Search Result for : Agricultural

By Abin Daya Change is an unavoidable part of life - and of doing business. One of the biggest changes to the way we do business happened last Friday, with the rolling out of the GST. Yes, there will be disruptions in the short term and the cost of compliance will go up. Also, many small businesses will lose the tax arbitrage that enabled them to price below that of the larger companies. It will also increase the financing cost of business, particularly for those engaged in foreign trade. Speaking of financing, even that is not going to be easy. While credit growth is down because of low credit demand driven by the leveraged position of corporates combined with muted demand, even where businesses ...

The Dollar Business Bureau The Central government has decided to procure 2 lakh tonnes of onion from Madhya Pradesh, to provide relief to the farmers of the state from declining prices of the crop. The wholesale prices of onion have sharply declined to less than Rs.6 per kg in Madhya Pradesh as production of the crop was higher during late Kharif season of crop year 2016-17 (July-June). “We have approved procurement of 2 lakh tonnes of onions under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) from Madhya Pradesh,” a senior official from the Agriculture Ministry remarked. The procurement of onion will be conducted by the Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation Ltd (MP-Markfed) at Rs.5,867/tonne for fair and average quality (FAQ) of the crop with overhead costs of Rs.1,467/tonne or actual, whatever is below, added the ...

The Dollar Business Bureau The Indian Cabinet has given its approval to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare and the Ministry of Agriculture in the State of Palestine on agriculture cooperation. This was signed in May 2017, when Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs had visited the country. What could seem to be an innocuous agreement, one should also look at the extra efforts on the part of the Indian government to balance its ties with Israel, Palestine, Iran and the West Asian countries. The MoU provides for cooperation in the fields of agricultural research; veterinary field including capacity enhancement of Palestinian Veterinary services and Animal Health; irrigation and climate change. It will also be extended to areas ...

The Dollar Business Bureau The EU was the largest destination of exports for Philippines in March this year. The latest statistics by Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) revealed that exports to European Union member countries, with 16.2% share to total merchandise exports amounted to $901.24 million.  It rose by 56.2% from $577.04 million recorded in March 2016. What was even more interesting was that the export numbers of Philippines to EU for that month overtook those of US which was $809.93 million and Japan $762.43 million. Several factors contributed to the increase in trade numbers. A strong EU economy and its rising demand saw an increase of 1.9%, a rise in the agri-food sector exports backed by the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) that allows ...

The Dollar Business Bureau Buoyed by improved performance in all major export sectors, Malaysia’s exports grew 24.1% year on year during March 2017. Beating expectations, the South-East Asian economy boasted a double-digit growth in exports for the fourth consecutive month since December 2016. As stated by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Malaysia (Miti), exports surpassed economic forecasts of a 20% growth by a significant margin. Explaining the ‘outstanding trade performance in March 2017’, a media release by Miti read, “Malaysia’s trade continued its strong momentum in March 2017, expanding by 31.1% to RM159.86 billion compared with the year before. Higher trade was seen with ASEAN, China, the United States of America (USA), the European Union (EU), the Republic of Korea (ROK) ...

PTI  India and Australia failed to make a headway in finalising the long-overdue free trade deal during Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's first visit to India though he got along well with his counterpart Narendra Modi, the Australian media revealed. Turnbull's trip had raised high hopes of breathing new life into the stalled trade negotiations but the two leaders admitted that the progress was "very slow". The Australian PM said there was no point in setting arbitrary time frames for the agreement. "You can sign an agreement any time, it’s a question of whether it’s got the provisions that make it valuable and worthwhile from Australia's point of view," Turnbull was quoted as saying by Skynews TV channel. The two covered a ...

Source: PTI After the Prime Minister directed to explore possibility of increasing sugar exports, the Food Ministry is looking at various options including the barter trade of the sweetener against import of farm items, as part of steps to offload surplus stock and clear cane arrears. Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a meeting to discuss the crisis in sugar sector which has resulted in cane arrears of over Rs 14,000 crore to farmers. Modi directed ministries concerned to boost sugar exports and increase ethanol blending with petrol. According to sources, "The Food Ministry is working on various options to open the export line for sugar. It is also looking at allowing sugar export under the barter system with countries ...

Source: PIB, Government of India Food Processing Industry is one of the major employment intensive segments constituting 13.04 per cent of employment generated in all Registered Factory sector in 2012-13. According to the latest Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) for 2012-13, the total number of persons engaged in registered food processing sector is 16.89 lakh. Employment in registered food processing sector has been increasing annually at an average growth of 2.41 per cent during 5 years ending 2012-13. Unregistered food processing sector supports employment to 47.9 lakh workers as per the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) 67th Round, 2010-11. Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, inter-alia, through National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), a Public Sector Enterprise of the Ministry, has ...