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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (56767)	12/2/2004 4:48:59 AM
From: energyplay	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Hi Malcolm - Taking 3 first, Bosendorffer sp? has a good reputation. The export trade really tops up profits - incremental units plus frequently high prices. The Europeans will benefit from lower import prices.

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (56767)	12/2/2004 12:18:31 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

Brazil and the United States together can control the world market for biofuels farmweek.ilfb.org Perspective - BRAZIL: Competitor or partner for U.S. ag? Wednesday, December 01, 2004 By Stewart Truelsen The most influential person in Brazilian agriculture is Minister of Agriculture Roberto Rodrigues. Because Brazil is an agricultural giant and one of the few places in the world with good potential for farmland expansion, his views on the future of Brazilian agriculture are important to American farmers as well. Rodrigues was a gracious host to a group of American Farm Bureau leaders who visited his ranch in the state of São Paulo near Ribeirão Preto, the agribusiness capital of Brazil. Under his guidance, Brazil is adopting the latest technology in agriculture and expanding its production and exports. If this progress makes U.S. farmers a little uneasy, Rodrigues understands perfectly. “In fact, we are competitors. It would not be honest to say that we are not. “We are efficient. We have the best tropical technology in the world, and our farmers are very good farmers, very good managers ... so why don’t we work together?” His idea for partnerships is twofold. He thinks Brazil and the United States together can control the world market for biofuels, and he encourages more U.S. investment in Brazilian agribusiness. There are vast fields of sugar cane and one of the largest mills in the world on the way to the minister’s ranch. Roughly half of the sugar cane is used to make ethanol; the other half becomes sugar. Gasoline in Brazil contains a 25 percent mix of ethanol, but flex-fuel vehicles that can run on much higher mixtures of ethanol are catching on fast. “I am absolutely convinced that in the 21st century it will be very important to get new fuels, especially biofuels, to replace oil. So, what are the countries able to produce lots of ethanol or even biodiesel? “Brazil and the United States are the main countries that can do that, so I think we should work together in biofuels,” said Rodrigues. Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee, sugar, frozen concentrated orange juice, tropical fruits, and vegetables. It is gaining fast on the United States in the production of soybeans and has the world’s largest cattle herd. Brazil has room to grow more — lots of room. “For the moment we use 62 million hectares (one hectare equals 2.47 acres) with agricultural products but have 200 million hectares of pasture. The fantastic progress in raising cattle will allow us to have in the next 50 years 30 million hectares more land for agriculture,” said Rodrigues. But Brazil has a few problems to deal with first. It needs a tremendous investment in infrastructure to adequately handle and ship its agricultural production. A stifling bureaucracy is another problem. Land is cheaper than in the United States, but the soil is poorer. “We need markets, more and more markets,” said Rodrigues in further assessing the future for Brazil. This surely means that we will remain competitors in the world marketplace, but a growing world population and the increased demand for agricultural products could make us partners in the long run. Stewart Truelsen is director of broadcast services for American Farm Bureau Federation.