News archive
18 June 2018
International Financial Institutions (IFIs): How much money do agroholdings need? More!
Overview -International financial institutions (IFIs) play an important role in the capital formation of large agroholdings. In order to expand their businesses, agroholdings conclude many loan agreements with various IFIs every year. This allows agricultural companies to build new production facilities, invest in new technologies and expand their land operations. On the other hand, such activities are often criticized in Western countries, because IFIs get their funding predominantly from Western taxpayers.
15 June 2018
US dairy industry is shifting toward larger farms
News -Large farms produce a lot of milk at a low cost in the US. In fact, large farms produce so much milk that it hurts the overall US dairy market. The abundance of supply on the market resulted in low milk prices in the last few years. Family-owned dairy farms across the country are struggling to survive. The creameries refuse to buy their milk, since they can get it much cheaper from large farms. As a result, the US dairy industry has been facing massive consolidation during last 15 years. Some experts suggest a quota system to prevent massive corporate farms from producing so much milk.
13 June 2018
Avex in the process of restructuring its business
News -Avex, one of Argentina's largest producers and exporters of poultry and a subsidiary of the Brazilian group BRF, officially announced its plan to restructure the business in Rio Cuarto. The aim is to improve operational and financial performance. The company plans to decrease its slaughter capacity to 35.000 heads per day and to lay off 100 employees. These measures are necessary to avoid a complete facility closure.
13 June 2018
Farms become larger and more integrated in South Africa
News -The South African agriculture is characterized by a strong consolidation trend. In 2011 there were approximately 7,500 dairy farmers. Today, their number decreased to 1,500. Although the number of farms dropped, the number of cows is increasing and so is the amount of milk produced by them. The same consolidation trends are observed in the pig and poultry sectors. There has been a strong decline in the number of poultry farms since 2011. Besides consolidating, the poultry industry is becoming vertically integrated. Big poultry integrators make their own feed in their own mills.
12 June 2018
Mriya agroholding may be acquired by an international investor
News -Mriya agroholding received an acquisition offer from an international strategic investor. The offer involves the fulfilment of a number of conditions, including successful completion of restructuring of the company and its subsidiaries, as well as obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals. Mriya's total debt is estimated at $ 1,087 billion. The restructuring procedure should help to reduce the total debt to $ 330 million.
12 June 2018
BrasilAgro to sell a farm for $ 44.1 million
News -BrasilAgro, one of Brazil‘s largest companies in terms of arable land use, announced its plan to sell a part of Jatobá Farm (an area of 9,784 hectares), located in the municipality of Jaborandi, Bahia. The sale price amounts to R $ 164.8 million ($ 44.1 million). The farm was acquired in 2007 and had intitially a total area of 31,606 hectares, of...
12 June 2018
Babushkina Krynka recognized as the Best exporter of 2017
News -The Belarus-based Agroholding "Mogilev dairy company Babushkina Krynka" received the award "Best exporter of 2017". The volume of exports in 2017 amounted to $ 188 million. The dairy products of the company are exported to 35 countries around the world. The holding processes over 1 million tonnes of milk per year to produce 1,250 tonnes of butter,...
12 June 2018
Large farm businesses aim to work smarter not harder: Mike Brady
Opinion -Motivation is one of the most important attributes of successful farmers. Having the courage and conviction to manage and grow a business in the face of challenges such as bad weather, volatile market prices and an increasing burden of bureaucracy speaks volumes about the resilience of Irish farmers. Ireland has an image of small fragmented family farms. The average farm size has now increased to 80 acres (32.4 hectares) and there are an increasing number of large-scale farms in Ireland. Dairy farmers with over 1,000 cows, tillage farmers growing over 3,000 acres of crops, pig farmers with 2,000 sows in fully integrated units, beef farmers finishing thousands of cattle and poultry farmers with tens of thousands of birds are an integral part of our industry. What are the criteria that help these farmers achieve such scale?
12 June 2018
Bolzan´s Biodiesel Plant accused of river contamination
News -Grupo Bolzan, a major agricultural producer in Argentina, is currently being accused of severe environmental pollution by its Biodiesel production plant located in the region of Negoyá. The community reports untreated waste with strong foul odor going directly to the nearby water streams. Now the village residents living in the vicinity of the plant are questioning the benefits of this industry to their community due to this situation.
12 June 2018
Initiative launched to ban factory farming in Switzerland
News -The “No factory farming in Switzerland” initiative was launched by animal rights groups and environmental organizations to ban intensive, industrial-scale livestock farming in Switzerland. In order for the initiative to be accepted by the government 100,000 valid signatures need to be collected within the next 18 months. The aim of the initiative is to define criteria for animal-friendly housing and access to the outdoors, as well as to limit the maximum number of animals per farm.