Agriculture

It’s safe to count chickens even before they hatch

30 Oct 2024

Bigger and faster-growing fowl keep pushing prices lower and consumption higher. The $50 bln US industry is cooking, evidenced by Pilgrim’s Pride’s profitability, Chick-fil-A’s entertainment app, and more. None of it, though, will end a cyclicality that runs like cluckwork.

How to harvest cash crops amid a retail drought

23 Oct 2024

Shopkeepers worldwide are wrestling with fickle customers, clunky logistics and more. Tractor Supply, a $32 bln chain that sells everything from chicken feed to overalls, has defied the trends with lush returns on par with Apple and Netflix. There are seeds for peers to sow.

Soaring coffee prices foretell a financial grind

30 Jul 2024

Robusta futures are off the boil, but near record highs. Espresso drinkers needn’t fret just yet: baristas use more popular arabica, and a $5 cup contains just 7 cents of beans. Rising demand and climate effects, however, are brewing trouble for the $200 bln industry.

India’s leader faces a reckoning with its poor

3 Jun 2024

Exit polls suggest Narendra Modi will secure a third term with a big majority. Raising rural incomes will be high on his to-do list. Consumption is growing at 4%, making the nearly 8% GDP pace look shaky. Fixing that will boost India's reliability as a global trade partner too.

China’s graft probe heightens food security worry

22 May 2024

A probe into the agricultural minister spotlights Beijing's self-sufficiency concerns. Worsening geopolitics and trade tensions are spurring China to diversify imports, boost crop output and increase stockpiles. All of these will reshape global supply chains.

The green agenda’s best shot at a revival

13 Feb 2024

Economic distress prompted by globalisation undermines support for the energy transition, climate change economist Valentina Bosetti tells The Exchange podcast. That matters as key US and EU elections approach. Using proceeds from carbon taxes to address inequality is paramount.

Capital Calls: Bayer breakup

8 Nov 2023

Concise views on global finance: The 40 bln euro German seeds-to-drugs maker is considering splitting off its consumer or crop science divisions, but may still be left with a more unwieldy structure than its pharma peers.

Polish cereal showdown goes against the EU grain

4 Oct 2023

A spat over Ukraine’s grain exports is the latest blemish on the European Union’s fraught relationship with Poland, the bloc’s sixth largest economy and biggest net recipient of EU funds. If upcoming elections push Warsaw further from Brussels, both sides have much to lose.

Black Sea wheat war is sideshow for grain deal

9 Aug 2023

Russia is bombing Ukraine’s Danube ports while Kyiv hits its enemy’s ships in the Black Sea. Bumper harvests can cushion the shock on global wheat prices. But it would be in the two warring countries’ interest to strike a new food transport pact to allow their lucrative exports.

Egypt’s food tightrope has petrodollar safety net

24 Jul 2023

The collapse of the Russia-Ukraine grain deal is a big problem for the world’s top importer of wheat. Egypt’s battered economy will struggle as food prices spike. A $400 mln lifeline from the UAE, flush with oil cash, is one of leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s few crumbs of comfort.

Capital Calls: Thames Water, Bayer

10 Jul 2023

Concise views on global finance: The indebted UK utility secured a pledge from shareholders to cough up 750 mln pounds over the next two years; the German conglomerate could help long-suffering investors by undoing the disastrous Monsanto deal.

Bunge’s $22 bln Viterra deal is a tolerable muddle

13 Jun 2023

The US crops merchant agreed to buy its peer, half-owned by Swiss commodities giant Glencore. Grain inventories cloud the math on the combined company’s debt-load. Even so, the strategic rationale, valuation multiple and savings worth $1.8 bln more than make up for the concern.

Capital Calls: London crypto move, Stellantis SPAC

12 Jun 2023

Concise views on global finance: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomes Andreessen Horowitz’s UK office just as cryptocurrencies face a regulatory crackdown in the US; the European carmaker’s move to back a London blank-check vehicle is less hairy than it sounds.

Syngenta’s bumper IPO will test Chinese appetite

1 Jun 2023

The seeds-to-pesticides group is planning a $9 bln stock market float in Shanghai this year. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain how investors need to get comfortable with its high debt levels and use of toxic chemicals that could hurt its valuation.

Olam’s Saudi-Singapore IPO is food for the future

31 May 2023

A $1 bln dual listing of its agri unit is delayed. A pause may help Saudi justify what it paid for a 35% stake. Yet the float will improve the company’s financial strength and its ability to shore up food security in the Gulf, so there’s good reason to get this complex deal done.

Glencore’s Bunge redux may yield Teck benefits

26 May 2023

The Swiss commodity giant could merge the agri-trader it part-owns with its $14 bln US-listed peer. A Bunge deal would be oddly timed, and Glencore has other ways to raise cash. But the bid may offer a way to spur Glencore’s share price as it mulls a new offer for Canada’s Teck.

Syngenta’s China listing tweak seems a demotion

18 May 2023

The agrichemical giant scrapped a $9 bln IPO on the Nasdaq-like STAR Market to list on Shanghai’s main trading board instead. Beijing probably hopes to make Syngenta a poster child for the venue’s revamp without downsizing the offering. Valuations would suffer regardless.

Capital Calls: AT&T’s magic number falls short

20 Apr 2023

Concise views on global finance: The $140 billion telecom giant, now free from its tangled M&A past, has one metric to deliver on: cash to support its dividend. But that figure fell 64% in its first-quarter results.

War on cow farts is stinky but necessary job

24 Mar 2023

Cattle’s digestion is a big driver of harmful gas emissions. To curb them, New Zealand is taxing farmers and Europe may shrink livestock numbers. Both steps have angered harvesters and may inflate food prices. The noise will teach consumers to treat beef like fossil fuels.

Capital Calls: Nike, Stablecoins, Meme stocks

22 Mar 2023

Concise views on global finance: The Air Jordan maker grew quarterly revenue 14% despite inventory woes and China’s slow reopening; diverging demand for Circle and Tether cryptocurrencies raises questions about how investors are assessing risk; and GameStop’s shares surged 40%.