150 NEW JOBS IN €10M INVESTMENT AT MONAGHAN MUSHROOMS - More than 150 are being created in Tyholland in Monaghan as Monaghan Mushrooms expands. The firm already employs over 2,000 people in Ireland and overseas. The new jobs are being being created as part of a €10m development consisting of eighteen mushroom growing houses.
The Minister for Agriculture, Brendan Smith, says the new jobs will be mostly for general operatives, but there will be some across all levels of the business. He says the new jobs are a real boost to the North Monaghan region and points out that the area has been at the centre of the mushroom industry since the 1980s. He also says that news of the research and development investment is very welcome. He says it is important the food sector focuses on innovation. The Minister says the mushroom industry generates €100m on an annual basis and 70% of the product is exported. He also says the the industry has shown great resilience to currency fluctuations and the general economic downturn.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Russia's ban on grain exports until the end of the year began over the weekend, as severe drought and wildfires have devastated crops. Russia is one of the world's biggest producers of wheat, barley and rye, and the ban is designed to keep domestic food prices under control. Hundreds of wildfires have been burning across central Russia in the last three weeks. But officials say the area being affected by the fires is now almost a quarter less than a week ago. The grain harvest is down by at least a third compared with last year.
*** Economic growth in Japan weakened significantly in April, May and June, official figures show. Over the three months gross domestic product - the sum of the nation's goods and services - grew by 0.1% much lower than expected. Analysts said the country's export-led recovery appeared to be faltering as the value of the yen appreciates. Japan's close rivals, Germany and the US, recently posted much higher GDP figures for the same period. Germany registered a 2.2% rise, while the US economy grew at an annualised rate of 2.4%.
*** Budweiser, Coca Cola and McDonalds have said their sponsorship of the World Cup this summer was a costly but good investment. InBEV, which makes Budweiser, and the other two multinationals - who are each believed to be paying FIFA $25m a year for the exclusive sponsorship rights - all said in recent second-quarter earnings calls that their World Cup sponsorships had boosted sales. In the UK, Budweiser beer sales were up 18.6% in the quarter compared to the same time in 2009, in large part because of World Cup-related Budweiser promotions. Coca-Cola, put its 7% increase in Latin American sales over the comparable period in 2009 down to World Cup sponsorship. But things did not work out quite so well for McDonalds, who said that the football matches were so popular in Europe that traffic in McDonald's stores dropped off in June.
*** On the currency markets, this morning the euro is trading at $1.2792 cents and 81.92 pence sterling.
