Fox News Channel JUST reported the phrase: "FOOD SHORTAGES COMING"
to America.
Printable View
Fox News Channel JUST reported the phrase: "FOOD SHORTAGES COMING"
to America.
There is no shortage of wild four-legged sources of food in my backyard! :D
Of course, if things get bad enough there could be. I have heard a shortage of game animals was a problem during The Great Depression. Then again, there are a lot more stupid people out there today that have no clue about hunting than there were then.
Food Prices Paving Way for Social Unrest | Print |
Written by Raven Clabough Thursday, 13 January 2011 17:48 0
http://www.thenewamerican.com/images...ices-t.001.jpg
As world food prices continue to approach crisis levels, and global demand continues to increase, one international organization, The World Economic Forum, warns of possible “social and political instability.” In particular, the cost of corn and soybeans has skyrocketed to the highest they’ve been since July 2008, and experts predict the costs will continue to edge upward.
What’s worse is that price gains are expected to impact food costs for consumers and raw material costs for businesses, including ethanol producers and livestock producers.
The Blaze reports:
The Agriculture Department predicted this year’s corn production will fall about 4.9 percent to 12:45 billion bushels. That would leave inventories at the end of the season at about 745 million bushels, compared with 1.7 billion bushels in the previous year. On a global scale, the agency forecast inventories to decline 3 million tons, with more than two-thirds of fall coming in the United States.
Ethanol producers continue to purchase corn after the Obama administration approved the sale of gasoline with 15 percent ethanol, an increased percentage from the current blend. However, trade groups are in the process of challenging that decision by the Obama administration.
The Agriculture Department predicts that soybean production will fall to 3.329 billion bushels, which brings the end of the season inventory down 11 million bushels.
In order to meet the growing need, Telvent DTN analyst John Sanow predicts that farmers would need to plant a large number of acres of spring wheat, corn, soybeans, and cotton to ease situation. In the interim, however, prices will continue to remain high.
The Blaze notes, “In contracts for March delivery, corn added 24 cents to settle at $6.31 a bushel, soybeans gained 58 cents to $14.15 a bushel and wheat rose 11 cents to $7.705.”
Joseph Glauber, chief economist for the United States Department of Agriculture, indicates, “The markets are very, very tight. There is concern, no doubt.”
The impact of the crisis exceeds well past the United States into the rest of the world. The World Economic Forum released this week indicates a rising demand for basic necessities like food, water, and energy.
According to the report, “A growing global population and greater prosperity are putting unsustainable pressures on resources. It also raised the issue of shortages, which could cause social and political instability, geopolitical conflict, and irreparable environmental damage.”
In addition to food, oil prices continue to go up as crude oil supplies decrease.
Growing food prices could have a dangerous social impact on nations, like Tunisia and Algeria, where widespread riots rage over soaring unemployment and soaring sugar, flour, and oil prices. Though the government has since agreed to slash import taxes on those staples, the protests have not dwindled.
Likewise, the United States military has been taking the necessary precautions to prepare for potential economic disaster and social unrest in the United States. In fact, the Pentagon’s Unified Quest 2011 is a training program in which soldiers are prepared for evacuation and detainment as a response to rioting related to economic disaster.
According to a CNBC report:
All different parts of the Pentagon and Defense Intelligence establishment are looking at markets and looking at ways they can present a new kind of threat to the United States.
These are the guys whose job it is to think of the worst possible things that could happen.
Blacklisted News asserts that the Unified Quest 2011 is just one of my indicators that the world is headed towards economic disaster. Other examples include the decentralization of FEMA from a single distribution center in Washington to 15 regional facilities across the nation.
Other global powers are equally preparing for such scenarios, including Russia, which has reportedly been preparing for the development of 5,000 new underground bunkers. Similarly, the European Union has allegedly commissioned the building of a “Doomsday Seed Vault” several hundred feet below sea level.
Gulf News writes, “With food supplies and prices making headlines around the globe for the second time in less than three years, experts are warning of the possibility of social unrest sweeping through poor countries.”
UAE-based economist Mohammad Al Assoomi states, “I can’t say for sure whether [social unrest] will happen. I believe things are moving towards increasing prices, and this could be absorbed by rich countries. But in poor countries, most segments of society won’t be able to handles these increases.”
In Asian countries, for example, food inflation has entered the double digits. Kenya’s government has already had to issue drought and famine alerts.
When asked about the impact of soaring food prices on social stability, Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist at the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) remarked, “We are entering danger territory.”
Perhaps offering some comfort, Abbassian contends that world food prices have still not yet reached the level they did when food riots hit almost 30 countries in the West, like Bangladesh and Haiti.
However, the good index jumped to 214.7 points from the peak recorded in June 2008. Additionally, the FAO reports that the prices of sugar and meat are at their highest since the first recorded levels in 1990. As far as wheat, rice, and corn, prices are sitting at the 2008 crisis levels.
Some nations are calling on the Group of 20 leading economies to take steps to aid the poorer countries and ensure that they are receiving adequate food supplies.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick asserts, “By empowering the poor the G20 can take practical steps towards ensuring the availability of nutritious food.”
Doom And Gloom
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/w...om-250x134.jpg
Have you noticed that most Americans seem to know far more about American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Justin Bieber and their favorite sports teams than they do about world affairs?
Most Americans cannot even find Tunisia and Algeria on a map, and if you told them that food riots are happening in those nations right now most of them would not even care anyway. We have become a very self-centered, self-involved and self-absorbed nation. Quite a few people have accused this column of being obsessed with "doom and gloom", but the truth is that the world really is falling apart out there.
What are we supposed to do? Are we all supposed to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is going to be okay? Should we all not try to warn others so that they can prepare for what is coming?
Until people understand that we are facing absolutely massive problems they are not going to be motivated to take significant action, and hopefully those of us that are proclaiming "doom and gloom" are doing a good enough job of describing what is really going on out there that some people are starting to wake up and actually make changes.
Most Americans may not care, but the food riots that are starting to erupt around the globe are actually very serious.
Do you remember what happened back in the summer of 2008?
That summer, the price of oil spiked to an all-time high of $147 a barrel and that caused a substantial increase in the price of food all over the globe. Suddenly millions of poor people couldn't afford to feed themselves anymore and food riots erupted all over the world.
Well, here we are in 2011 and the price of oil hasn't even reached $100 a barrel, and yet the food riots are already beginning.
Violent food riots are being reported in Tunisia, in Algeria, in Chile and in Mozambique.
In Tunisia, the riots have been so intense that the President of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has been forced to step down and flee for his life.
Yes, that is how serious things are getting already.
Unfortunately, it looks like the global food situation is only going to get even worse.
Australia is a major food producer and right now they are experiencing flooding of Biblical proportions. In fact, it has been reported that at one point the flooding covered an area greater than France and Germany combined.
In Brazil, another major food producer, horrific flooding has killed more than 500 people so far. This flooding is being called the "worst-ever natural disaster" in the history of Brazil.
Meanwhile, record cold temperatures and record snowfalls are playing havoc with winter crops all over the Northern Hemisphere.
But even before all of these weather disasters struck the price of food had been going up significantly. The UN recently announced that the global price of food hit an all-time high during the month of December, and world leaders all over the globe are openly expressing concern about what 2011 is going to bring.
Sadly, the truth is that there has been a trend of rising food prices for quite some time. According to Forbes, corn is up 94% since June, soybeans are up 51% since June, and wheat is up 80% since last June.
As one of my readers recently pointed out to me, it usually takes about six months for the prices of agricultural futures to filter down into the supermarkets. So the very high prices for agricultural commodities that we are seeing right now should really start to be felt around the globe by the middle of 2011.
In addition to everything else, reports continue to come in of thousands of birds and millions of fish suddenly dying all over the globe, and nobody seems to really know what is causing it.
Do you want some more doom and gloom?
*There are reports of "panic buying" of silver and other precious metals right now.
*Investors are bailing out of municipal bonds at an absolutely staggering rate.
*S&P and Moody's have both warned once again that the United States is in danger of having its credit rating slashed if it does not get government debt under control.
*U.S. housing prices have now fallen further during this economic downturn than they did during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Meanwhile, America's economic infrastructure continues to be taken apart piece by piece.
The United States is losing more jobs to China. In fact, the United States is losing more high technology "green jobs" to China.
Evergreen Solar, a company that manufactures solar panels, is closing their factory in Devon, Massachusetts and they are moving their production facilities to China. This is going to result in the loss of 800 good American jobs.
The following is what the company had to say in a statement about the move...."Solar manufacturers in China have received considerable government and financial support and, together with their low manufacturing costs, have become price leaders within the industry."Is it any wonder that a recent survey found that 47 percent of Americans now believe that China is the world's leading economic power while only 31 percent still believe that the United States is the world's leading economic power?
As America continues to lose good jobs, millions of Americans find themselves simply unable to pay the bills. In fact, at this point one out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one government-run anti-poverty program.
As things have fallen apart in the United States, many private citizens have tried to step forward and do what they can to help people, but now in many areas of the country the government is actually stepping in and shutting down these private avenues of assistance.
For example, in the city of Houston, Texas a couple named Bobby and Amanda Herring has been feeding homeless people for over a year.
They never left behind any trash and no trouble was ever caused.
But now the city of Houston is shutting them down.
Why?
Because they don't have a permit.
So will they be able to get a permit? Well, it turns out that city officials are saying that this "Feed a Friend" effort most likely will be denied one.
Apparently the city "officials" believe that the homeless "are the most vulnerable to foodborne illness" and that therefore the warm meals that the Herrings were providing for them were potentially dangerous.
Can you believe this?
This is what happens when political correctness and bureaucracy get wildly out of control.
Now it is illegal to go out and feed homeless people?
What is American turning into?
As the economy continues to fall part, the iron grip of the government is likely only going to get tighter as it desperately tries to keep order.
But do we really need to be giving tickets to 6-year-olds?
Yes, you read that correctly.
According to one recent report, police in Texas have given "1,000 tickets to elementary school children in 10 school districts" over the past six years.
For more examples of how America is turning into a police state, please see my recent article entitled "Almost Everything Is A Crime In America Now: 14 Of The Most Ridiculous Things That Americans Are Being Arrested For".
America is rapidly becoming a very dark place.
The truth is that there is a reason why so many websites are now reporting so much "doom and gloom". Things really are getting bad out there.
Sadly, most Americans have only known tremendous prosperity all of their lives, so they can't even conceive of what it would be like to go through difficult times.
Most Americans have been conditioned to believe that while we may have brief "recessions" once in a while, in the end our economy will always get better and the good times will continue to roll.
But the good news is that an increasing number of Americans are waking up and are trying to warn their family and friends about what is coming.
So do you believe that the food shortages and the food riots are going to get even worse throughout the rest of 2011?
4 Cops Shot In Detroit Precinct; Gunman Killed
Quote:
January 23, 2011
A 38-year-old gunman walked into a Detroit police precinct this afternoon and shot a commander and three other officers before he was killed, police sources confirmed.
Cmdr. Brian Davis, in charge of the 6th precinct, was shot in the hand and side and underwent surgery this evening, a police source said. He was in critical condition. Officer David Anderson was shot in the head but is alert and talking and moving his limbs, the source said. Another officer was also shot in the head. Both are conscious and aware, police said.
Advertisement
A fourth officer, a female sergeant, was shot in the chest, but was wearing a bullet proof vest. She was treated and released.
During a press conference this evening at Sinai Grace Hospital, where the officers were taken, Police Chief Ralph Godbee offered few other details, saying the shooting was an open investigation.
"Incidents like this are very sobering and remind us how vulnerable we all are," Godbee said, adding that security protocol is being reviewed at all of the precincts.
"We have a lot of people that are shaken up," he said.
Police said the man was armed with a small shotgun.
The victims were taken to nearby Sinai Grace Hospital shortly after the 4:30 p.m. shooting. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Godbee arrived at the hospital early this evening to visit the wounded.
Earlier, Bing and Deputy Mayor Saul Green visited the police precinct to offer support.
Sunday's shootingcapped off a bloody weekend that saw 10 people shoton Sunday — five at the precinct, including the gunman, and five outside a strip club — and three bodies found Friday night ina housein the 14000 block ofFaircrest.
The shooting occurred at the 6th Precinct, just west of the Southfield Freeway and south of Interstate 96. Like most precincts in the city, there are no metal detectors in the entrance and visitors can come in and talk face-to-face with officers.
Anderson worked for the department with the Law Enforcement Information Network, or LEIN, the database of criminal justice activity kept by the state.
Rufus Cain, who works at a car wash across the street from the precinct, said he was shocked by the news. He said he feels safe in part, he said, because he's so close to the police facility.
"We don't experience anything like this over here," he said.
After the shooting, yellow police caution tape surrounded the one-story brick building and traffic was limited as more than a dozen police units from Detroit and the Michigan State Police descended upon the precinct.
Godbee said that the 6th Precinct is being treated as a crime scene and is closed to the public. Residents in the 6th Precinct who need to file police reports or speak to officers on other matters are asked to visit the 10th or 12th Precincts instead or call (313) 596-2200 for more information.
Ryan...
Suggestion. There have been many more than four cops killed ni the past few days. Something like 15 if I heard the news right.
I suggest you start a new thread - something like "Is there a war on Law Enforcement in America?"
You are right, I think it is 14 or 15 so far this year. I actually was contemplating starting such a thread and had figured if this continues I would.
Yeah, someone said this morning it was 13 in less than a week. Not sure that's accurate, but sounds right.
Food Crisis II
By Chris Mayer
http://dailyreckoning.com/files/2011...odities_34.jpg
01/24/11 Gaithersburg, Maryland – A story I’ve been warning about for years is making sensational headlines right now.
It’s a story most people don’t realize could make a huge impact on all of our portfolios in a number of ways.
“US Crop Stock Forecasts Deepen Fears of Food Crisis” read a recent Financial Times headline. The US government cut its estimate for key crops. This came only a week after the UN warned the world faces “food price shock.” Corn and soybean prices jumped and now sit at 30-month highs. Inventories are very tight. Corn is up 94% since June!
And the world worries about a repeat of 2008, when food riots erupted in poor countries around the world.
This has been in the works for a long time. It was there for all to see. The ratio of arable land to people has been falling for decades. Gains in crop yields have slowed. Population has expanded and income levels have grown. Diets have shifted. More people are eating more meat, which is much more grain-intensive to produce.
And the love affair with biofuels puts food production in direct competition with energy. Plus, there are water scarcity issues affecting food supply. My readers have made tremendous gains from this trend by owning shares of agricultural fertilizer producers Potash (POT) and Mosaic (MOS).
I should also make the point that this fits in with another topic I’m concerned about: inflation. Now, the man on the street uses the term “inflation” to mean when prices for everything seem to go up. Or put another way, inflation is when the dollars in his pocket buy less. In truth, this is the effect of inflation. The root cause is simply money printing. When you print more money, that money has less value than if you didn’t print any new money at all.
So what we are seeing with rising commodity prices is not only the supply and demand story I led off with. It’s also the effect of paper money losing its purchasing power in the real world of things. This, too, was easy enough to see. Finally, all that money printing – the “quantitative easing” baloney you’ve heard about – is coming home to roost.
Still, it’s disconcerting to see it all playing out. For the sake of our world, I’d rather have gotten this one wrong. But we have to deal with the market we are in. So what might “Food Crisis II” mean from an investment point of view?
Food prices will have to rise: There is no way around this. We are all going to pay more for food. Wells Fargo predicts US retail food prices will rise about 4% this year. Some things will go up much more. Pork and beef could rise more than 10%.
This won’t necessarily mean that meat producer stocks are good buys, because they may not get to raise prices to fully offset the rise in feed costs. Anecdotally, for instance, The Wall Street Journal cited a Minnesota 300-cow operation that reported feed costs had doubled. Plus, I’ve listened in to the conference calls of a number of food producers – Tyson, Hormel, and Sanderson Farms. They all talk about getting squeezed by rising feed costs.
I do think these companies will be good buys sometime this year, because people will adapt and farmers will respond. Producers won’t produce meat at a loss for long. And farmers will bring every resource they have to bear. It’s been slow getting the crops in the ground so far in many places. But ultimately, there is a lot of potential supply from Brazil and the US.
Still, weather is the big wild card here. If we have a drought in the US or in Brazil, this could really get ugly.
Emerging markets are vulnerable: This follows from the above. It doesn’t really faze the typical American to have to pay 4% more at the grocery store. Food is still such a small part of the typical American’s budget. I think Michael Pollan in The Omnivore’s Dilemma points out that the US spends 9% of its income on food, which is among the lowest percentage of any people anywhere at any time in history.
The same is not true in India or China or many emerging markets. In China, people spend 50% of every incremental dollar on food. And in India, it’s more like 70%. So the rising price of food is felt more keenly in these markets.
The price of food is rising faster in emerging markets, too. In India, food prices are up 18% and at their highest level in a year. China has the same problem. Prices rose 5% in November alone. All around the world, emerging markets have a big problem with rising food prices.
Indonesia’s president is trying to get people to grow their own chili peppers. And the South Korean government recently released emergency stores of cabbage, pork, mackerel, radish, and other staples.
I could go on and on.
The point is that the emerging markets boom is not going to go far when it faces a food crisis. Already, the markets are starting to reflect this. India’s Sensex was down three straight days and off 6% to start the year. Other markets also started badly. And if China and India and the rest slow down, it’s going to have a huge impact on all those stocks and commodities most sensitive to emerging market growth.
I’m keeping a close eye on these developments. There will be opportunities in this crisis, as with all others. For instance, though rising grain prices are not good for meat producers or emerging markets right now, it’s a boon for fertilizer stocks. As the old golf saying goes, “Every putt makes somebody happy.”
Regards,
Chris Mayer
for The Daily Reckoning
Food costs serve up trouble
By Michael T Klare
Get ready for a rocky year. From now on, rising prices, powerful storms, severe droughts and floods, and other unexpected events are likely to play havoc with the fabric of global society, producing chaos and political unrest. Start with a simple fact: the prices of basic food staples are already approaching or exceeding their 2008 peaks, that year when deadly riots erupted in dozens of countries around the world.
It's not surprising then that food and energy experts are beginning to warn that 2011 could be the year of living dangerously - and so could 2012, 2013, and on into the future. Add to the soaring cost of the grains that keep so many impoverished people alive a
http://atimes.com/atimes/images/dotnetpipes.gifhttp://asianmedia.com/GAAN/www/deliv...&cb=8e3693b26f
comparable rise in oil prices - again nearing levels not seen since the peak months of 2008 - and you can already hear the first rumblings about the tenuous economic recovery being in danger of imminent collapse. Think of those rising energy prices as adding further fuel to global discontent.
Already, combined with staggering levels of youth unemployment and a deep mistrust of autocratic, repressive governments, food prices have sparked riots in Algeria and mass protests in Tunisia that, to the surprise of the world, ousted long-time dictator president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his corrupt extended family. Many of the social stresses evident in those two countries are present across the Middle East and elsewhere. No one can predict where the next explosion will occur, but with food prices still climbing and other economic pressures mounting, more upheavals appear inevitable. These may be the first resource revolts to catch our attention, but they won't be the last.
Put simply, global consumption patterns are now beginning to challenge the planet's natural resource limits. Populations are still on the rise, and from Brazil to India, Turkey to China, new powers are rising as well. With them goes an urge for a more American-style life. Not surprisingly, the demand for basic commodities is significantly on the rise, even as supplies in many instances are shrinking. At the same time, climate change, itself a product of unbridled energy use, is adding to the pressure on supplies, and speculators are betting on a situation trending progressively worse. Add these together and the road ahead appears increasingly rocky.
Breadbaskets without bread
Let's begin with food, the most important and volatile of these commodities. Food prices declined in October 2008 after the onset of the global financial crisis, but that seems to have been an anomaly. The December 2010 index of global food prices compiled by the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) hit a record 215, one point higher than in the spring of 2008. (In that index, based on a "bundle" of food staples, a baseline of 100 represents average prices in 2002-2004.) Some food products, including sugar, cooking oils, and fats, are now trading substantially above their 2008 levels; others, including dairy products, grains, and meat, are inching perilously close to record levels.
As 2011 begins, food experts fear that, within months, prices for key staples will climb above the 2008 threshold and stay there, causing extreme hardship for poor people around the world. "We are at a very high level," said a worried Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist at the FAO. "These levels in the previous episode led to problems and riots across the world."
Of particular concern to Abbassian and his colleagues is the rising cost of corn, rice, and wheat, the staple crops of billions in many of the poorest countries. According to the FAO, by the end of 2010 international corn and wheat prices were already approaching their 2008 peak levels (about US$260 and $340 per metric ton, respectively).
Analysts attribute the rise in grain prices to growing demand in both developed and developing nations, along with a number of cataclysmic weather-related events and speculation by investors. An extreme drought and fierce fires last summer destroyed a large percentage of the wheat crop in Russia and Ukraine, while heavy flooding in India and the inundation of 20% of Pakistan damaged significant parts of the grain output of those countries. At the same time, unusually hot and dry weather suppressed production in a number of other key farming areas.
What makes the picture look so worrisome today are indications that the severity and frequency of extreme weather events appear to be on the rise. In the past few weeks alone, several such events point the way to serious supply problems ahead. Most significant has been the unprecedented rainfall and flooding in Australia that put an area more than twice the size of California largely underwater, significantly disrupting wheat cultivation there. Australia is one of the world's leading wheat producers. Unusually dry conditions in the American Midwest and Argentina have also hinted at future problems in grain and corn output. It's still too early to predict the size of this year's grain and corn harvests, but many analysts are warning of a shortfall in supplies, along with sky-high prices.
Mainstream analysts and government officials are loathe to attribute this traffic jam of extreme weather events to global warming. Huge variations in rainfall can be normal, especially in places like Australia that are susceptible to El Nino/La Nina ocean-temperature oscillations, and politicians are fearful of assuming responsibility for a problem as massive as climate change. But climate change theory has long suggested that the warming trend - 2010 tied 2005 for the warmest year on record and nine of the 10 warmest years have come in the last decade - will be accompanied by an increase in the frequency and severity of storms. It's hard to escape the conclusion that recent events, including those Australian floods, are tied to rising global temperatures.
The energy crisis returns
Soaring food prices are being driven as well by speculative investments and the rising price of oil. Partly in response to the diminishing value of the dollar, some investors are sinking their money into food futures (along with gold and silver) as a speculative hedge. At the same time, the price of oil is edging toward the $100 mark, making it increasingly profitable for farmers to switch from growing corn for human consumption to growing it for the manufacture of ethanol, which in turn reduces the amount of farm acreage devoted to staples. Oil would have to fall below $50 per barrel to make the cultivation of corn as a food product competitive with ethanol production - and that's not likely to happen. So even if more corn is produced this year, less will be available for food purposes and the price of what remains is bound to rise.
The precipitous rise in oil prices has startled the experts. Not so long ago, the US Department of Energy was projecting a price range of $70-$80 per barrel in 2011, but as the year began oil was already trading above $90 a barrel and some analysts predict that it will reach $100 before the year is out. A few are even talking about the $150 barrel and gas prices at the pump of $4 or more. If prices climb above $100, global consumer spending could take another nosedive.
"Oil prices are entering a dangerous zone for the global economy," says Fatih Birol, the chief economist for the International Energy Agency (IEA). "The oil import bills are becoming a threat to the economic recovery."
As with food, the rising cost of oil is a product of growing demand, insufficient supplies, and speculative investments. According to the most recent projections from the IEA, daily global oil consumption in 2011 will average 87.4 million barrels, an increase of about two million barrels from the first quarter of 2010. Much of the extra demand is coming from China, where a newly minted middle class is buying automobiles at a record clip, as well as from the United States, where previously cautious consumers are slowly returning to pre-2008 driving habits.
At a time when the oil industry is experiencing declining rates of output at many existing oil fields and finding it ever more difficult to add production, even two million extra barrels per day can be a daunting challenge (and greater demand is expected in the coming years). In the United States, for example, much hope was placed in oil exploration in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Alaska, but in the wake of the BP disaster, this seems like a forlorn prospect. Production in Mexico and the North Sea, two bright spots of recent years, is facing a sharp decline, while other key producers, including those in the Middle East, are struggling to maintain current output levels at existing fields.
Many energy analysts believe that the world is at (or will soon reach) peak oil - the moment when global petroleum output achieves a maximum sustainable daily rate and begins a long-term, irreversible decline. Others contend that higher levels of output are still possible. Whatever the truth of the matter, at this moment the oil industry is finding it increasingly difficult, and ever more costly, to boost output above current levels. This, combined with insatiable demand, is driving prices skyward.
Under these circumstances, speculators are again being drawn into the oil market as a rare sure bet. Such speculators helped push oil prices to a record $147 per barrel back in 2008, but fled the market when prices crashed as the American economy headed to a meltdown. Now, they're coming back.
"Hedge funds and private investors are buying up financial instruments tied to the price of crude, and thereby helping push up oil prices," the Wall Street Journal reported in late December.
Most analysts are expecting a price surge this spring or summer when American motorists hit the road. "We will have a spring rally that will take us to between $3.10 and $3.50 a gallon for gasoline at service stations in the United States," predicted Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.
The rising price of gas will, in turn, hurt consumers just as they show signs of opening their wallets again. No less worrisome, oil-importing countries like the United States, Japan, and many in Europe will face soaring bills for fuel imports, further enfeebling economies already suffering from profound weakness.
According to some calculations, oil prices added another $72 billion to America's balance-of-payments deficit last year. Europe had to cough up an additional $70 billion for imported oil and Japan $27 billion. "It is a very telling story," says the IEA's Fatih Birol of recent oil-price data. "2010 rang the first alarm bells and 2011 price levels could bring us to the same financial crisis times that we saw in 2008."
Rising food prices leading to riots, protests, and revolts, mounting oil prices, mammoth worldwide unemployment, and a collapsed recovery - it looks like the perfect set of preconditions for a global tsunami of instability and turmoil. Events in Algeria and Tunisia give us just an inkling of what this maelstrom might look like, but where and how it will next erupt, and in what form, is anyone's guess. A single guarantee: we haven't seen the last of resource revolts which, in the coming years, could reach an intensity we scarcely imagine today.
Subtle ways to hide inflation
Downsized
Food containers have been reduced as much as 20% - but prices have not
Sunday, January 23, 2011 03:08 AM
By Tracy Turner
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
http://www.dispatch.com/wwwexportcon...2-fs-1-jpg.jpg
FRED SQUILLANTE | DISPATCH
Tropicana's 59-ounce carton yields about 7 1/3 8-ounce servings. Nearly identical in size, Minute Maid's half-gallon fills eight glasses at a slightly lower cost. However, according to information on the cartons, Minute
Maid is "from concentrate" while Tropicana is "never from concentrate."
http://www.dispatch.com/wwwexportcon...ts-tab-eps.jpg |
No, it's not your imagination.
That carton of brand-name orange juice you bought from the grocery store doesn't go as far as it used to. Neither does your bottle of dish detergent, carton of ice cream or roll of toilet tissue.
Numerous well-known products such as Tropicana orange juice, Ivory dish detergent and Kraft singles American cheese have been downsized, but their prices have not.
In fact, a new Consumer Reports investigation finds that prices are higher in some cases for products that are as much as 20percent smaller than they once were.
Manufacturers are playing shrink-the-package in response to rising costs for ingredients and energy, said Tod Marks, senior editor and resident shopping expert at Consumer Reports.
Higher commodity and fuel costs are expected to cause food prices to rise by as much as 3percent this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dairy and meat prices are expected to rise even more.
"But if manufacturers are skimping when costs go up, why aren't they more generous when costs hold steady or fall?" Marks said in a statement.
Companies often try to hide the change in package size by indenting the bottom of containers or whipping air into ice cream, Marks said.
"It's actually pretty insidious, as the reduction is not enough to be obvious, such as 0.5 to 2 ounces or so," said Chris Raiter, 36, of Marysville.
The trend of smaller package sizes has prompted the married father of two to buy store brands whenever he can as the regular grocery shopper for his family.
"The food manufacturers are saying they are responding to consumer demand, but really, they are trying to hoodwink you a little bit," he said.
"They say consumers want smaller stuff, but we also want the smaller price.
"If they are going to put less of a product in a package, they should charge you less."
Reasons that manufacturers face higher prices include rising worldwide demand for grains such as corn, wheat and soybeans. That has resulted in higher costs for farmers to buy grain to feed their livestock, which ultimately means higher costs for consumers.
And higher fuel costs mean higher product delivery costs.
The Consumer Price Index rose 0.5percent in December, the largest increase in 18months. Much of that was the result of higher gas prices.
Some of the examples of shrinking products cited by Consumer Reports:
• Tropicana orange juice, which has been downsized from 64 ounces to 59 ounces.
• Scott toilet tissue cut its product from 115.2 square feet to 104.8 square feet.
• Hebrew National cut packages of its reduced-fat and no-fat hot dogs from 12ounces to 11 ounces.
Erik Seidel, Scott brand director for Kimberly-Clark, said the company was among the last toilet-tissue makers to reduce the sheet size on it tissue rolls.
"In 2010, all major competitive brands made changes to either the toilet-paper sheet size, or reduced the number of sheets available in their toilet-paper rolls," he said.
Seidel said Kimberly-Clark made changes to its Scott-brand tissue such as adding softness and strength in addition to the "reduction in individual sheet size to help offset rising costs of raw materials required to make the product and to avoid a price increase."
ConAgra spokesman Jeff Mochal said the company didn't reduce its top-selling Hebrew National hot dogs. But the company did shrink the fat-free and reduced-fat packages two years ago as a result of "increased costs to produce a leaner hot dog."
Calls to Tropicana for comment were not returned.
Manufacturers have been shrinking their product packages for years, but the recent recession contributed to even more products being downsized, said Lesley Ware, an editor at Consumer Reports.
"Generally, the manufacturers don't want to raise their product's price, so they make the product smaller," she said. "But the readers that we surveyed said they prefer that a company keep the old package size and increase the price and be honest about it."
Many complaints from Consumer Reports readers were about toilet paper, Ware said.
Chris Sauer of Columbus said he really just noticed the smaller size of the tissue roll last week.
"The rolls are quite a bit more narrow than it used to be," he said. "But I assume they are all getting smaller, even though I think it is one of the most-ridiculous products to cut back on.
"Despite this, it will continue to appear on my 'must-have' list. Since you gotta keep buying it, you've just got to grin and bear it."
So what are savvy consumers to do?
Ware recommends buying in bulk, stocking up when items go on sale, using coupons when available and considering competitors' products.
"Not all companies act in lock step, so take a look at different brands, their prices and their sizes," she said.
"Consumers can also compare the unit price of a product, which is the bottom-line best way to find the best price.
For Pam Hansberger of Norwalk, the answer is to stop buying products that have shrunk.
"You get tired of the excuses these companies make," she said. "When the issues that made the prices go up are solved, the prices never go back down.
"And once consumers learn to accept that, then they'll just keep feeding it to us. My policy now is I've got X-amount to spend on groceries and X-amount to buy. It's the extra things that'll go first."
tturner@dispatch.com
Tropicana 59
ounces
$3.34
at Giant eagle
width: 3.75" Height: 9.25"
Minute Maid 64
ounces
$3.29
at Giant eagle
width: 3.75"
Height: 9.38"
Money-saving tipsTo avoid paying more for less, shoppers can:
• Check out different brands. Not all manufacturers downsize. For example, Minute Maid still sells its orange juice in half-gallon containers, and Ben & Jerry's packs its ice cream in pints.
• Compare the unit price. Look at cost per ounce, per quart, per pound or per sheet to determine the best value.
• Try the store brand, which often costs 25 to 30 percent less than the name brand and often is just as good.
• Stock up during sales.
• Buy in bulk. Warehouse clubs offer low prices on large sizes or multipacks.
• Call or e-mail the company to complain about the downsizing of your favorite products. Consumers who do sometimes are offered coupons as a way to keep them loyal to the product.
Source: Consumer Reports
This was just put up yesterday... Apparently some assailants uploaded a video of them targeting and attacking a random person in Shockoe Bottom in Richmond, VA. This is just the latest as you can see from the second video below.
Shockoe Bottom Assault and Robbery Video Taped by Assailants
Shockoe Bottom Club Nights
Black Gangs Vented Hatred For Whites In Downtown Denver Attacks
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/2009...46_640X480.jpg
'I Hate You F---ing White People,' Woman Shouts At Victim
DENVER -- Black gangs roaming downtown Denver often vented their hatred for white victims before assaulting and robbing them during a four-month crime wave, according to interviews and court records obtained by 7NEWS.
"I hate you f---ing white people," said a black woman in a large group of black men, according to the victim who was beaten up as he and three buddies left a LoDo bar after midnight on Aug. 30.
"F---- you, white boys," the woman added, according to the 25-year-old Westminster victim, who spoke to 7NEWS Friday.
"Why do you hate white people?" the man recalled asking. "That's when I got hit. They beat the crap out of me," he added, saying that 15 to 20 men beat him to the ground.
"They just swarmed you," said the man who curled up on the ground to shield his face. "You basically just had to protect yourself and hope they didn't kill you."
The victim, who suffered bruised ribs and a cut head, said he was protected by a padded motorcycle jacket. He asked that his name be withheld for his safety.
A couple dozen arrest warrant affidavits unsealed Friday offer chilling insights into the 26 racially-motivated "blitz attacks," which stretched from July 17 to Nov. 17.
One unidentified suspect told police "that the members of his gang earn status in the gang by beating up 'white dudes,'" according to court records. He added that the gangs targeted "drunk white guys," exiting bars and nightclubs in the entertainment district.
The suspects allegedly bragged about knocking out white victims with one punch to the head. Victims lying on the ground were "stomped" and even tossed through glass windows.
In the more than two dozen attacks, victims' injuries included a skull fracture as well as broken noses and eye sockets when they were blindsided by punches that often knocked them unconscious. One man was so savagely attacked that he was hospitalized in a coma for a while, police said.
Several of the 35 young male and female suspects arrested by police recently said the gangs often targeted lone white and Hispanic men because they didn't "fight back" and they had money, iPods and other valuable gadgets that attackers coveted.
Another goal: to drive whites away from their downtown turf, including a hip-hop nightclub, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The gangs "own that area," one suspect told police.
7NEWS exposed the crime spree in early September when a law enforcement source said the police department was keeping the public in the dark about a series of downtown attacks. The source added that a special FBI task force had been called in to help identify the assailants.
When 7NEWS made a public records request Sept. 3 for crime reports in the area, a police spokesman confirmed the department was investigating a "pattern of assaults and robberies in central Denver" that began in July.
Police spokesman Sonny Jackson denied that police delayed warning the public for seven weeks to avoid frightening visitors to the popular and lucrative downtown entertainment district.
He said police had to confirm "a pattern of behavior" before going public.
But police reports say the gang attack pattern was identified during the summer as the department deployed uncover teams and used surveillance cameras to identify the assailants.
"During the summer months of 2009, a pattern of criminal conduct was identified which included multiple suspects identifying a solo Caucasian or Hispanic male and completing a blitz attack against this party," an officer wrote in an arrest affidavit for a Sept. 4 robbery on the 16th Street Mall.
"Part of the MO involved the group of suspects, usually African American males, sending a party, possibly an African American female, to identify the victim," the officer wrote. "This is done by (the woman) talking with or standing with the victim. A suspect, generally male, from the group will step forward and hit the victim hard, knocking him down. Other members of the group will then emerge and begin participating in beating the victim."
The Westminster beating victim said if police had warned the public earlier, he and others could have better protected themselves
"I'm kind of upset that (police) didn't make it public," said the Westminster beating victim. "I would have been more vigilant. It would have made people a lot more on guard."
But, he added that, "I'm very pleased that they responded the way they did." Within minutes of his 911 cell phone call, uncover officers flooded the scene. He recalled listening to police radios crackling with reports of two suspects being arrested that night.
"I was like, 'Wow, finally they did something,'" the man recalled.
Prosecutors have charged two men and a woman in his attack.
As police pursued the massive investigation involving 35 suspects and dozens of victims, investigators asked the young blacks why they targeted whites.
"Because they got a lot of money," suspect Allen Ford, 18, allegedly told police. Other suspects echoed that simple rationale.
Ford, who was the last suspect arrested in a major police sweep in the past two weeks, allegedly told investigators earlier that he was upset how the robbery spoils were divvied up among members of the Rolling 60s Crips gang and the Black Gangster Disciples gang, according to the arrest affidavits.
Ford, who was arrested Thursday, allegedly griped about "other people getting bigger stuff than me that I would really like to have in my life," according to the records.
At times, older men would chastise young gang members, saying, "Y'all make it seem like a big deal for y'all to be knocking out white people," suspect Denita Mayfield told police. "They all brag about beating up white people."
But the attackers used more than their fists. "The series of crimes has also involved the use of a gun and knife," a police report said.
One male victim recalled a black woman approaching him on the street and saying something he couldn't hear.
"As he was attempting to clarify what had been said to him, a black male came up and stated, 'What the f--- did you say to my girl?'" a detective wrote in an arrest affidavit.
Instantly, the victim was punched.
As he was pounded with blows, the victim said he heard a woman voice shouting, "Get that white boy!" according to an arrest affidavit.
Kendall Austin, 18, allegedly told police that the street gangs "own that area," referring to the 1400 block of 19th Street.
He said they were especially possessive of the Bash nightclub at 19th and Blake streets, saying their purpose was to "keep white people from going to 'The Bash' and to 'let people know not to come downtown without their friends for protection.'"
During an Aug. 2 attack, suspect Allen Ford told police his alleged accomplice, Xavier Francis, tossed a white man through a glass window behind the Bash nightclub.
"I seen him pick the little white boy up and throw him through the glass," Ford told police, according to court records. Police obtained security camera video showing the victim fly through the window.
The Westminster man said after he was attacked, he avoided downtown for a while.
Now he's returned to his favorite LoDo tavern, but he added: "I'm a lot, lot more cautious. It makes me look over my shoulder a lot more."
Looks like my hometown is considering getting rid of the police department.
Either outcome they are discussing whether it is merging the PD with the SO or contracting out police duties to the SO will not end well.
Good thing we are pushing full steam ahead with our useless street car program! :freak2:
City Manager Halts Search For Cincinnati Police Chief
Honestly, I can't wait to move out of this area.Quote:
February 3, 2011
Cincinnati City Manager Milton Dohoney, Jr. is suspending the search for the next Cincinnati Police Department chief.
In a statement, Dohoney cited discussions over a merger of city police services with the county sheriff's department. A city council motion passed yesterday directed the administration to pursue talks with the Hamilton County Sheriff on the possibility of the police patrol function being farmed out to the county, as well as a discussion on a total merger of the two departments. A report on the potential merger is due to council April 30.
“It is my belief that no established chief or assistant chief from another jurisdiction would risk giving up their current status to come to Cincinnati when the possibility exists that they could be unemployed if the department were dissolved through a merger,” he said. “To continue our process in light of the current situation would be unwise. Moves to other localities involve entire families, not just the candidate themselves.”
Chief Tom Streicher retires March 7. Dohoney said he will announce an interim leadership plan for the department within the next few weeks.
Those who had already applied are being contacted about the suspended process.
My house will be for sale soon.. hehehe
Lol! :D
I think Trump is being a little out there on this. I've heard this before, back in the 1960s, then in the 1970s, again in the 1980s, 1990s and now.
Corn Prices To Soar As Chinese Imports Increase Ninefold Compared To Official Projections
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/06/2011 20:56 -0500
Cotton, wheat, rice, and now corn. If revised Chinese import estimates by the US Grain Council are even remotely correct, look for corn prices of $6.80 a bushel at last check to jump by at least 15% in a very short amount of time. As the FT reports, "Corn prices – and with them, the price of meat – are set to explode if the latest import estimates from China are correct.
The US Grain Council, the industry body, said late on Thursday that it has received information pointing to Chinese imports as high as 9m tonnes in 2011-12, up from 1.3m in 2010-11." Why is this a concern? Because "the US Department of Agriculture, which compiles benchmark estimates of supply, demand and stocks, forecast Chinese imports at just 1m tonnes in 2011-12." In other words, the whole forecast supply-demand equilibrium is about to be torn to shreds. And all this excludes the impact of neverending liquidity by the one and only, which will only make the speculative approach to surging corn relentless.
For those who think that there is any even remote hope of a respite in the endless climb in prices, we suggest reading the following:The most China has imported in modern history is 4.3m tonnes in 1994-95 and 3m tonnes in 1978-79. For most of the past 50 years, Beijing has been largely absent from the international market, as domestic production was enough to meet demand.Is corn set to be another soyabean?
But Terry Vinduska, the chairman of the council, said after visiting China that “estimates given to us were that China is short of 10m-15m tonnes in stocks and will need to purchase corn this year”. He pointed to about 9m tonnes in imports. “We learned the government normally keeps stocks at 30 per cent but they are currently a little over 5 per cent, which may lead to imports of 3m-9m tonnes.”
It is not the first warning of forthcoming massive imports. Recently, David C. Nelson, at Rabobank, one of the world’s largest lenders to the global agribusiness industry, warned that because China’s animal protein industry is so large, the order of magnitude of China shifting to become a net importer of corn could possibly be measured in tens of millions of tonnes, and in just a few years time.
“We note that China could become a net importer of 25m tonnes of corn as early as 2015,” he said. Senior executives at trading houses took note of Rabobank’s forecast.The US Grain Council did not disclose where it got the information and Chinese food import policy is erratic. With corn nearly at a record high, the country could very well opt to further drawdown stocks.While China waving it in needs little explanation for the observent ones, here's what this means from a third party:
But the forecast of record imports still need to be taken seriously. When China started to import soyabean back in 1995, few thought the country would today be buying nearly 60 per cent of all the global trade in soyabean.Most of the traders I have spoken to believe that China will become a big corn importer, although none believe it will follow the same pattern as in soyabean. Even so, 9m tonnes is a huge number. Enough to push corn prices above the 2007-08 record of nearly $7.65 a bushel. In early trading on Friday, corn was at $6.65 a bushel.And with six sigma floods, record cyclones, massive snowstorms and abrnomal climatic patterns now a near-daily event courtesy of the Jet Stream having decided to take a sabbatical, the only thing the grains and softs market needs is a lit match to set the whole thing ablaze. Luckily we have our very own chaircreature doing his best to make sure that the commodities market makes eating an activity best enjoyed by those who will be bailed out by the administration the next time there is a downtick in the market.
h/t London Dude Trader
Wheat Surges to Highest Since 2008 on China Drought, Middle Eastern Buying
Posted by admin Feb 9, 2011 14:21
| 0 Comment
Audio Download: Nomura’s Rush Sees ‘Robust’ 2011 for Commodities - Feb. 1
Wheat climbed to the highest level since August 2008 as drought threatened to damage crops in China, curbing global supplies, and Middle Eastern and African nations boosted purchases to tackle food inflation. Corn and soybeans also advanced.
The March-delivery wheat contract climbed as much as 1 percent to $8.83 a bushel, the highest price for the most-active contract in Chicago since Aug. 25, 2008. The grain traded at $8.795 per bushel at 3:02 p.m. in Singapore.
Wheat has surged 82 percent in the past year as drought in Russia, floods in Canada and parched fields across Europe hurt crops. Countries in the Middle East and North Africa are accelerating grain purchases as rising food prices contributed to riots and protests. China, the largest wheat producer, is facing severe drought in the main, winter-wheat growing region.
“Wheat is at the center of issues for the market now,” said Han Sung Min, a broker at Korea Exchange Bank Futures Co. in Seoul. “China’s poor crop weather has fueled concern over tightening supplies after some countries in North Africa and the Middle East rushed to secure food.”
World food prices rose to a record in January, the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization said on Feb. 3. China raised interest rates for the third time in four months, effective from today, to contain inflation.
Drought Warning
The drought in China’s wheat-growing regions may worsen “rapidly” as the weather gets warmer, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Feb. 4. The drought affected 35 percent of wheat crops in eight provinces as of Feb. 4, it said.
Wheat jumped as much as 7 percent, the daily limit, to a record 3,051 yuan ($463) a metric ton on China’s Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, which reopened for trade today after the Lunar New Year break. It last traded at 3,006 yuan a ton.
Chinese wheat output may have dropped to 114.5 million tons at the last harvest, compared with 115.1 million tons a year earlier, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. Macquarie expects output to drop a further 4 million tons this year. The USDA will update its outlook today.
U.S. wheat reserves on May 31 probably will total 808.3 million bushels, compared with 818 million forecast in January and 976 million a year earlier, a Bloomberg survey showed. World wheat inventories may decline to 177.2 million tons, a survey found, from 178 million estimated by the USDA in January and 197.4 million a year earlier.
The USDA may cut its forecast for world corn inventories before the northern hemisphere harvests to 125.4 million tons, from 127 million estimated in January and 147.1 million a year earlier, the survey showed.
That would be the lowest level of reserves since 2007.
March-delivery corn rose as much as 0.6 percent to $6.78 a bushel and was last at $6.7775. The price reached $6.825 on Feb. 7, the highest since July 15, 2008.
Soybeans for March delivery gained as much as 0.5 percent to $14.415 a bushel and last traded at $14.38. The price touched $14.525 on Feb. 3, the highest since July 2008.
----------------------------------------------------
Sugar Shortage Looms as Storm Ruins Australian Crop
February 07, 2011, 3:58 AM EST More From Businessweek
- Grain Prices Rally Toward 2008 Records on Shrinking World Supply
- China’s Wheat-Area Drought May Last Into Spring, Minister Says
- ‘Heavy Lifting’ Looms as China Rate Below Inflation
- Yuan Seen Reaching 17-Year High on Rate Increase: China Credit
- Commodities to Beat Emerging Market Stocks in 2011, SocGen Says
By Wendy Pugh
(Updates price in fourth paragraph, adds Queensland Sugar comment in 16th.)
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- World sugar output will probably fall short of demand, said Rabobank, after a cyclone with winds stronger than Hurricane Katrina destroyed homes and smashed crops in Australia, driving prices to 30-year highs.
Tropical Cyclone Yasi ripped through northern Queensland, a region growing a third of the country’s cane, cutting output potential in the area by about 50 percent, producers group Canegrowers said Feb. 4. The storm, which the government says may have wiped out at least A$500 million ($507 million) of agricultural production, raised speculation that the world’s third-largest sugar exporter may struggle to match last year’s output that was the lowest in two decades.
“The whole house was shaking and vibrating,” said Gerry Borgna, 53, whose family has supplied cane to a mill at Tully, about 140 kilometers (87 miles) south of Cairns, since the 1920s. “We could hear things flying past and we thought it was part of the house.” At the farm, power lines were lying across the road, a shed stood precariously and cane was pushed over. “To me, this is a disaster,” he said.
Raw sugar soared to 36.08 cents per pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York on Feb. 2, the highest level since 1980, as the storm bore down on Queensland, and traded at 33.03 cents today.
“On a global basis we thought we would have a slim stock build this year and it is likely that we are going to end up with another deficit,” Rabobank Australia Ltd. commodities analyst Wayne Gordon said by phone yesterday.
Floods, Rain
Australian sugar output may be 3.5 million metric tons from the June to December harvest this year, compared with 3.6 million tons from the previous crop, and down from expectations of 4.2 million to 4.3 million tons, according to Rabobank.
Flooding and heavy rain before the cyclone reduced estimates by about 500,000 tons and Yasi probably cut the outlook by a further 300,000 tons, Gordon said.
Output may be 3.8 million tons next season, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said on Feb. 3, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia commodity strategist Luke Mathews said the same day that the crop may be 3.6 million tons.
“It may well be that the production we saw last year might be repeated,” said John King, chief executive officer of Tully Sugar Ltd., referring to national raw sugar output. “You would like to think we can better that still, but a lot depends on the growing conditions in the next months.” The closely held company is the target of a takeover bid from Bunge Ltd.
Weather Risks
World production may exceed demand by a “small” amount in 2011-2012, though the “fragile” balance will be vulnerable to weather-related risks, C. Czarnikow Sugar Futures Ltd. said Jan. 31. The market will stay in deficit in 2010-2011, it said.
The International Sugar Organization in November lowered its estimate for a global surplus to 1.3 million tons in 2010- 2011 from 2.7 million tons in August after drought and floods damaged fields in Brazil, Russia, Pakistan and Australia.
“Based on what we’re seeing in the meantime, there’s every reason that our surplus will remain very small,” Lindsay Jolly, a senior economist at the ISO, said in an interview in Geneva Feb. 1. “It may disappear.”
The destruction in Queensland from Yasi added to rain and flooding that left 35 people dead and disrupted coal mining. The nation, facing a bill that economists say may reach $20 billion after two months of floods, will need to make budget cuts after the cyclone exacerbated damage, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday on Channel Ten’s Meet the Press program.
Banana Crop
Yasi also slammed into a banana-growing region representing about 85 percent of Australian production. Woolworths Ltd. raised its prices for the fruit on Feb. 4 and warned the damage would severely affect availability and prices in coming months.
“The region impacted by the cyclone contributes around A$1 billion of agricultural production annually, and initial reports suggest at least half of that has been wiped out this year, including around 80 percent of the state’s banana crop,” Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday.
Queensland Sugar Ltd., which handles more than 90 percent of Australia’s exports, said shipments from the 2010 crop were 2.2 million tons, the lowest level in more than two decades. The cyclone and “extreme” rainfall since the middle of last year were likely to keep exports to about the same level next season, company Chief Executive Officer Neil Taylor said today.
Crop Reduction
The 2011 crop is likely to be “significantly reduced,” Queensland Sugar said on Feb. 4. The national cane crush last year was about 27 million tons compared with a usual level of more than 32 million tons, said Brisbane-based Canegrowers in December. The area north of Townsville typically crushes 10 million tons, the group said.
Tully may process about 1.4 million to 1.5 million tons of cane this year, compared with 1.8 million tons last season when the harvest was halted because of the weather, and down from a pre-cyclone estimate for 2011 of 1.8 million to 2 million tons, King said. Output would likely be curbed again in 2012 because of the lingering effect on crops, he said.
“Even putting Cyclone Yasi to one side, it was going to take a couple of years to rebound from the 2010 season,” said King, who left his shelter in the laundry of his Tully home during the eye of the storm to see if the mill’s smoke stacks were still standing before “ferocious” winds returned.
‘Blown Away’
The stacks survived the night, while two cooling towers were on the ground, some sheeting was gone from the roof, a garage was blown away and 35 houses owned by the company had some form of damage, he said.
The Red Cross is using a mill meeting-hall to provide emergency assistance to residents, many living in partly wrecked homes with no electricity.
“We have got off quite lightly from the mill point of view,” King said. The company has until the crushing season starts in June to complete repairs.
Maryborough Sugar Factory Ltd. said in a statement last week it expected a 5 percent to 10 percent reduction in its total company estimate of 4 million tons of cane for the 2011 season. It has mills north of Tully in a joint venture with Bundaberg Sugar Co., a unit of Brussels-based Finasucre.
Cane harvested this year will include so-called standover material left from 2010 because of rain, cane planted last year and re-growth crops harvested over several seasons. Borgna, who estimated the cyclone may have cut his potential output by more than 20 percent, said he was reluctant to lock in prices for more of his cane by forward-selling.
Standover cane was “a mess,” some of the crop may reach half the height it should and root systems were damaged, he said.
“For this year I am about 40 percent priced,” he said, and he was cautious about pricing more because he didn’t know what crop he was going to get.