Commodity Trading on the International Market-Local chicken beats imported |06 March 2009

The Cool Store at Anse Royale won, for selling locally produced chicken at R45 a kilo.

Such news is welcome at a time when we have to modernise and operate our production systems more efficiently.

The world economic recession is driving international prices down because consumers become more thrifty in times of uncertainty. Lower prices, and matching quality, attract buyers and are good innovation and business, too.  

A Cool Store spokesman, who asked not to be named, said the meat shop has its own poultry producer – Vision Farm – for a regular supply of chicken.
 
He said prices will depend on economic stability, and this week no distinction has been made between wholesale and retail prices – R45 a kilo is the price.

President James Michel announced in his state-of-the-nation address that goods and services tax (GST) will not apply on animal feeds and day-old chicks. This is a big boost to the farming community.

Consumers, too, will benefit. If Vision Farm is now selling chicken cheaper than the broilers imported by the Seychelles Trading Company (STC), then without GST it will be in a position to reduce wholesale and retail prices further.

At the same time government – which is in fact all consumers put together – will not have to pay for costly subsidies.
 
The drive to modernise and transform Seychelles will also require cost-cutting and the ability to do well without subsidy.

Cool Store’s whole chicken is selling at R45 a kilo, compared to the STC’s R43 a kilo wholesale and R49.50 retail, and Docklands’ R65 wholesale and R78 retail.  

Cooking oil, an everyday commodity

Cooking oil is purified fat of plant origin, which is liquid at room temperature.

Some of the many different kinds of edible vegetable oils include olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil and others – in the past in Seychelles coconut oil was commonly used for cooking.

It is therefore important that the public are aware of the different brands of cooking oil that our local retailers are selling, at different prices.

This week La Casa Azzurra, the shop at Kingsgate House that sells Italian products, advertised two brands of its cooking oil: extra virgin olive oil, 75cl glass bottle, selling at R113 and extra virgin olive oil, 1 litre glass bottle, selling at R125.

It also has sunflower oil, 1 litre, selling at R38 and sunflower, 5 litres, selling at R170. It claims these cooking oils are top-quality ones that are imported from Italy and produced under the most stringent European Union regulations.

Since the National Consumers Forum (Natcof) is encouraging consumers to shop around before buying goods, a visit to the STC was made for comparison purposes.

The STC is selling the Levante olive pomace, 1 litre, at R89.20, Lumière (no cholestorol), 1 litre, at R37, sunflower oil (Mount Everest) at R37 and Oki, 1 litre, at R27.

STC prices are, therefore, slightly lower than La Casa Azzurra’s, but one must bear in mind that the brands are not the same.

Cooking oil is an important commodity that we use on a daily basis.
However, the appropriate amount of fat as a component of daily food consumption is the topic of some controversy.   Some fat is required in the diet, and fat (in the form of oil) is also essential in many types of cooking. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US recommends that 30% or less of calories consumed daily should be from fat.

Other nutritionists recommend that no more than 10% of a person’s daily calories come from fat. But despite the difference in the percentage, cooking oil remains an essential commodity and so it is good to be aware of the different brands and prices available on the market.

Vulnerable people, vulnerable countries

The world's poorest countries are beginning to be hit by the global financial crisis, warns the International Monetary Fund (IMF). And they are likely to need $25bn in extra financing this year, it says.

The IMF describes it as the “third wave” of the downturn, after first affecting the advanced and then the emerging economies.

The IMF represents 185 countries – Seychelles is a middle-income country that is now benefiting from its help. 

The organisation is calling on donor countries not to cut back on their support for vulnerable nations.

In a new report, the IMF says poor countries face greater exposure to the current crisis because they are more integrated into the international economy than they used to be. They are likely to feel the impact through a downturn in trade and falls in foreign investment and remittances – money sent home by people working abroad.

The report says more than 20 countries, half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, are particularly vulnerable.

It warns that if “global growth and financing conditions deteriorate further, the number of vulnerable countries could almost double”.
And that would increase the extra amount of money countries need towards $140bn, the report predicts.

“After hitting first the advanced economies and then the emerging economies, a third wave from the global financial crisis is now hitting the world's poorest and most vulnerable countries,” IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

“This puts at risk the major achievements of higher growth, lower poverty and greater political stability that many low-income countries have made over the past decade.”
 
The IMF says it has already increased its support to low-income countries in the last year and it is ready to provide more. And it has also made larger commitments to mainly middle-income countries that are more directly affected by the financial crisis.   

Commodity briefs from around the world

• Australian wheat exports to shoot up in 2010

• Oklahoma wheat crop may be almost halved by drought

• Argentine officials play down rumours of grain nationalisation

• Stock markets reel from world stock selling spree
 
• Small rise in Guatemalan coffee exports

• Bank says CPO and crude oil prices no longer linked

• Australian sugar output and exports expected to stay relatively flat
 
• Ghana getting close to field trials of transgenic crops

• Futuris shareholders agree to implement name change

• US soyameal exports set to gain from Argentine unrest

Crude oil prices
As at 05/03/09

Nymex Crude Future       45.05 dollars per barrel
Dated Brent Spot             45.90 dollars per barrel