Country News
Africa: Chicken meat imports into sub-Saharan Africa tripled between 2004 and 2014. Development groups have wanted Africans to use indigenous birds but now the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding the breeds with faster growing genetics that will enable more domestic production. The second issue to tackle is the concurrent increase in relatively high cost feed, $25 for a 110-pound bag. (BBC News)
Argentina: Ethanol production, up 6 percent in first half 2016, will be sold to refiners at $0.87/liter for alcohol derived from sugarcane and $0.82/liter if derived from corn. Those are slight reductions from a month earlier and refiners must blend into gasoline to meet a 12 percent level. (Platts)
Brazil: Despite protests from some groups, Secretary of Agribusiness and International Relations Odilson Ribeiro Silva has approved the Chamber of Foreign Trade allowing the importation of up to one million tons of transgenic corn seed. (Telesur)
EU: A second year in a row of poor weather conditions has lowered the estimate of total maize production to 59.7 MMT (11 percent below the five-year average), and it could go lower if more fields are turned to fodder. At 59.6 MMT, barley production will be similar to last year and 2 percent above the five-year average. Feed wheat will be used to help meet the 174.8 MMT projected demand for animal feed in 2016/17. (EU Short-term Outlook for Arable Crops)
India: The Cabinet is looking at cutting the price of ethanol in an effort to get oil marketing companies to buy supplies from sugar mills earlier rather than later. India’s blend mandate, which has been in place for 13 years, left the mills with the cost of carrying product last year. (Biofuels Digest)