Can the World feed China ?
By Lester R. Brown Overnight, World feed China has become a leading world grain importer, set to buy a staggering 22 million tons in the 2013–14 trade year, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture projections. As recently as 2006—just eight years ago—China had a grain surplus and was exporting 10 million tons. What caused this dramatic shift? It wasn’t until 20 years ago, after I wrote an article entitled “Who Will Feed China?”, that I began to fully appreciate what a sensitive political…
Chile ahead of Peru as ‘Best Place’ for business in Latin America
According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Chile is the best place to do business in Latin America in 2014, with the cheapest costs in the region, The country of about 17 million people secured the top position of 14 Latin American nations based on six criteria, including the degree of economic integration and labour costs. Peru and Brazil respectively occupied the next two slots. In the global ranking, Chile moved up to 21st from 26th the year earlier. Chile is the only country in Latin America with net savings…
Why Progressive New Zealand Dairy farmers are moving to South America
New Zealand Dairy farmers are moving to South America New Zealands farm landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years. Once considered one large sheep farm and a breadbasket for the United Kingdom with over 77 million sheep ( a controversial figure as many sheep were counted twice during this period to get the generous subsidies then been given ) it is now seen as one large dairy farm supplying the world. Why the change ? Simple economics. Dairying is grossing approximately 10 times…
Yield-starved investors go back to investing in Farmland
Yield-starved investors go back to investing in Farmland by Louise Bowman SLC Agricola Plenty of room for growth in neglected asset class; Good inflation hedge relatively uncorrelated to economic cycle Last year many yield-hungry institutional investors stretched their mandates to incorporate alternative assets such as infrastructure, real estate and direct lending. This year could be the one in which they focus on one of the least-developed asset classes available: farmland. Research published by…
A Worldwide Wine Shortage ? “Lies, damned lies, and statistics”
By Felix Salmon Reuters Press Have you heard about the global wine shortage? Of course you have: it’s been covered [1] in pretty much every media outlet imaginable, but Roberto Ferdman’s piece for Quartz (“A Worldwide wine shortage could soon be upon us”) was one of the first, and also one of the most detailed. Still, it was the classic single-source article: it basically took one Morgan Stanley report , reproduced a bunch of the key charts, and added a clickbaity headline. The charts, on their…
Why South America should not be ignored as a trading block
Why South America should not be ignored as a trading block Beyond mining, there are compelling reasons why the region should figure much more prominently in the international media. Just to refresh your memory, let’s list some of the region’s key attributes, including the fact that it occupies some 14% of the earth’s land surface area, has a population estimated at more than 590 million and a GDP in excess of USD 5 trillion; has 25% of the world’s arable land (including 32% of the unused land suitable…
Gateway Nominated for the 2013 European Global Real Estate Awards for South America
Gateway Nominated for the 2013 European Global Real Estate Awards for South America Since the crash in 2008 the real estate industry in South America has taken its time to recover, but now firmly seems to be back and generating huge amounts of interest from prospective investors world wide. For many countries this has been a tough few years following the financial crash, as well as political problems in some South American countries . In Jan / Feb 2014 issue of The European we recognize those companies that…
URUGUAY and CHILE least corrupt countries in Latam region
Uruguay retains the lowest level of public sector corruption in Latin America, shortly followed by Chile. The Transparency International (TI) published a report last week. In its annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) which is based on expert evaluation of public section corruption, the NGO ranked Uruguay 19th out of the 177 countries assessed, whilst Chile followed closely at 22nd. “ URUGUAY and CHILE score higher than other countries in the region. In general what we see is that countries that score…
The Bioceanico Aconcagua Tunnel – Joining the food bowls of South America to Asia
The Bioceanico Aconcagua Tunnel – Joining the food bowls of South America to Asia The Pacific Ocean: the Epicenter of the 21st Century As the Mediterranean was the sea of the past, and the Atlantic that of the twentieth century, the twenty-first century global economy will have its epicenter in the Pacific Basin. Globalization imposes a new framework for trade and economic relations. The world’s largest and most populous continent on Earth faces the Pacific Basin. There, 4 of the largest economies…
Chile is the best country in Latin America and the Caribbean to do business
Chile is the best country in Latin America and the Caribbean to do business According to the latest ranking published by Forbes, Chile was ranked 24 ° among the best counties to do business worldwide and was the first in Latin America and the Caribbean. The ranking includes 134 countries. Peru, meanwhile, is ranked 42 ° at the international level and won second place in the region. Trinidad and Tobago is in third place (49 °), Mexico’s fourth (57 °) and Panama’s fifth (60). Uruguay (61 °),…
Pacific Alliance means business, not weighed down by yesterdays ideology
The Pacific Alliance proves that there is strength in numbers and we all have a lot to gain from working together. We´ve seen this before, haven’t we? Latin American countries coming together to build a bloc that promises to combat U.S. hegemony and bring about radical change in the continent without really saying how they will achieve it. Then along comes the Pacific Alliance, which instead of focusing on ideology and finger pointing, just wants to get down to business. So what is the Pacific Alliance (AP)…
Where to buy a vineyard today – you might be surprised
A Rough Guide to Buying a Vineyard Compiling a worldwide list of what’s hot and what’s not in the vineyard world is a complicated task. But Mark Hazell of VineSmart.com, a global vineyard sales website, says that as a rough guide France, Italy, Spain and Portugal tend to be the first pick for many European buyers. “After that, it’s probably Australia, New Zealand and Argentina,” followed by Germany, Bulgaria and Croatia. Only then does South Africa figure on the list. Its low ranking – although…
Real Estate is booming throughout Latin America except in Argentina where it is bust
July 29, 2013 In a region where booming real estate markets have governments from Chile to Brazil to Colombia warning of potential property bubbles, Argentina stands out as a bust. Two years after President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner clamped down on Argentines’ purchase of dollars, the currency of choice for real-estate transactions, the housing industry is grinding to a halt. While prices soared to records in Sanhattan, a high-end strip in Santiago, Rio de Janeiro and Medellin, Colombia, in Buenos…
Chile first and Peru second on global economic optimism survey
In spite of the fact that Peru’s level of optimism fell by 12 percentage points for the second quarter and 10 points with regard to the second quarter of 2013, the Andean nation remains among the top of the list of global economic optimism. Chile first and Peru came in second place with 86 percent of businesses being optimistic, along with the United Arab Emirates. Chile was the most optimistic country globally with 88 percent of businesses reporting optimism, according to recent research by the audit and…
