Farm News, Tuesday August 23, 2016

U.S. Panel Clears Syngenta Takeover by ChemChina

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has given its approval to the ChemChina takeover of Syngenta. Reuters says the decision removes significant uncertainty over the takeover of the world's largest pesticides maker after the two companies agreed to a deal in February. However, Syngenta did not disclose whether it had made concessions to secure approval. If completed, the $43 billion agreement would be the largest foreign acquisition ever by a Chinese company. Syngenta reiterated the company expects to finalize the deal by the end of the year. Syngenta says closing the transaction is still subject to "anti-trust review by numerous regulators around the world and other customary closing conditions.”

U.S. Egg Production up Nine Percent in July

United States egg production totaled 8.5 billion during July, up nine percent from last year. The Department of Agriculture released the monthly U.S. Chicken and Eggs production report Monday. The agency says production included 7.36 billion table eggs, and 1.1 billion hatching eggs, of which one billion were broiler-type and 97 million were egg-type. The total number of layers during July 2016 averaged 358 million, up seven percent from last year. July egg production per 100 layers was 2,378 eggs, up two percent from July of 2015. Egg production in the U.S. has been increasing following the decline of high pathogenic avian influenza. HPAI shot egg prices higher in 2015 as the outbreak decreased the table-egg-laying flocks in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest by 11 percent.

Source:  NAFB News