Worldwide round-up

2 December 1999



Worldwide round-up

• 
  Irish seek joint action to curb NZ lamb imports
  
  Sheep farmers in the west of Ireland are demanding urgent action on ewe premiums and New Zealand imports.
  

• 
  Argentina wants to expand dairy exports
  
  Argentinas largest dairy company would like foreign doors to open even wider to its products.

• 
  New Indian potato varieties suitable for French fries
  
  Indian researchers have developed two high dry-matter potato varieties which are suitable for crisp and French fries processing.

• 
  Vietnam to import live cattle from Australia
  
  Cattle exporters in Australias Northern Territory look set to benefit from improvements to Vietnams retail industry.

• 
  Argentinian pedigree Angus embryos arrive in Scotland
  
  A pioneering project which could inject new life into the Aberdeen-Angus breed took a step forward when Argentinian cattle embryos arrived in Perthshire

• 
  Polish MPs in bitter attack on EU commissioner
  
  Mutual recriminations linked with Polands preparations for EU membership dominated the first talks between Polish MPs and representatives of EU member states

• 
  Widely-used pesticide raises safety fears
  
  U.S. environmental officials say one of Americas most widely-used pesticides poses a safety risk to those who use it.

• 
  Australians dismiss Japans GM warning
  
  Agriculture specialists have dismissed a warning from Japan that Australia would miss out on $1 billion in agricultural exports if it moved to genetically modified (GM) crops

• 
  Britain tops EU fraud list
  
  More cases of fraud against the European Union budget were uncovered in Britain than in any other member state last year, a report has revealed

• 
  Dutch farmers accuse German drug companies of making cattle ill
  
  Dutch farmers claim that German pharmaceuticals companies Bayer and Hoechst are responsible for illnesses in their herds, allegedly caused by tainted vaccine jabs

• 
  Combined Case-New Holland plans to get bigger
  
  CNH Global NV co-chairman and chief executive Jean-Pierre Rosso says the new company has plans to expand further.

• 
  NZ missing out on organic boom
  
  Top European organic growers tell New Zealand its missing out on the growing demand for organic produce.

• 
  Kenyan farmers want food import ban
  
  Imports of wheat, maize and milk should be banned to protect local agriculture, claim Kenyan farmers.

• 
  Fischler says Slovakias EU prospects quite good
  
  European commissioner for agriculture Franz Fischler tells the Slovakian government that from a farming point of view its prospects for joining the EU are “quite good”.

• 
  Smart spreader means bigger yields
  
  A smart fertiliser spreader that works out exactly how much each square metre of a field needs will help farmers to achieve higher yields, say its developers.