Page 851 of articles about news

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) meat and livestock data shows pig meat production crashed in April to 268,000 tonnes, down 11 per cent on last year to its lowest level since June 1991, while the number of pigs slaughtered also declined by 11 per cent to 373,000. Pork prices hit $3.71 a kilogram in late May, up from around $2.71 a kilo at the same time last year, despite some downward pressure from the swine flu outbreak.

Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob's warns that the government would consider making pork a controlled item if the ex-farm price of pig continued to increase.

The Management Committee for Direct Payments yesterday gave a positive opinion to a Commission proposal to allow direct aid payments to farmers under the Single Payment Scheme and the Single Area Payment Scheme to be advanced to the 16th October 2009. This follows an undertaking by Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel at the last Agriculture Council to allow earlier payments to help farmers, notably milk producers, who face cash flow problems because of low prices. The measure will be formally adopted in the next few weeks. Member States may pay up to 70 percent of the annual payment from 16 October. Payments are normally only possible from 1 December each year.

The State Statistics Committee informs that for May 2009 meat production reached 23,200 tons versus 24,400 tons in April, 24,100 tons in March 2009, 23,655 tons in February 2009, 24,645 tons in January 2009 and 24,400 tons in March 2008. For Jan-May 2009 it was produced 120,000 tons of meat versus 118,100 tons for 2008 same term (rise of 1.7%) and 302,800 tons in 2008. In December 2008 it was produced 25,300 tons of meat versus 25,900 tons in December 2007.

A group of U.S. pork producers who proposed the Producer Retirement Program announced Thursday that the sow cull program will not take effect due to a lack of participation.

The National Congress of Chile passed by 109 votes the last stage of the motion that allows the Agriculture and Livestock Service (Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero, SAG) to establish the regulations for a Traceability System for meat and livestock, a programme developed by the entity since 2004 that originally only included bovines and that since June 2008 has incorporated other animal species such as ovines, caprines, porcines, equines and South American domestic camelids. (Original in Spanish. Read Google translation here).

A first-of-its-kind agreement has been reached between the U.S. and Canada that will expand opportunities for organic producers in both countries, announced Kathleen Merrigan, Agriculture Deputy Secretary. The "equivalency agreement" follows a review by both nations of each other's organic certification program and a determination that products meeting the standard in the U.S. can be sold as organic in Canada, and vice versa.

Meat production including by-products of the first grade grew 11.6% to 1.3m tons in January – May 2009 in Russia, if compared to the same period in 2008, Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) reports.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 with an amendment that would exempt meat, poultry, eggs and the farms and facilities that produce and process them exclusively.

Because food is a basic necessity, the agriculture sector is showing more resilience to the global economic crisis than other industries. But the risks could increase if the economic downturn deepens, according to a new report by the OECD and FAO.

The nation's biggest hog farmer and pork processor said it is reducing the size of its own sow herd by another 3% after cutting the number of breeding females by 10% in fiscal 2009.

A brainstorming meeting of scientists, risk assessors and risk managers on the influenza A(H1N1) at the human animal interface organised by the Commission with the support of ECDC and EFSA took place on 9 June 2009 in Brussels. It focused on the potential risks posed by that virus at the interface between humans and animals. Scientists from the public health, animal health and food safety field from the EU, USA, Canada and Russia attended the meeting.

The Welsh Assembly will not be introducing a National Envelope scheme – a provision which would have seen the redirection of 10 per cent of the Single Farm Payment allocated to farmers.