FARMERS EYEING CHANGES IN CAP AND SUSTAINABILITY - Farming and agriculture are back in fashion and back in profit. This year the prices achieved for most farm products are ahead of 2010 levels, with milk, cattle and sheep prices all up on a year ago. Grain growers, for the most part, have also enjoyed a good harvest. This progress will be discussed at the annual conference of the Agricultural Economics Society of Ireland, which takes place today, with agricultural economists from home and abroad attending.
Dr Fiona Thorne is the senior research officer at Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority. She says that the agricultural industry is looking at inflated commodity prices, but it is also facing pressure from increased input prices. Dr Thorne says the that the planned reformed of the Common Agriculture Policy is also a big issue at the fore of farmers' minds and what impact that the changes will have. The agrifoods industrial sector makes up 6% of Irish industry, while it employs 8% of the workforce and makes up 10% of exports. Dr Thorne says that farmers are anxious that the system of direct payments is going to change after 2014, while dairy farmers are gearing up for the ending of quotas. The industry is experiencing a big expansion phase, Dr Thorne says. She also says the sustainability issue is one which will not go away.
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MORNING BRIEFS - The borrowing costs of almost all euro zone states, even those previously seen as safe such as France, Austria and the Netherlands, have spiked in the last two weeks as panicky investors sell assets no longer seen as risk-free. Germany yesterday drew significantly fewer bids than the amount on offer for its Bunds, with investors deterred by very low yields. This comes as the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the new Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti are to meet in the Strasbourg this morning, mainly to discuss Italy and its reforms. At yesterday's sale, underlining how deep the euro zone crisis has become, the German debt agency could not find buyers for almost half a bond sale of €6 billion. That pushed the cost of borrowing over 10 years for Europe's biggest economy above those for the US for the first time since October. The new bond promised to pay out a 2% interest rate - the lowest ever on an issue of German ten year Bunds. But the auction's average yield was 1.98%, down from 2.09% for the previous benchmark in October. The poor debt sale pushed the euro down to €1.336 against the dollar and European shares sank to seven-week lows.
*** Nokia Siemens Networks is cutting 17,000 jobs, or 23% of its workforce. The cuts from its 74,000 strong workforce should help reduce costs by €1 billion, it said in a statement.
*** Suzuki Motors has started arbitration proceedings against Volkswagen to buy back its shares from the German carmaker. Volkswagen bought a 9.9% stake in Suzuki in 2009, but relations between the two have since deteriorated.
*** There has been a bit of a backlash in the US about some retailers opening today on Thanksgiving. The predictions are that tomorrow - the biggest shopping day of the year - and over the rest of the weekend, 152 million people will shop, up 10% from last year. That is according to a recent report from industry trade group the National Retail Federation. The critical shopping day generally sets the tone for consumer spending throughout the Christmas season.
*** On the currency markets the euro is trading at $1.3360 and 85.9p sterling.
