COMMODITIES

Investors inclined to sell in May and go away for the summer have plenty of reasons to get an early start this year, with lackluster macroeconomic data joining a list that includes turmoil in the Middle East, inflationary pressures

We recall that the spot uranium price had run hard early in the year as speculators returned from their forced hiatus to pick up on one commodity which had been lagging in the great commodity price push.

The Australian Uranium Association has reaffirmed its confidence that the Northern Territory mine review process could successfully address all the matters raised by Chief Minister Henderson justifying his opposition to the Angela Pamela project near Alice Springs.

Two independent studies by the Aberdeen Group show that personalization of the in-store customer experience will be a key objective for retailers over the next two years. The studies were sponsored by HP.

Queenslanders running their cars on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) are paying too much, according to the State’s peak motoring body.

Brisbane motorists now have proof they have been paying too much for fuel, with an RACQ report revealing Brisbane was the most expensive of Australia’s five largest capital cities in 2010.

The country’s winter crop is expected to produce some 19 percent more bountiful harvest this year as compared to the 2009/10 yields, this despite the flooding that ravaged large areas of Queensland and Victoria and the drought that denuded tracts of farmlands in Western Australia.

World food prices surged to a new historic peak in January, for the seventh consecutive month, according to the updated FAO Food Price Index, a commodity basket that regularly tracks monthly changes in global food prices.The Index averaged 231 points in January and was up 3.4 percent from December 2010. This is the highest level (both in real and nominal terms) since FAO started measuring food prices in 1990. Prices of all monitored commodity groups registered strong gains in January, except for...

Peter Kean, currently Managing Director of Lion Nathan National Foods’ New Zealand and Global Wine businesses, has been appointed Managing Director of food and beverage company National Foods, from 1 April 2011, replacing Andrew Reeves, who will leave the business to become CEO at ABF's George Weston Foods.National Foods is one of Australasia’s largest FMCG companies, employing over 4,000 people and producing category-leading brands in milk and dairy beverages, juice, fresh dairy, cheese and...

Ongoing protest actions that have engulfed the Middle East and North African regions could potentially affect the flow of phosphate rock supplies and disrupt global food stability, according to Australian academics.

The flooding that ravaged crops in New South Wales resulted to estimated harvest losses of up to $850 million, according to the projections issued by the NSW government on Thursday.

AUSVEG, the national peak industry body representing the interests of over 9,000 Australian vegetable and potato growers, today endorsed Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten's comments that no increase in the importation of vegetables was needed due to the ongoing floods in a number of states around Australi

Queensland’s mining and agricultural industries bore the brunt of the worst flood disaster that hit Australia in the past weeks and as the situation slowly gains normalcy, apprehensions rule the atmosphere for both sectors.

India’s External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna has reportedly expressed the country’s renewed interest in Australia’s uranium supplies during talks with the Minister for Resources, Energy, and Tourism, Martin Ferguson, in Melbourne.

Australia's trade surplus has decreased slightly to a seasonally adjusted A$1.925 billion in November from a revised surplus of A$2.561 billion in October, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

The forecast for Australian commodity exports in 2010-11 has been downgraded by $3.8 billion off the back of a poor end to the winter cropping season and lower gold, iron ore and metallurgical coal exports, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).

Export earnings from energy and mineral commodities in the September quarter 2010 were the third-highest on record, at $44 billion, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) said.

Record yields are still expected despite the adverse effect of the recent rain in eastern Australia on the quality of winter crops, according the Australian Crop Report-December Quarter 2010 released today by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).

The unusual wet weather condition that earlier prevailed in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria had resulted to crippling losses for many farmers in the affected areas, pushing back the national harvest estimates to 22 million tonnes from the earlier projections of 25 million tonnes.

The weak US dollar will continue to fuel the higher prices of commodities considered as the next safest forms of investment.

India's annual food inflation eased somewhat to 16.24% for the week ended September 25 against 16.44% in the previous week, as supplies of essential items resumed in most of the parts of the country after witnessing a sustained disruption due to heavy rains and floods in parts of the country.

The Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) Board of Directors have not made any final decisions whether to pursue or not their planned iron ore venture with BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) in Western Australia seen to earn and save the companies billions of dollars.

Spiral Foods Proprietary Limited is pulled to the court room for distributing soy milk products that allegedly caused people to suffer from thyroid problems.

Australia's largest brewer Foster's Group Ltd could save up to $150 million (US$130 million) by putting its Abbotsford plant in Melbourne on sale, Merrill Lynch analysts said.

Australia’s eastern states can look forward for their winter crops best ever start in several years as the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resources Economics (ABARE) reported in its latest forecast that March and May saw the most widespread above-average rainfall since 2003.

Australia is boosting its beef exports to meet the growing demand in the U.S. and to take advantage of the forecasted rise in beef prices.

A Full Court Appeal on Friday told Australia's biggest sugar milling company CSR that it can proceed with its planned separation of its sugar business from its building materials arm.

Oil prices continued its advance for a second straight day as an industry-funded report showed the U.S. crude and fuel product supplies are declining, boosting forecast that the world's largest energy consumer would start buying and stockpiling again.