Indonesia plans record rice importsWidespread rice crop failure in Indonesia because of El Nino-induced drought would stretch the country's distribution system to handle record imports, an Australian academic said last week. This year, Indonesia was committed to import the greatest amount of rice in any single year since independence, Jim Fox of the Australian National University's (ANU) Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies told an ANU conference on El Nino. Fox has just returned from Indonesia where he conducted a study for the World Bank on the effects of the El Nino-induced drought on crop production. Fox would not disclose his assessment of how far Indonesia's rice production will fall but said a report would be made public soon. But he left no doubt that the crop will be savaged by the drought. "Ports will be flooded with rice," he said.
Taiwan group buys Argentine corn
Taiwan's Major League Feed Group bought two 54,000-tonne shipments of Argentine corn at a tender lastweek, with low prices replacing anger over the US farm policy as the deciding factor, traders said.
Traders said the Major League considered both Argentine and US corn, a shift from its recent private-sector boycott of US grain to put pressure on US-Taiwan trade talks. The boycott aims to marshal US grain exporters' opposition to the US meat exporters' pressure on Taiwan to slash tariffs on pork and chicken, a key point of friction in the talks over Taiwan's bid to enter the World Trade Organisation. The sides completed the talks last week with a sweeping pact that granted US pork and chicken's immediate access to the Taiwan.
Thai sugar premium to rule steady
Sugar supplies swelled by European output and weak demand in Asia were likely to keep premiums for raw Thai sugar steady, traders said last week. "The outlook is still negative because of the huge EC surplus and not enough offtake," a trader said. CSCE world sugar futures fell to new four-year lows in New York on Tuesday before recovering toend little changed. The March sugar contract ended down 0.09 cent at 9.73 cents per pound. Indonesia has contracted for sugar through April, but the country's buying plans beyond that will not become clear until after the presidential election in March. Indonesia's worst economic crisis in decades has resulted in a 70 per cent drop in the value of the currency, the rupiah, since last July. "If confidence improves and the rupiah stabilises, may be the government will come in and buy more sugar because they will need more food," one trader said.
Malaysian sugar imports in 1998
Malaysia expects to import around one million tonnes of raw sugar in 1998, about the same as last year, despite a campaign by health authorities to halve consumption. "We can still import the same amount but excess sugar processed by our refiners can be exported," domestic trade and consumer affairs minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob said last week. He said Malaysia imported 1.08 million tonnes of raw sugar last year. Officials ofhis ministry said about 10 per cent of the volume, in refined sugar form, was exported after feeding the local market. Import of raw sugar this year was expected to be about a million tonnes but still depended on the demand of consumers, Megat Junid said. Health Minister Chua Jui Meng said last month that the government planned to reduce the national intake of sugar to around just 30,000 tonnes monthly from the present 76,000.
Polish sugar industry privatisation
Poland's agriculture ministry has drafted a bill on sugar industry privatisation and the process should be complete by the end of the century, farm Minister Jacek Janiszewski said last week. "We have prepared a law on the privatisation of sugar and will now submit if for inter-ministerial agreements and I hope that this sector will be privatised quickly," Janiszewski told Reuters in an interview. He expected the new process to start next year and, asked when it would be completed, he said: "I think certainly by the end of this century."There have since been various privatisations and strategic investments in the sector but all but a handful of the 78 refineries remain in state hands. Poland's previous government in 1995 created four large sugar holding companies to group the state-owned refineries, as a step towards their future privatisation.
EU wheat exports may fall
The European Union has estimated it may not be able export eight million tonnes of wheat in the 1997-98 season, a European Commission grain official told the EU's cereals advisory committee last week. According to the minutes of the meeting, an official from the EU's grain trade lobby, Coceral believed the potential export situation was seven million tonnes. In the 1996/97 season commercial soft wheat grain exports totalled 9.8 million tonnes. According to the latest EU figures, the bloc has exported 5.7 million tonnes of soft wheat grain up to February 17, against 7.1 million tonnes at the same time last season. Jean-Jacques Vorimore, the chairman of thecommittee, closed the debate, echoing other remarks by grain lobby members calling for an early opening of the EU's 1998-99 export tenders.
AWB wheat pool prices steady
The Australian Wheat Board (AWB) has held most of its 1997-98 wheat pool prices steady with the price for Australian Standard White (ASW) held at A$190.00 a tonne. Overall the market had remained quiet with no major developments over the past two weeks, Ted Laskie, AWB general manager said last week. The pool price for Australian Prime Hard has been increased by A$5.00 a tonne to A$225.00 a tonne.
Turkey to sell record wheat stocks
Turkey's state grain board (TMO) will sell wheat from its record stocks to local flour, pasta and biscuit producers on condition that the final product must be exported, a government resolution said last week. A presidential statement said the Cabinet resolution was approved by president Suleyman Demirel and would take effect after being published in the official gazette. Local sales can beup to 500,000 tonnes of milling and 300,000 tonnes of durum wheat. A senior TMO official said the resolution, rejected twice by the former Islamist-led government, would relieve the TMO's wheat stocks and boost exports of local flour, pasta and biscuit producers, who have been importing wheat for their production.
N Korea faces severe grain shortage
Food rations in North Korea have dwindled to dangerously low levels and the country could run out of grain by April, an aid worker said last week. A lean harvest last year had whittled grain rations to just 150 grammes per person per day, one-third the level a few months ago, said Sten Swedlund, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in North Korea. That meant the country would be totally reliant on international food aid by April, Swedlund said in Beijing after spending three months in North Korea. "The alarming thing about this is that it is happening earlier this year than last year," Swedlund said. It tookNorth Korea until June last year to deplete its food stocks, he said. Foreign food donations have helped North Korea stave off mass starvation after its collectivist agricultural policies proved unable to cope with a series of floods, drought and tidal waves over three years.
Croatian firm to spin off TDZ stake
Croatia's Zagrebacka Banka plans to spin off controlling stake in leading tobacco factory, Tvornica Duhana Zagreb (TDZ). "Zagrebacka Banka's board has reached a decision in principle to sell its majority interest to a strategic partner," the firm said in a message to Reuters. The bank said it had hired investment bank Salomon Smith Barney as consultant but gave no other details. Zagrebacka said after it acquired 53.17 per cent in TDZ last November that it would either float TDZ shares or sell them to a strategic partner. The bank's holding, which looks after its equity interests, has since further increased the stake and now controls 177,875 shares or 54.76 per cent of the tobacco factory.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
