Indonesian palm oil ban may be lifted: Indonesian government will lift a ban on palm oil exports as required under a schedule of reforms agreed with the IMF, a senior official affirmed in reports last week. "The export limitation will be lifted according to schedule. There is no doubt at all. The government will be consistent with the reform program," Indonesian trade and industry minister Mohamad Hasan said according to Media Indonesia. "This message is very clear," he said in the daily. Hasan had been reported by the local press Tuesday as saying that the government would not lift the ban until the supply and prices of cooking oil, which counts crude palm oil as its main ingredient, had stabilised at home. Hasan's earlier statement had led to confusion among palm oil producers and exporters at home as well as warnings from the IMF urging Indonesia not to backtrack on its promised reforms.

Iranian province to hike wheat output: Iran's northeastern Golestan provinceis expected to produce 600,000 tonnes of wheat in the current Iranian year after a 12 per cent rise in cultivated area, the official news agency IRNA reported last week. "The nation can count on some 600,000 tonnes of wheat from the agriculturally rich Golestan province during the current Iranian year," IRNA said. The year started on March 21. The agency quoted the head of the provincial agriculture department Ismail Esfandiari-Pour as saying some 220,000 hectares of land would be under wheat this year, a 12 per cent increase over the previous year's 196,000 hectares. The province produced 530,000 tonnes of the grain in the last Iranian year, making it the fourth largest wheat-producing province, IRNA added.

French cauliflower farmers end stir: French cauliflower farmers called off their protest against the falling produce prices temporarily. But regional farm leaders said their movement remained alive and would take new action in the days to come if their demands for additional state subsidies werenot met. Groups of farmers had begun standing in front of trains last week along the key Brittany line linking Paris. Cauliflower accounts for about half of all commercial vegetable production in Brittany, and Merret estimated that falling prices due to overproduction had led to losses of 30 million francs ($4.9 million) by area farmers during the first quarter of 1998.

Kikkoman sees robust growth: Kikkoman Corp, the world's top-selling soy sauce maker, expects the bulk of its profits to continue to come from overseas operations as growth in the domestic market remains stagnant. "Profits from our overseas operations will be larger than those at home for a while," Kikkoman president, Yusaburo Mogi, told Reuters. He did not specify a time span. The company sees potential for growth in the United States, where it will aim to increase sales by an annual average of five to six per cent. Kikkoman's second US soya sauce factory, which is in California, and has a capacity of 10,000 kilolitres (kl) per year,is due to start production in the latter half of this year. Production of Kikkoman soy sauce in Europe started last October. Mogi also said the company would consider building a production facility in China in the future, in light of the country's huge potential demand for Kikkoman products.

Wheat output seen up in Europe: World's cereal output in 1998-99 is expected to fall by 0.7 per cent to 1.895 billion metric tons, down from a record 1.908 billion tons in 1997-98, the Rome-based United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said last week in its April Food Outlook. Although this level of output is sufficient to meet world demand, global stocks will remain below the minimum safe levels required for world food security, the FAO said. It also warned that the forecast 1998 cereal production could fall due to a deterioration in growing conditions, particularly in the southern hemisphere where weather continues to be affected by the unpredictable El Nino weather pattern. World wheat production in1998-99 seen at 595 million tonnes, down 3% on the 613 million tonnes produced in 1997-98. Output is seen rising in Africa and Europe although this is more than offset by production declines in Asia, North America and the CIS. In Australia and Argentina, the two largest wheat producers in the southern hemisphere, sowing for the 1998-99 crop has yet to begin. However, early indications suggest that farmers will switch away from wheat in favour of planting other grains, the FAO said.

Grains, soya up on weather forecasts: Grain and soybean futures prices rose sharply last week on the Chicago Board of Trade, buoyed by weather forecasts that could hurt crops in US and overseas. Corn futures advanced after the national weather service predicted rain would continue in midwest growing regions over the next six to 10 days, further delaying planting. Persistent rains over the past few weeks in major growing regions have significantly narrowed the window of opportunity for planting. And each day crops are notput into the ground, the more vulnerable they are to high heat in the late summer. The weather could help reduce what is expected to be bumper production following record acreage planting. Wheat futures were underpinned by forecasts for cold weather this weekend in winter wheat-growing regions, which could damage crops. Soybeans rose on the strength in the other markets also.

Vietnam sugar industry under strain: Vietnam's sugar industry is under serious financial strain because processing plants are running at 50 per cent capacity amid a shortage of raw material, deputy minister of agriculture and rural development, Nguyen Thien Luan told a local newspaper. He said the industry faced costs of 800 billion dong ($61.6 million) alone from machinery depreciation and interest on bank loans. Luan said the figures covered last year's sugar cane crop, which was planted around the second quarter and harvested between November and December. Processing runs until June or July. He gave no revenue figures for theindustry, but with plants only operating at half capacity sales are likely to be down. "At present, the pressing capacity of all plants is eight million tonnes, but they can buy only 4.2 million tonnes of raw material," Luan said. Government officials have said Vietnam may import 60,000-70,000 tonnes of cane to take up part of the shortfall. Luan blamed poor management and agriculture departments for the problems.

Norscan pulp stocks down: Inventories of pulp held by producers in Scandinavia and North America at the end of March 1998 were 275,000 metric tonnes lower than at the end of February, Bernt Stenberg, head of forestry research and consultant Momentum said last week. ``The fall is quite dramatic and we are only missing data from Norway and they will probably also show a decline in stocks,' he told Dow Jones. The decline now means that stocks are at around 1.55 million metric tons. Pulp stocks were down around 40,000 tons in Sweden, around 112,000 tons in the US about 103,000 in Canada and byaround 23,000 tonnes in Finland.

(Reuters and Dow Jones)