Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, Secretary of Agriculture Dale Rodman and beef producers from across the state are traveling to Russia and Kazakhstan Oct. 6 to17 to promote agriculture trade with those countries.

“Agriculture is our state’s largest industry and a cornerstone of the Kansas economy,” Brownback said. “I’m looking forward to this opportunity to further expand what the Kansas cattle industry has to offer beyond our state and national borders.”

Steve Irsik of Irsik Equities in Garden City, Mark Brunner of Cow Camp Ranch in Ramona and Thad Geiger of Geiger Farms in Troy are the beef producers traveling to Russia and Kazakhstan to market Kansas purebred beef cattle on behalf of Kansas ranchers. Irsik, Brunner and Geiger, along with counterparts from Colorado and Montana, were selected to travel on a 12-day mission led jointly by the Kansas, Colorado and Montana Departments of Agriculture.

To read the entire article, visit: the High Plains Journal online>>

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the Senate floor, Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, called on President Obama to send the pending trade agreements with Korea, Panama and Columbia to the Senate for a vote, saying their inaction is hurting the economy and thousands of Kansas jobs.

“The administration’s prolonged delay is causing U.S. businesses and producers to lose out,” said Roberts. “Other countries are not waiting for the U.S. to get into the game. They are enacting trade agreements without the United States. It is not without consequences. For the folks on the farm, export markets are critical to their bottom line.”

The various trade agreements have been on the president’s desk since he took office in January 2009. It’s been 1,538 days since negotiations have been completed with the Korean trade agreement, 1,540 days with Panama, and 1,758 days since negotiations have been completed with Columbia.

From the Ag perspective, the three pending trade agreements represent $2.5 billion upon full implementation. Approximately one-third of Kansas crop production is exported. For wheat, that number jumps up to one-half. The Kansas Farm Bureau estimates that Kansas farmers stand to lose $21 million from lost wheat sales alone and $38 million from lost sales of all Ag exports by just doing nothing on the trade agreement. They also estimate that the three agreements in total are expected to increase direct exports by $129.5 million dollars for Kansas Ag producers and an additional 1,150 jobs.

Collectively, the pending trade agreements add up to $13 billion in additional exports and an estimated 250,000 jobs. As a major player in the aviation sector, Kansas exported $2.7 billion in transportation equipment last year alone.

“As the aviation capital of the world, Wichita’s aviation companies and 140,000 workers have much to lose in trying to compete against the EU,” said Roberts. “The bottom line is U.S. companies must be able to compete in foreign markets to survive and grow. It’s time for the president to put some action behind his words and send up the three trade agreements to Congress immediately.”

The floor speech was part of a colloquy with Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), and Sen. Johnny Isaakson (R-Ga.) about the consequences of the inaction on the trade agreements.

Source: PoliticalNews.me

With food prices remaining stubbornly high near record levels, price swings and volatility have come to constitute a new normal in the commodities complex.  While pass-through to consumers is slow, this will put renewed pressure on producers, leveraged in terms of efficiency, and and will put the world’s poor at risk as small disruptions, such as bad weather, can throw off crop counts and send prices even higher.

Speaking at the Bloomberg Link Inflation Conference, portfolio managers Lincoln Ellis of Linn Group and Jennifer Fan of Arrowhawk Capital, along with MIT Professor Roberto Rigobon, made the case for a new normal in the commodities complex, particularly as it relates to food and agricultural products.

Global food prices surged toward the end of 2010, pushing 44 million people into poverty, according to the World Bank.  Prices have remained stubbornly high through 2011, as the UN’s FAO Price Index shows.  Released Thursday, the latest data show the index just shy of the all-time high mark hit back in February, 26% above its measure a year ago. (Read On The Verge Of A Global Food Crisis).

As the global population continues to grow, farmers and ranchers will face heightened pressure and relentless volatility as they produce food to feed the world.  Fan explained that “agriculture as it is today is in a highly leveraged state” as “we grow more food to feed more people on an increasingly shrinking acreage.”  As genetically modified seeds and fertilizers allow farmers to grow an increasing number of plants per acre, concentration increases the risk of disruption.

Volatility is here to stay, all three experts agree, because a simple weather event can cause substantial damage.  Fan cited the case of strong rains in the port of Santos in Brazil, causing sugar shipments to be delayed and sending sugar to multi-month highs in July.

The price of sugar illustrates how volatility has played out in global food markets.  The FAO’s sugar index jumped from 263 to 420 from August 2010 to January 2011, up 60% in a few months.  It fell to 312 by May and then jumped right back to 400 by July, down 26% then up 28% in a few months.  A true roller coaster ride.

Professor Rigobon furthered the point, noting volatility was a consequence of a “de-synchronization between the forces of supply and demand.”  As the global economy struggles to grow, and supply shocks hit prices, demand will be highly responsive too. (Read Why World Food Prices Will Keep Climbing).

Interestingly, though, price volatility isn’t really being passed on to consumers, Rigobon explained.  “Pass through has been extraordinarily slow,” noted the economist, who added “while the price of coffee may shoot up to infinity, a can of coffee in your supermarket of choice costs 2 to 5 cents more.”  But Rigobon accepts pass through is much quicker in developing countries, where food consumes  a greater, and very substantial, portion of disposable income.  “In Brazil,” he said, “the price of bread fluctuates much quicker than in the U.S.”

Ellis complements Rigobon‘s argument explaining that in a two-speed world, where dynamics for advanced and developing economies differ drastically, “we are seeing huge amounts of inflation being passed on to consumers in the emerging world.”  The key is wage growth.  With wages in advanced economies stagnating, retailers can’t afford the luxury to play with the price of inelastic goods like food, while in regions of fast wage growth, retailers adjust prices much more readily, as opposed to digesting the hit via lower margins. (Read China As America’s Banker, America As China’s Farmer: Malthus Was Right).

Along with price volatility, the global economy will have to get used to higher prices.  “There are long-term structural dynamics that will continue to support prices going forward, explained Ellis, “we are at a time in the commodities complex where it won’t necessarily be the case that high prices cure high prices.”

Ellis told investors they would be “well positioned by having exposure to this space,” and suggested buying seed companies and larger agro-business companies.

By 2050, the world will need 70% more food, the World Bank believes.  With almost 1 billion undernourished people in the world, land degradation, and climate change, fundamentals appear to be in place to support food prices for the long run.  That’s bullish for producers.

Source: Forbes Online>>

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) — BASF SE, the world’s largest chemicals company, is poised to sell most of its nitrogen fertilizer assets to Yara International ASA, two people with knowledge of the situation said.

Talks are advancing and an initial agreement may be reached by the end of September, said one of the people, who declined to be named because the sale process is private. While Yara is the front runner, Orascom Construction Industries of Egypt is also a suitor, the people said.

The sale includes a nitrogen site in Antwerp, Belgium, and a share of a venture in France. The assets generate about 500 million euros ($702 million) in annual sales. BASF, based in Ludwigshafen, Germany, put the bulk of its fertilizer assets up for sale in February as it shifts its focus to less cyclical products. The assets for sale are profitable, BASF has said.

BASF spokesman Michael Grabicki said the company doesn’t comment on speculation, as did Yara spokesman Esben Tuman. The Oslo, Norway-based company has said that it submitted a bid.

The fertilizer industry is consolidating as rising food prices spur farmers to plant more crops, boosting demand for soil nutrients. Yara’s fertilizer deliveries were up 4 percent in the second quarter, led by urea sales. Margins improved for all its main product groups, with the strongest increase for NPK, or nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and nitrates.

K+S Impact

The sale will have a knock-on effect on K+S AG, which has a marketing agreement with BASF for nitrogen fertilizer extending through 2014. All options for the distribution arm are being considered, Michael Wudonig, a spokesman for K+S, said by phone.

“We’re on the sidelines, waiting for the outcome of the BASF process,” Wudonig said.

BASF will retain fertilizer assets at its headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Yara is also competing for the remaining stake of Burrup Fertilisers Pty, an Australian ammonia producer under receivership. The company, which owns 35 percent of Burrup’s parent, Burrup Holdings Ltd., wants to take full ownership.

For Orascom, the assets would be a chance to build on its acquisition of similar fertilizer assets from Royal DSM NV last year.

–With assistance from Meera Bhatia in Oslo and Sheenagh Matthews in Frankfurt. Editors: Benedikt Kammel, Tim Quinson

To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Noel in London at anoel@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Comfort in Frankfurt at ncomfort1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net

source:  businessweek.com

UN executive Brice Lalonde says pinpointing one key area will focus minds and boost progress on other development goals

The Rio+20 global development summit co-ordinator is pushing for a tight focus on agriculture in an attempt to inject new energy into the landmark event, the Guardian has learned.

Such a departure from UN tradition could be controversial, but Brice Lalonde, the UN’s co-ordinator for the meeting, argues it would be more effective than the traditional laundry list of aspirations in pushing countries to meet clearly defined goals.

Agriculture is a dominant concern in a year of famine and rising global food prices, and Lalonde believes focusing on the subject would help concentrate minds on the summit. He also argues it is impossible to work on agriculture in isolation; countries would, by default, have to make progress on other development goals.

“My personal view is to concentrate on one major, overarching topic,” Lalonde said. “When you work on agriculture, you can do it with all the goals associated with it: land use, biodiversity, women’s empowerment, energy and water.”

In Washington, as in other world capitals, officials are now beginning to think ahead to the Rio summit, which will be held in June next year.

The summit organisers have settled on a slogan: “The future we want.” They held their first real meeting in Rio last week, and countries are due to submit their proposals for the conference by 1 November. The Brookings Institution had its first discussion on Rio+20 this week.

To read the entire article, visit: guardian.co.uk>>

State lashes back at institutionals for slackness, ignoring bad signs.

Agrexco may become history today: The court is expected to rule on the company’s liquidation after bondholders rejected a creditors’ arrangement proposed by trustee manager Shlomo Nass. Meanwhile, the produce export company’s workers will be demonstrating outside the home of Agriculture Minister Orit Noked today to protest the state’s refusal to help anymore. Another demonstration is planned at the Agrexco pier at Ashdod Port.

The state has abandoned its responsibility for the company and its 470 workers, the latter claim. Union chief Shaul Tzivoni accused Noked of sticking her head into the sand despite repeated pleas from the company’s workers and her own staff to save Agrexco. “We still expect you to do everything in your power to prevent the destruction of Israel’s agricultural export industry,” Tzivoni said in a public address to the minister. Noked’s office did not comment for this report.

To read the entire article, visit: Haaretz.com | By Amiram Cohen

HAINES CITY | Brazil’s booming economy makes it an up-and-coming player in the global marketplace, but its citrus industry is being left behind.

The changing global economy is making Florida citrus more competitive with its longtime rival, said Tom Spreen, an agricultural economist at the University of Florida in Gainesville and an authority on the global citrus industry.

“They’re getting to a cost structure that’s more and more like ours,” Spreen said.

Among the factors closing the cost gap Brazil previously enjoyed against its Florida competitors are the rising strength of the Real, Brazil’s currency, which makes its exports more expensive; the higher cost of labor, also fueled by a booming economy; and the rising cost of Brazilian farmland, particularly in competition with sugar, another major crop increasingly used to produce ethanol.

Both countries share in the fight against citrus greening and citrus canker, two bacterial diseases that diminish fruit production.

But Brazil’s list of disease threats also includes two viral diseases called citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC) and citrus leprosis; and a still-mysterious disease with the ominous name “sudden death.”

Brazil became the world’s largest orange grower and OJ processor in the 1980s, when Florida was recovering from the devastating impact of three major and several minor freezes. In recent years, Brazil has accounted for a little more than half the global OJ production while Florida furnished about 30 percent.

But Florida OJ is sold almost entirely in the U.S. and Canada while Brazil built its citrus industry, based in the state of Sao Paulo, entirely on OJ exports. Brazil exports some OJ to the U.S. and Asia, but it ships more than 70 percent of its production to Europe. Domestic OJ consumption in Brazil is minimal.

For the past three decades, a weak Brazilian Real played to its juice processors’ advantage, the same advantage that Chinese manufacturers now enjoy for its U.S. exports. Brazil prices and sells its orange juice exports in U.S. dollars, the default global currency, because the Real is not yet widely accepted in international trade, Spreen said.

In the past five years, however, the Brazilian economic surge has turned the dollar-Real exchange increasingly against Brazilian processors, Spreen said at the recent Citrus Expo in Fort Myers.

For every U.S. dollar Brazilian processors currently earn from exports, they get 1.6 Reals, he said. As recently as 2009, they got 22 percent more, or 1.95 Reals, and in 2005 they received 2.35 Reals per dollar, 47 percent more.

“When they (Brazilian processors) look at orange juice, they’ve been seeing declining prices,” Spreen said “Brazil is losing its competitive advantage because of the currency exchange.”

At the same time, as Brazil’s nonagricultural sectors grow and the nation becomes more prosperous, domestic wages are rising, he said.

In recent years, Brazilian growers have adopted a strategy of “running away” from devastating diseases such as greening and CVC, said Tom Stopyra, a crop adviser with the Packers of Indian River Ltd., a Fort Pierce grower and packinghouse.

Stopyra is fluent in Portugese, the Brazilian language, after living there for many years, and he visits annually to talk with citrus industry people.

“I know some guys who used to be citrus growers and have leased their land to sugar cane,” Stopyra said after his recent visit.

Sugar cane has become the biggest competitor for farm land in Brazil because that country is far ahead of U.S. in the production of crop-based ethanol, both Spreen and Stopyra said. The resulting scramble for new farmland has pushed land prices to record levels.

Sugar-based ethanol production increased from a little more than 10 billion liters in 2000 to 25 billion last year, said Spreen, citing U.S. Department of Agriculture figures. During that time, sugar cane production rose from about 250 million tons to nearly 600 million tons.

“There’s been a rural land boom,” Spreen said. “The price on land has really shot up.”

Spreen said a Brazilian economist told him a person would have made more money buying and selling land in Sao Paulo in the past decade than growing citrus.

Florida growers don’t have a run-away option because the state’s citrus belt is confined to the narrow South Florida peninsula, Spreen said.

Neither do they have a profitable alternative crop like sugar cane, Stopyra added.

Brazilian production will continue to play a major role on the global citrus market, Spreen said, but its competitive decline relative to Florida could continue to advantage this state’s growers.

Last year, Brazilian orange growers struggled through a drought, dropping its orange crop to the lowest in 20 years, according to Spreen’s figures. Brazilian orange juice production dropped 13.6 percent in 2010-11 from the previous season, leading to a 38 percent decline in Brazilian OJ exports to the U.S. through May.

The Brazilian shortage helped send farm prices for Florida oranges in 2010-11 near record highs, despite a slightly larger crop than the previous season, Spreen said.

The USDA has forecast Sao Paulo’s 2011-12 crop will rebound to 390 million boxes, up 43 percent from the previous season. Based on that forecast, Spreen projected the country’s processors will produce slightly more than 2 billion OJ gallons, up 31 percent from a year earlier.

Spreen also projected Florida growers would produce 143.5 million boxes of oranges, in line with recently released early-season estimates, and processors will squeeze that into 854.7 million OJ gallons.

That translates to a 4.8 percent increase in OJ production in Florida and Brazil combined, Spreen said, but a large chunk of next season’s production will go to replenishing “exceedingly low” OJ inventories in both countries.

After adding to inventories, the additional amount of OJ that goes on the market for sale would be more like 1 percent to 2 percent, Spreen estimated.

And both Spreen and Stopyra, along with many other Florida citrus people, expressed skepticism about Brazil’s projected 43 percent crop increase based on the past track record of the country’s early season estimates.

Even if the 390 million-box estimate were true, Stopyra said, he estimated the country’s current processing capacity at only 320 million boxes of oranges.

“It doesn’t matter how much hay you grow, it’s how much you can get into the barn,” he said.

Based on the present Florida and Brazil production estimates, Spreen projected Florida growers can expect an average farm price of $1.50 to $1.60 per pound solids in the coming 2011-12 season. Florida processors, who buy 95 percent of the state’s orange crop, pay growers based on pound solids, a standard industry measure of how much juice is squeezed from the fruit.

That would be a decline ranging just 4 percent to 10 percent from last season’s very profitable farm prices, Spreen said.

“Ten percent is certainly at the high end” of a fall off in 2011-12 farm prices, he said. “If orange production is lower than current projections, there could be very little price change.”

source:   theledger.com

The Department of Horticulture today organized an awareness camp at Palmar to educate the local farmers about the latest techniques in fruit growing and the scope in the market . A large number of farmers of Palmar and adjoining villages attended the camp which was held under the supervision of   District Horticulture Officer, Manzoor Ahmed Mir. Functionaries form    agriculture, animal husbandry, sheep husbandry and local Sarpanchs Mohd Abdullah and Manoj Kumar were also present at the camp.More than 100 farmers/fruit growers of Palmar   participated in the awareness camp who were educated about various   schemes presently under implementation in the district. They were made aware about the incentives available under different components in various centrally sponsored schemes. Farmers were advised to adopt horticulture activities in a professional way to get better returns. The farmers put forth various queries about horticulture activities which were addressed on the spot by the Departmental Experts.

source:   dailykashmirimages.com

Thousands of papaya trees were chopped down on 10 acres of Big Island farmland under the cover of night last month. Hawaii County police said the destruction appeared to be done with a machete, but there are no leads and few clues beyond the tree stumps and all the fruit left to rot.

“It’s hard to imagine anybody putting that much effort into doing something like that,” said Delan Perry, vice president of the Hawaii Papaya Industry Association. “It means somebody has to have passionate reason.”

A growing theory among farmers is that the attack was an act of eco-terrorism, a violent protest against the biotechnology used in growing papayas here. Police did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The majority of papayas grown on 170 farms on Oahu and the Big Island are genetically modified.

University of Hawaii scientists developed the genetically modified fruit that’s resistant to a ring spot virus that wiped out production on Oahu in the 1950s and was detected in the Puna district on the Big Island in the 1990s. Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are crops whose genetic makeup has been altered to give the plant a desirable trait. The genetically modified fruit is credited with saving Hawaii’s $11 million papaya production industry.

“We wouldn’t have a papaya industry today if it weren’t for the transgenic papaya,” said Alicia Maluafiti, executive director of the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, which represents the seed industry and protects biotech crop growers. “Without a transgenic papaya restricting the expansion of the virus, that virus would be prevalent today.”

Restricting the virus has also allowed for organic papayas to be grown, she said.

Without the transgenic papaya, the Vitamin C-laden fruit would cost a lot more to enjoy, said Richard Manshardt, a tropical fruit breeder and geneticist at the University of Hawaii who was on the team that developed the genetically modified fruit.

Kevin Richards, director of regulatory relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation, said he knows of no other crop that relies on biotechnology to save it from disease. Commodity crops such as cotton, soy and corn commonly use genetic engineering in order to make them easier and cheaper to grow.

“Papaya would be unique in the sense where the industry in Hawaii is dependent on biotech,” said Richards. “What you have in Hawaii is a very contained, isolated agro-eco system, which is vulnerable to diseases.”

He cited international examples of eco-terrorism: activists who took weed-whackers to test crops of drought-resistant wheat in Australia and test plots of biotech eggplants destroyed in the Philippines.

Hawaii’s papayas are held up as an example of how biotechnology can improve access to crops, Richards said.

That’s especially important in parts of the world with a limited food supply, Manshardt said, adding that genetic engineering could be used to protect cassava crops with severe virus problems in Africa and Latin America.

Hawaii farmers had no choice but to grow GMO papayas in order to survive, said Perry, whose organization has raised a $10,000 reward for information on the crop destruction. “Papaya is the No. 1 fruit eaten in Hawaii,” he said.

One of the affected farmers, Erlinda Bernardo, said fellow papaya growers often worry about retaliation from those who are against GMOs. “Most of the product on the island is genetically modified,” she said. “If not, most of the farmers would suffer, there would be more unemployment.”

Bernardo, her husband and four children are preparing to plant again in another area after 3,000 trees worth $15,000 on five leased acres were destroyed. “We’re afraid to plant in that area, so we’re giving up the lease there,” she said. “When you start all over again, you have to wait a year for the papaya to bear fruit.”

source:   news.smh.com.au

A report issued Wednesday by the Texas Agrilife Extension Service, an agency of the southwestern state, indicates that this year’s drought in Texas is among the worst on record and that agricultural production has fallen because of it. That is bad news for consumers around the world.

More than 90 percent of the state is feeling severe or extreme effects of the drought.  The costs have broken previous records, according to economist David Anderson, who spoke to VOA via Skype from his office at the Texas Agrilife Extension Service at Texas A&M University.

“The effect of the drought so far has been an estimated $5.2 billion through August 1 and that includes both crop losses and livestock losses to date.  That eclipses the old drought record of $4.1 billion in 2006.  So we are more than $1 billion ahead of the old record,” he said.

Anderson says about $2 billion of the losses have been in livestock.  Many ranchers and farmers have sold their cattle herds because water is scarce in some areas and because hay production in the state has fallen so low that they are forced to buy expensive hay from out of state to feed their cattle.

David Anderson says reduced herds caused by this drought will affect beef supplies worldwide for some time to come. “We are a large exporter in terms of beef around the world. Texas is the largest beef producing state [in the United States].  We have the biggest cattle herd of any state in the United States, so one of the effects in the future is that beef is going to be more expensive,” he said.

Texas does not produce a significant amount of the corn grown in the United States, but the 30 percent drop in production here will have an impact on the international market, where Anderson says demand is strong.

Texas is also a wheat-producing state. And Anderson says the concern now is whether rain will arrive in time to save next year’s crop. “A lot of the wheat that is grown in Texas is planted in the fall, and we are really getting close to the time when we need to have rainfall and moisture in the ground to at least be able to plan and then plant the wheat crop that will be harvested next year,” he said.

Drought is not new to Texas. The Lone Star state has suffered through many of them – the longest drought being the dry period that started in 1949 and ended in 1957.  Droughts in more recent years have not lasted as long, but they have been frequent enough to disrupt agricultural production and drive some producers out of business.

But David Anderson says most people engaged in agriculture in this weather-challenged state know the risks and try to deal with them. “It really is a very uncertain climate and uncertain environment. And I think farmers and ranchers understand that and they manage through that. While we do have droughts that happen, you get a good year that gets you through the bad years, essentially,” he said.

Normally, this is the time of year when people living near the Gulf of Mexico coast worry about tropical storms and hurricanes. But this year, parched Texans are hoping one will come soon and bring much needed rain.

source:   voanews.com

Some Christmas tree farmers in Texas are dealing with extremely hot and dry conditions and hoping it’s not already too late to have a happy holiday season.

Nick Wiggins has been growing Christmas trees at plantation pines in Tyler for more than 20 years. But as the oaks, elms, and even the grass around his Christmas trees wither away in the sun, the Christmas trees themselves, so far, are fine.

“They have put out a little tender growth. And if you look at them, they’ve got some nice new tender growth shooting out on them,” Wiggins said. ” And that’s what we would normally be trimming, but they just kind of put out and holding on they’re just kind of hanging in there.”

Forester Jason Ellis with the Texas Forest Service says other types of trees aren’t so lucky. Many are dying.

“You’ve seen up in the canopies of these trees, you’ve seen some limbs that are just kind of drying up and breaking off — that’s the tree kind of cutting off resources to that limb, no longer using it,” Ellis said.

He says Christmas trees are hanging on because they have already made it through their first year.

“The first year is critical,  bar none. And this year’s been so bad that a lot of these folks that have spent that money and planted — they’re just going to have to start over,” Ellis said.

Even though Wiggins Christmas trees are all ready to have gifts underneath them this holiday, one thing is certain.

“Yes, we could definitely use some rain, it’s just miserable, it’s just miserable,” Wiggins said.

Ellis also says that as far as the trees in your backyard go, if they look like they’re struggling, don’t count them dead just yet.

They may just be hibernating early and conserving their resources.

Copyright 2011 KETK via NBC. All rights reserved.

source:  kplctv.com 

Sunsweet Growers Inc. has acquired Function Drinks, a Southern Calfornia-based maker of dietary supplement beverages.

Function’s core products–Urban Detox, Alternate Energy and Light Weight–are sold at retail nationwide.

Sunsweet, which has over a third of the global prune market, also markets specialty dried fruit products and fruit juices, teas and waters available globally. Sunsweet views Function as an innovative, emerging brand that will provide a foundation for building a portfolio of functional beverages, said Tony Gerst, leader of new venture initiatives at Sunsweet.

Function co-founders Dayton Miller, Josh Simon and Alex Hughes will continue to lead the company, and Function will continue to operate on a “fairly” standalone basis, with Sunsweet providing resources where synergies exist, according to Sunsweet.

source:   mediapost.com

A new round of the extreme weather patterns that devastated production of iron ore, coal and agricultural crops such as wheat in Australia, South America and the U.S. in late 2010 could be poised to return this autumn and hit prices in the process, but with less serious consequences overall than last year, weather forecasters told Dow Jones Newswires Monday.