• Bloomberg reported that Indonesia has extended the waiver for CPO export levy by 2 months to 31 October to boost shipments and FFB prices. Exporters will not have to pay the levy to the Indonesia Oil Palm Plantations Fund Management Agency until 31 October.

• Bloomberg quoted Brazil's national agricultural agency Conab as saying that the country’s sugar output is seen at 33.9mil tonnes in 2022E/2023F, down from the previous forecast of 40.3mil tonnes. Conab said that falling yields due to adverse weather and lower plantings are curbing potential for sugar production. Harvested areas are estimated to shrink by 2.6% as farmers migrate to more profitable crops such as grains and soybeans.

• DTN Progressive Farmer reported that average retail fertiliser prices tracked by DTN continued to move lower in the second week of August 2022. All eight major fertilisers were lower compared to a month ago. Urea was 6% lower compared to last month. Despite lower prices in recent months, all fertilisers are still considerably higher in price than a year earlier. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act will deliver US$19.5bil in new conservation funding. According to the USDA, the funding will increase new opportunities for nutrient management.

• PTI reported that the India government has no plans to import wheat as it has sufficient stocks to meet the country’s requirements. The comments came against the backdrop of some reports, which said that India may import wheat. India’s wheat production is projected to decline nearly 3% to 106.8mil tonnes while overall grain production is estimated to be a record 315.7mil tonnes in 2021/2022E. Wheat production is forecast to decline due to a heat wave that have resulted in shrivelled grains in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana.

• Borneo Post quoted Soppoa (Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association) as saying that the slow arrival of Indonesian workers remains a challenge to oil palm growers who are still facing a critical shortage of workers. An official with Soppoa said that the long processing time of applications for approved permits, new labour licence and visa has contributed to the delay in employing foreign workers. The chairman of Soppoa said that the palm oil industry generated significant amount of tax revenues for Malaysia in 2021. These included the MPOB cess of RM62.5mil, windfall tax levy of RM394mil, Sarawak sales tax of RM1bil, export tax of RM1.5mil and corporate tax of between 20% and 28%.

Source: AmInvest Research - 29 Aug 2022