NASA announced a partnership with startup Ucrop.it
Argentina incorporates the yuan as an accepted currency for deposits and bank accounts. According to the Central Bank, it complements the decision of the National Securities Commission to authorize the use of the Chinese currency in securities trading. (BCRA)
Economic activity fell 4.2% in April, compared to the same period of 2022. This is the worst drop since October of 2020, well below the 1.5% decline predicted by analysts. The performance stems from the drop in agricultural production. (INDEC)
NASA announced a partnership with startup Ucrop.it to promote food security and environmental resilience. Ucrop.it is a digital platform that seeks to improve traceability and harvest metrics in Latin America. (NASA; Ucrop.it)
Grain trading company Bunge and the oil company Chevron announced the acquisition of Chacraservicios, that operates in Camelina sativa farming, a vegetable from which oil is extracted to produce renewable diesel. Value of the transaction was not disclosed. Over the past two years, Bunge has partnered with Chevron to crush oilseeds for renewable diesel and with Corteva to adapt crops to be used as raw materials for biofuels. (Bunge; Chacraservicios)
Bolivia lost approximately 3,860 km2 of primary forest in 2022. Large areas were cleared for soybean and cattle farms, mainly in the regions of Santa Cruz and Beni, part of the Bolivian Amazon. “The scenario is not good. The reduction of forests means changes in our microclimate,” said Marlene Quintanilla, director of research at the Friends of Nature Foundation. (FAN; Global Forest Watch)
Granja Faria announced the acquisition of the shareholding of Katayama Alimentos. This depends on the approval of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense. The acquisition should increase net revenue by 13%. The egg producer’s total revenue reached US$ 84.99 million in the 1Q and is expected to reach U$ 600 million in 2023. The transaction is the largest ever carried out by the company. In this way, the company will hold 10% of the Brazilian egg market. (Granja Faria)
Zilor Energia e Alimentos, with net revenue of US$ 700 million, had the best financial result in the company’s history, referring to the 2022/23 harvest, that was marked by the best prices and volumes of sugar. The company ended the 2022/23 harvest with a crushing of 10.5 million tonnes of sugarcane, 7% above the previous cycle. (Zilor Energia e Alimentos)
Federation of Rice Farmer Associations of Rio Grande do Sul submitted a request to the federal government for “socio-environmental anti-dumping” measures against rice imports from countries that do not comply with the same social, environmental and health rules as Brazilian farmers. (Federarroz)
Domestic cotton lint prices dropped 12.5% in June. Prices went back to the levels observed in October of 2020. (Cepea)
BrasilAgro sold 4,408 hectares of Fazenda Jatobá, in the city of Jaborandi, State of Bahia, for US$ 25.11 million. (BrasilAgro)
Frutura, an US multinational in the fruit market, should acquire Giddings Fruit for US$ 240 million to US$ 260 million. This will be the company’s second acquisition in Chile. (Frutura)
Ministry of Agriculture instructed ports to deny import licenses for poultry goods after June 1st, because of concerns related to avian flu. Therefore, the US stopped exporting US$ 1.1 million to Colombia between June 3rd and 8th. USDA and the Office of the United States Trade Representative managed to reverse the ban after June 8th. Tyson Foods, PriceSmart and McDonald’s were some of the companies affected, along with large Colombian importers such as Nestlé. (USDA; USTR)
FAO presented Colombia’s food insecurity indexes for 2022. According to the report, 28.1% of households were in a situation of food insecurity. For every 100 households, 28 had to reduce the quality and quantity of food consumed at least once. (FAO)
Corn harvest is estimated at 28.5 million tonnes for 2023, 2 million more than in 2022. The government attributed the increase to its free fertilizer program for small farmers. (Department of Agriculture)
Cotton farming in the Chaco region attracts investors from Argentina. 45 thousand hectares were planted in 2023, compared to 18 thousand hectares in the previous year. By 2024, it is estimated that 100,000 hectares will be cultivated. “The crop that will move the trucks, harvesters, tractors and employees the most will be cotton”, according to Marcos Kain, director of the Agricultural Management Service – SGA. Kain said that every month the SGA receives up to 10 investors from Argentina, who intend to invest in Paraguay, especially in the Chaco. (SGA)
After 17 explosions, Peru declared a state of emergency because of the activity of the Ubinas volcano. Researchers warned that the highly toxic ash will have serious impacts on agriculture, livestock and in the environment. The National Meteorological and Hydrological Service has warned that winds from the east and northwest will promote ash dispersion, affecting the Arequipa region. (Senamhi; Ingemmet)
The reservoir of the metropolitan region of Montevideo is almost without water because of the drought. Half of the country’s population lives in the region. “The drought that Uruguay is facing is totally exceptional… We’ve never had so little rain,” says biologist and researcher at the Universidad de la República, Mariana Meerhoff. “About 80% of fresh water goes to agriculture and to the forestry industry. We therefore have a very important consumption of water by activities that are not for human consumption”, according to Meefhoff. The environmental organization Amigos de la Tierra points out that pulp mills, rice cultivation companies and soybean farmers “use enormous amounts of water without having to pay anything for it”. (Amigos de la Tierra; University of the Republic)
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