- In late-November 2014, the US Government deferred a decision on how much ethanol and other biofuels can be blended in 2014F. The decision has been postponed until 2015F.

- The ruling has been delayed since a year ago. The proposed rule would have cut the mandated amounts of biofuel in USA by 16%.

- Bloomberg reported that industry experts are forecasting US soybean inventories to be 5.1% smaller than USDA’s (US Department of Agriculture) numbers, which will be released this week. Last month, USDA estimated that ending soybean inventory in the country would be 450mil bushels in 2014F/2015F.

- In Malaysia, consensus estimate for November’s palm oil inventory is 2.29mil tonnes. MPOB will be releasing its monthly statistics this week.

- Independent cargo surveyors reported that Malaysia’s palm oil shipments declined by 9.8% to 10.5% in November compared with the previous month. IJM Plantations reported that its FFB production (Malaysia and Indonesia) contracted by 6.2% MoM in November 2014.

- Bloomberg cited an official with Banco do Brasil as saying that Brazilian farmers may be bringing forward their borrowings this year to avoid higher interest rates next year.

- Rural credit default levels are stable around 0.6% and so far, agribusiness in Brazil has not been hurt by the economic slowdown. Soybean margins are still profitable in Brazil at current levels.

- Indonesia has set minimum wages for 2015F. On average, minimum wage is expected to rise by 12.8% in 2015F versus 19.1% in 2014.

- Minimum wage in Central Kalimantan is anticipated to increase by 10% to Rp1,896,367 in 2015F while West Kalimantan is envisaged to record a 13% rise.

- Minimum wage in East Kalimantan is expected to climb by 7.4% in 2015F.

- Banten and Gorontalo are the two provinces with some of the biggest increases in minimum wage of 20.8% each. The smallest increase is in Riau, which is expected to record a rise of 0.6% in minimum wage in 2015F.

Source: AmeSecurities