Pesticides

28/01/2005

A recent news story has reported that farmers in India are spraying Coca-Cola on their crops.Coca-Cola is just as effective, with pesticides costing up to 200 times more expensive per litre. Although the Coca-Cola Corporation emphatically states that there is no scientific basis that soft drinks used for this purpose would be effective, the pests are not so sure that it "adds life" as per the human orientated advertising.

Onions	06/01/2005
This year has seen a massive over supply of Onions throughout Europe. However, many retail packers are not finding it easy to source material considering the low general prices. With an 18% rise in the UK, 47% in Holland, 60% in Germany and a likely increase of 15% in Poland, basic Onions are not in short supply. However, extremely wet conditions in August have meant that the keeping quality of Onions in Holland and the UK are suspect. Those wet conditions did not apply in Northern Germany and Poland and with a better than normal harvest in the Ukraine it means Russia is not buying as per its normal pattern over the past few years. Does this mean that with poor keeping quality that the general market will see extremely low prices for the vast majority of the season only to see very high prices at the end? Who knows, but you would have to be a very brave gambler to put money on that one!