Agriculture – Page 2 – Primal Group

Brazil – Responding to Emerging Markets Uncertainty

“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter”

– Winston Churchill

It’s not a view widely held and even less in evidence, but we believe that Dilma Rousseff deserves a lot of sympathy from the Brazilian electorate. Seven months into her second term, during which time the global environment for emerging markets has softened quite rapidly, the irony is that this technocrat ‘gets it’, and is making many of the tough financial decisions that investors demanded during much of her first term in office and which will accelerate a return to growth for the country.…

Divergent Paths Open Up in the Commodity Sector

A report just released by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology states 2015 sea-surface temperature anomalies in the central Pacific will be the highest in 19 years, are continuing to rise and may surpass the record temperatures set in 1997. El Niño influenced sea surface temperatures are currently 2.9F above normal and are forecast to climb by an additional 4.9F in total by the end of December 2015 and start of 2016.

In response, investors have been fast increasing their exposure to agricultural investments, through indices or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These saw net inflows of $800m during April and May 2015, in marked contrast to the net outflows of $2.4 billion during Q4 2014.…

Restoring Biodiversity to Safeguard Human Existence

Our planet is on the verge of a sixth mass extinction, according to joint research by Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico published in June 2015. This is a bold and momentous statement considering that the last mass extinction occurred 65 million years ago and was caused by an asteroid hitting the Earth. This resulted in giant tsunamis, powerful earthquakes and acid rain that obliterated 70% of all species over the following 33,000 years. This time human interference with the world’s ecosystems will be the major catalyst. Unless rapid action is taken to restore habitats, save threatened species and reduce carbon emissions, the resulting loss in biodiversity will significantly impact human life in as little as three generations.…

The Consumer is Always King

The decision taken this year by some of the largest food processing, restaurant and retail companies in the US to phase out meat, eggs and other foods sourced from produce adulterated with antibiotics has been described as a ‘game-changer’ by industry watchers. The reason; shoppers are increasingly interested in the food they are eating and the conditions in which it is produced. They will be quick to show their dissatisfaction or doubts about what they are consuming by withholding their dollars, something that the notoriously low profit margin consumer and retail sector is aware of. In any case these companies will pass off any additional costs involved in supplying unadulterated produce to their suppliers, making it a cost free option.…

California’s Drought Order – A Sign of Times To Come?

Judging by the amount of coverage it received outside the US, the move in California to impose a statewide reduction of 25 percent in drinking water usage throughout urban areas must have been huge. Effective immediately and set to run until February 2016, the state is employing a mix of measures including restrictions on irrigating turf or outside newly built houses and buildings, ‘encouraging’ water suppliers to raise prices and investing in new technologies such as desalination and precision technology.

California is enduring the driest period in over a century. Converting the current level of snow in the Sierra mountain range into water produces a comparable water figure of only five percent of normal levels.…