TheMeatSite Newsletter - 8 June 2011

Welcome to this week's newsletter

Editorial: World Food Prices to Remain High

World food prices are set to remain high as record crops will only just meet demand, according to a new report from FAO.

High and volatile agricultural commodity prices are likely to prevail for the rest of this year and into 2012 according to the latest analysis published by FAO in its biannual Food Outlook.

The report cites a sharp run-down on inventories and only modest overall production increases for the majority of crops as reasons for continuing strong prices.

Over the last week, the Russian food safety authorities blocked exports of vegetables from Europe because of concerns about E.coli contamination and the same authority, Rosselkhoznador, also put a temporary ban on exports of meat from processors in three states in Brazil.

However, the leading beef processor, JBS, said that it was still able to export to Russia from plants in other states.

Consolidation within the meat processing industry took a step back this week as Smithfield Foods pulled out of their plans to acquire the remaining controlling interest in the Spanish further processor, Campofrio.

Smithfield's CEO said it was a decision taken in the best interests of the shareholders.

Chris Harris

TheMeatSite Book Focus

	The Cow Signals Series - Practical Training For Cattle Farmers The Cow Signals series presents practical knowledge about animal oriented dairy cattle husbandry in an accessible fashion. Order Now Online
	Cattle Ailments Now in its seventh edition, Cattle Ailments – Recognition and Treatment features a concise, clear text built around a large number of specially taken colour photographs. Order Now Online

This Week's Feature Articles

We have 6 new features this week:

Beef with a Better Carbon Footprint
The agriculture sector in the UK has been set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 18 per cent on the levels in 2008, writes Chris Harris for TheMeatSite.

A Supply Chain Approach To Beef Quality
Managing for beef quality is not an arbitrary end-product objective, panellists pointed out at a Cattlemen's College session.

Environmental Assessment of Danish Pork
The major environmental impact of pig meat production in Denmark is down to the farming portion of the production cycle and not the slaughterhouse section, according to a report by Thu Lan T. Nguyen, John E. Hermansen and Lisbeth Mogensen of the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

Japan Dairy and Products Semi-annual Report 2011
As of May, it appears that the segments of the dairy sector affected by the March earthquake and tsunami in eastern Japan have largely recovered, and supplies have been restored to Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.

US Pork Exports to China on the Rise
US exports of pork and pork variety meats to China have grown rapidly since summer 2010 and are expected to continue rising through 2011, according to Michael Woolsey and Jianping Zhang in the latest GAIN Report from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.

International Meat Review 26 May 2011
US beef and veal exports in March were more than 30 per cent up on February and 45 per cent higher than March 2010, according to the USDA's International Meat Review.