Reality bites

I was at the health club today over noon and two 60-somethings were talking about the stock market today and bemoaning their portfolios and their shortening window for the market to recover. "I'm going to get on the treadmill and watch the Dow drop another 400 points today," one said glumly." I asked what the market had done so far, and the conversation quickly turned to talk of the bailout of the automakers and then to the topic of health insurance. One of two men brought up the point that a recent poll of doctors that indicated a high percentage wanted to get of out of family practice/general medicine in favor of specialization. How is that going to work, he asked, when/if we get national health insurance, with tens of millions of Americans now uninsured inundate the medical system?

Good grief, news has been discouraging lately. I keep waiting for the Christmas music now broadcast 24/7 by easy listening stations to slowly adjust everyone's attitude.Oh yes, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute....

Meanwhile, brace yourself for these headlines...

Dow falls below 8,000

Will even food banks need a bailout?

Victory in Europe

From United Fresh this afternoon:

In a groundbreaking decision today, the European Commission (EC) approved the European Union’s (EU) School Fruit Scheme (SFS), providing €90 million ($113 million) per year to allow all 27 EU countries to implement school fruit and vegetable snack programs. With final approval from the EC’s Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels this week, so culminates more than a year and a half of intense planning and policy work under the leadership of the EC’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) Commissioner Marianne Fischer Bols, Director General Lars Hoelgaard, and Felix Mittermayer.

News Flash - EU approved f/v program for schools

From Lorelei DiSogra of United Fresh, good news on the global effort to expand fruit and vegetable access: Developing...


Just received phone call from Brussels --- The EU has voted to approve 90 million Euros/year for the first three years.
Yeah! Now the work begins to get all of the 27 EU member countries up and running.
I leave for Brussels on Dec 11.

Lorelei

Costa Rica - Agromonte, S.A.

One of the more fascinating places I've been in my produce career was this pineapple farm in Costa Rica. I'll have some coverage in The Packer this week...

Farm Bureau: Schedule trade votes

It will be a bad sign if the Democrats take all free trade deals off the Congressional agenda, and the American Farm Bureau Federation today issued a release that urges them to resist the impulse. From the FB:


The American Farm Bureau Federation today continued its push for passage of the Colombia and Panama Trade Promotion Agreements. In a letter, AFBF President Bob Stallman urged House and Senate leadership to schedule a vote on the agreements during the lame duck session.
“Congressional action to pass these agreements will correct the current trade inequities brought on by U.S. preference programs and will result in U.S. agricultural export gains,” wrote Stallman. “The Colombia and Panama TPAs represent U.S. agricultural export gains of more than $1 billion per year at full implementation.”

Currently, Colombia and Panama face no tariff barriers on agricultural products entering the U.S. market. Products from these countries enter the United States duty-free through the Andean Trade Preference Act, passed and extended numerous times by this Congress. U.S. farmers on the other hand continue to face significant tariff barriers when exporting products to these two markets, on average 25 percent to 30 percent. Passage of the Colombia and Panama TPAs will eliminate the tariffs placed on U.S. products.

“While we in U.S. agriculture want to increase exports to these two countries, we also want to assure current market share is retained,” continued Stallman. “Major U.S. competitors such as Canada, and possibly the European Union, are pursuing their own trade agreements; unless the United States acts now to lock in the agreements these markets could be placed in jeopardy for our farmers.”

Quoting a Washington Post editorial, Stallman said it’s time to “level the playing field” for U.S. agriculture. By acting on both Colombia and Panama, “Congress has the opportunity to correct the current imbalance by voting on and approving these agreements,” continued Stallman.

CPI - Food and Beverages in October

Has the dreaded stag-deflation arrived? Retail prices decelerate in October. From the CPI report this morning
. The food and beverage index rose a modest 0.3 % in October after an 0.6% increase in September. Meanwhile, the index for food at home increased 0.1% in October after increase at least 0.6% in each of the previous four months. Five of six grocery sectors saw prices go down; the fruits and vegetables index was 2.2% lower in October ater an 0.5% increase in September.

Overall, the CPI was down 1% in October, led by a decline in energy prices.... Specifics on fruits and veggies later....


Drop bigger than expected

Hump day

Wednesday, affectionately called "hump day" by radio personalities. By the way, who invented the term "hump day" from Wikipedia...

An American English idiom for Wednesday is "hump day" a reference to making it through to the middle of the work week as getting "over the hump."

Gee that was enlightening- sorry I asked. Oh well. My "hump day" includes getting through some coverage from my trip to Costa Rica, including a couple of stories, a column and - always my least favorite task - photo cut lines. Meanwhile, I wanted to echo David Mitchell's thoughts in his column in the Nov. 17 issue of The Packer on the helpfulness of industry sources to our weekly news efforts. Between last night and this morning, I received helpful calls/emails from Kathy Means, Nancy Foster, Craig Regelbrugge, Robert Guenther and Lorelei DiSogra.

This morning, Lorelei DiSogra sent an email about pending approval in Europe of the snack program there and a link to a recent USDA offer sheet for fresh cut apple purchases.

Nancy Foster sent a link to a FAQ page on the E-Verify rule for federal contractors and specifically how the exemption for agriculture is worded.

Other headlines grabbed from the Web:

Fresh & Easy: 100 stores and counting

Aldi's philosophy
Toronto campaign to raise local food for food banks

Specter of stag-deflation looming larger

Asian markets mixed as Japan falls into recession

Food banks feeling the crunch

China's pain hurts us too

Eurozone falls into recession

Irresponsible reporting making the problem worse

Branded credit cards see rising delinquencies

Anti-foreclosure plan essential

Liquidity and leverage will be focus for food and beverage industry in 2009