month they will be bearing fruit. All this under the condition that everything will develop normally,” the president of the National Interprofessional Olive Oil Organization, Manolis Giannoulis, told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.
However, although no firm conclusions can be drawn yet, there is a feeling that the harvest will be higher than last year’s, which according to estimates reached between 130,000-150,000 tons, a record low. In the last month, there has also been a de-escalation in producer prices, which has not yet reached the final consumer.
India likely to set 340 mn tonnes of foodgrains output target in 2024-25
The Indian Government is likely to set the foodgrains production target at over 340 million tonnes (mt), including 136 mt of rice and 115 mt of wheat during the 2024-25 crop year (July-June). The targeted production of maize may be set at nearly 39 mt.
China’s natural gas production increased by 5pc
China’s natural gas production went up by 5 percent during the first four months of the year to 83 billion cubic meters, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics reported.
In April alone, output rose by 3.2 percent to 19.8 billion cubic meters, the statistics service also said.
Imports of natural gas, meanwhile, increased by even more, at 20.7 percent on the year to 43 million tons. Earlier this week a PetroChina executive predicted that China’s LNG imports alone could break last year’s record in 2024, rising by between 9 and 12 percent from 2023’s 71.2 million metric tons.