India may import Australian gold

MUMBAI: Australian gold mining firm Citigold Corporation plans to export 40,000 ounces (over 1,134 kg) of gold to India in the next one year. Citigold currently has over 3 lakh kg gold deposits in its mines. The company also plans to launch its own financial instruments.

“In next one year Citigold plans to approximately export 40,000 ounces of gold to India,” the company head international office Manan YR Desai told ET on sidelines of a gold convention here. He said that they will also be the first mining company to launch their own financial instruments that would be customised.

However, he did not reveal any further details. The company is also scouting for a joint venture partner in the area of gold mining since last year, where it will be a minority shareholder.

Managing director, Mark Joseph Lynch said that talks are underway with possible partners and the company expects to announce further development in the next few months. “Getting hold of new grounds is a competitive area. Who we are partnering with and how we are going is subject to confidentiality. In a few months time we will be able to come back and talk to you,” he said.

India, historically, was a major gold producer and most of the world’s new gold comes out of old gold fields, said Mr Lynch, adding “If you have old gold fields you still have lots of gold remaining.”

Gold is not an easily found metal and all that was easily mineable has already been found. He said, “If you find a big copper mine it might produce 10% of the world’s copper but the biggest mine in the world doesn’t produce even 1% of the world’s gold.”

“If the Indian gold industry is developed, in five years time the country could be a big gold producer,” Mr Lynch added.

India does not have too many refining capacities and all the existing ones are very small. Regarding this Mr Lynch said that all jewellery recycling requires some sort of refining but in India gold is usually bought from other big producing countries.

Also, in the value chain, refineries add little value because it is not remunerative. Nearly 50% value addition is done at the stage of gold mining, while refining amounts to only 1%. Manufacturing amounts to about 10-15%, so the biggest value-addition is in the mining process, he added.

All big producers refine gold in their own country because it is most economical but for a country like India importing finished gold is easier and cheaper than importing raw.

S. Korea to resume import quarantine inspections on U.S. beef

South Korea will resume quarantine inspections on U.S. beef shipments next week after effectively halting them earlier this month, a government official said Friday.


The decision comes after the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry carefully examined official U.S. explanations on several thousand tons of U.S. beef that included cow backbones and ribs in violation of an agreement reached earlier.


An official at the Agriculture Ministry said quarantine inspections will resume on Monday for newly arrived beef shipments from the U.S. as well as 6,832 tons that have been held in customs.


Under a deal reached in January 2006, South Korea agreed to allow the import of boneless beef from cattle under 30 months old.




This pack permits Seoul to impose an import ban if parts like backbones that were classified as specified risk materials (SRMs) are found. SRMs are blacklisted because they pose the greatest risk of transmitting mad cow disease to humans.


South Korea had banned all American beef after a case of mad cow disease case was confirmed at a U.S. ranch in late 2003.


"While quarantine inspections on American beef are to start again, the current ban will be maintained on the four meat processing centers that shipped ribs, while Seoul has revoked its export permit from the one that shipped backbones," said Lee Sang-kil, head of the ministry's livestock bureau.


Of the five meat processing centers affected, three are run by Cargill Inc. and two by Swift & Co. Both are major exporters of American beef to South Korea.


If more bone-in beef and SRMs are found in future shipments, Lee said a "two-track" approach will be made to ensure that sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) negotiations can move forward regardless of any future discovery of ribs or backbones.


"If non-SRM meat like ribs are found in future packages, the meat concerned processing plant will be barred from shipping meat until a new SPS deal is signed," he said. If SRM materials are discovered, the export permit of the meat processing plant will be revoked, while a blanket ban will be reinstated.


He, however, said negotiations on a new SPS will not be put on hold even if no American beef reaches consumers. For bone chips, only the packages that have them will be sent back, he said.


He said South Korea has no immediate plan to conduct on-site inspections of U.S. slaughterhouses to ensure safety. However, he hinted that a visit may be arranged before a new import arrangement is signed.


"At present Seoul accepts Washingto's pledge to increase the number of inspectors, introduce tougher labelling rules and use computerized weight measurements to determine if bones have been mistakenly put into a package destined for exports," the policymaker said.


The decision is expected to allow progress to be made on negotiations aimed at revising South Korea's SPS that prohibit bone-in beef, such as ribs and backbones from being imported.


Washington has been calling on Seoul since late May to change its SPS rules to permit the import of bone-in beef as well.


The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has granted the United States a mad cow "risk controlled status" that technically opens the door for exports of most cow parts as long as they are from animals under 30 months old.

Brazil to import more Arab leather

São Paulo – Brazilian imports of goat and sheep hides and skins, destined to the shoe industry, should increase in the next half of the year. The reason for that is the tax exemption for imports of those items, which was approved this week. Foreign suppliers of Brazil include the Arab countries. "The leading suppliers of goat and sheep hides are the African countries, and those include some Arab countries," said the executive director at the Confederation of Brazilian Hides and Skins Industries (CICB), Luiz Bittencourt.

From January until July this year, Brazilian imports of skins and hides in general from the Arab countries totalled US$ 1.34 million. The main Arab suppliers include Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria, from where Brazil imports bovine, sheep and goat leather. In the first seven months of 2007, imports of the latter two items totalled US$ 390,000. "Brazilian imports are going to increase for certain," said Bittencourt.

According to him, the Brazilian production of sheep and goat leather is not enough to meet the domestic demand. Currently, the national production capacity is 12 million units per year, but raisers are only able to supply 7 million tonnes, therefore there is a need to import. These types of leathers account for 15% to 20% of the market, and virtually the entire production is in the northeastern states. "Leather from the northeast region has no wool, therefore it is applied to shoes because it looks like some sort of bovine leather. The skins of the southern region, on the other hand, cannot be used in this sector," said Bittencourt.

In previous years, Brazil also imported leather from the United Arab Emirates and Somalia, which may occur again in the face of the tax exemption. In total, Brazilian imports of leather in general in the first seven months of this yaer totalled US$ 89.76 million, an 11.8% increase over the same period of 2006. The data were supplied by the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex) of the Brazilian federal government.

Exports

Although Brazil needs to import sheep and goat skins and hides, the country is one of the world's leading producers of leather, with a processing capacity for around 45 million tonnes. Furthermore, Brazil is the world's largest exporter of leather, at 35 million pieces a year. One of the main reasons for this leadership is the abundance of raw material supply, as the country has more than 200 million heads of bovine cattle heads, the world's largest commercial herd.

Leather ranks among the main products exported by Brazil. From January until July, the country exported the equivalent of US$ 1.28 billion, an increase of 26.5% compared with the same period of last year. Just to have an idea, foreign sales of bovine meat yielded US$ 2.5 billion in the accumulated result for the first seven months in 2007.

The industrial complex in the sector is comprised of 800 companies that operate in leather production and processing. The activity generates a turnover of around US$ 3 billion in the country and employs 45,000 people, according to the CICB.

Cubs hope import from Detroit supplies fuel

SAN FRANCISCO -- Will Craig Monroe become the Randall Simon of the 2007 Cubs?

General manager Jim Hendry can only hope his latest acquisition contributes as much as Simon did during the '03 stretch run and postseason.

Like Simon, Monroe wasn't having much of a season when the Cubs came calling. He was hitting .222 when Detroit designated him for assignment last week, but the Cubs were looking at his .302 average in 96 at-bats against left-handers.

"He's not having a great year, numbers-wise, against the righties (.190 average)," Hendry said. "But he's still swinging the bat great against the lefties, and still has (55) RBIs. I was looking for a little more veteran help against lefties."

The Cubs are 12-19 against left-handed starters, including Wednesday night's win against Giants lefty Barry Zito, who left with a no-decision despite throwing eight solid innings. They began Thursday ranked 13th in the NL with a .253 average against left-handed pitching.

Monroe, 30, hit 28 home runs and drove in 92 runs with the Tigers in '06, including 15 homers and 50 RBIs after the All-Star break. He also hit five home runs in the postseason, helping the Tigers into the World Series.

"He's a good athlete, a good outfielder and he's got some pop," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said.

"The teams we're playing here, they all have left-handed starters in their rotation. He'll be a valuable addition."

The Cubs hope he's as valuable as Simon was in 2003. Acquired in an August trade from Pittsburgh, Simon hit .282 with six home runs and 21 RBIs in 33 games. He hit .333 with a homer and six RBIs in the playoffs.

Monroe is arbitration-eligible in '08 and is likely to be non-tendered in November since he makes $4.8 million and the Cubs already are scheduled to pay Alfonso Soriano and Jacque Jones a combined $18 million in '08.

Detroit will pay around $600,000 of the remaining $900,000 of Monroe's '07 salary and receive a player to be named later.

The Tigers reportedly are seeking a left-handed pitcher on the Cubs' 40-man roster, which suggests either Clay Rapada or Neal Cotts.

The move shows the Cubs aren't satisfied with the play of Matt Murton, hitting .246 since his call-up from Triple-A Iowa. Monroe will platoon in right with Cliff Floyd but will also play some left until Soriano returns from his quad injury.

"This gives Lou some options here we didn't have before," Hendry said.

Cubs bench coach Alan Trammell, who had Monroe for three years when he managed in Detroit, said the outfielder could always hit and plays well defensively in the corner spots.

"He's a great guy and will fit in very, very well," Trammell said. "He gives us some experience, and a guy that's produced at the major-league level."

The Cubs designated Triple-A Iowa outfielder Buck Coats for assignment, giving them room on the 40-man roster to add Monroe, who will join the team in Arizona on Friday. Jake Fox is likely to be sent to Iowa on Friday, and probably will be recalled after Sept. 1, when the rosters expand.

Wheat Price Reaches Record as India, Taiwan, Japan Seek Imports

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat prices in Chicago rose to a record, extending gains for a fifth day, as importers, including India, Taiwan and Japan, sought to buy the grain and adverse weather reduced supply in major exporting countries.

India, the world's biggest wheat consumer after China, plans to buy cargoes of 25,000 to 75,000 metric tons each for delivery from October to December, the New Delhi-based company said on the government Web site. The company will decide how much to import by Sept. 3.

Unfavorable weather has damaged crops in major producers including Australia, Europe, Russia and Ukraine. Global inventories of the commodity used to make bread, pastries and biscuits are expected to fall to the lowest in 26 years by May 31, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

``We may see wheat futures go up further as buyers are rushing to secure more and global supplies are very tight,'' said Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst at commodity broker Okachi & Co., by phone from Tokyo. ``We anticipate a higher-than-expected number for weekly U.S. export sales later today.''

Wheat for December delivery gained 11.25 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $7.43 a bushel by 7 p.m. Singapore time in electronic trading on the Chicago Board of Trade. Prices more than doubled in the past year.

Overseas orders for U.S. wheat supplies are up 86 percent since June 1 compared with a year earlier, USDA data show.

Taiwan, Japan

The Taiwan Flour Millers Association, which represents 34 grain users, issued a tender tomorrow to import 92,000 tons of U.S. wheat after it failed to buy grain on Aug. 21.

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said it bought 30,000 tons of Canadian durum wheat today in a tender under the so-called simultaneous buy and sell system, introduced to loosen government controls over imports.

Grain-growing regions in Australia, the world's third- largest wheat and canola exporter, may have warmer-than-average temperatures in spring, potentially crimping crop development.

There's a 60 percent to 75 percent chance of higher-than- average minimum temperatures from September to November, the bureau of meteorology said on its Web site today.

``There's a shortage of the grain worldwide,'' Pramod Kumar, executive director of Sunil Agro Foods Ltd., said by phone from Bangalore. ``Indian imports will fuel the wheat market globally.''

Record Price

State Trading Corp., run by the government, bought 511,000 tons from Cargill Inc., Toepfer International and Riaz Trading for a record $317 a ton to $330 a ton on July 10 to ensure sufficient supplies and curb inflation.

India may receive offers of $375 to $400 a ton in the new tender, Sunil Agro's Kumar said.

State Trading Corp. is seeking wheat in bulk carriers or containers at eight Indian ports including Mumbai, Kandla, Mundra, Chennai and Tuticorin. Suppliers are required to quote prices on the basis of the port and month of delivery.

India was the world's third-biggest wheat importer in the year ended June 1, with purchases of 6.7 million tons, according to the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service.

China's shoes exports expand in first half

China, the world's largest shoes producer and exporter, saw a 17.5 percent rise in the value of its shoes exports in the first half of 2007, but prices per pair were lower than that for the previous year.

In the January-June period, China exported 4.4 billion pairs of shoes, worth $12 billion, said Wang Hanjiang, president of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Light Industrial Products, Arts and Crafts.

The shoes were priced at an average of $2.7 per pair, down from $2.8 for the whole of 2006 when China sold 7.8 billion pairs of shoes abroad.

Two billion of them, worth $7.6 billion, were sold to the United States, the largest importer of Chinese-made shoes, at an average price less than a third of that of made-in-Italy shoes, said Wang.

Despite rapid development of China's shoemaking industry, most local manufacturers were small, exporting low-end products and earning low profits, said Wang.

iPhone sparks counter measures from Verizon, RealNetworks and MTV

Whenever a single monolithic company has launched against the globe spanning iTunes, Apple has been able to move the goalposts and push further and further towards a monopolistic market share of online music, but this week a genuine challenge has emerged, one that we are certain will dent the success of Apple, and we suspect that it will be reflected in the company’s share price before too long.

The move, to bring RealNetwork’s Rhapsody to Verizon handsets, with the support of Viacom’s MTV, was attributable almost entirely to Apple’s launch of the iPhone with an exclusive relationship with AT&T. In short Verizon HAD to do something, and this is that something. Rhapsody becomes the music service behind Verizon’s VCast Music service, while MTV’s URGE music service will be merged into Rhapsody, which will become Rhapsody America, and be run by the current General Manager of MTV Network's URGE, Michael Bloom.

Existing user names for URGE will work straight off in Rhapsody. Viacom’s MTV Networks will put in some of its own cash, but also back a $230 million five year note for the venture, giving it a 49% stake, and leaving RealNetworks which will also contribute some cash, with 51%.

It’s a fairly compelling picture and is the first major step towards consolidation of online and cellular music services which will polarize the world. When kids watch MTV they will be pointed towards it, when people subscribe to cellular handsets through Verizon they will be reminded of it, and it drops ARPU right into the palm of the hands of Verizon Wireless.

The simple truth is that we all predicted that Apple iTunes would be eaten alive by little bites from the cellular industry, over a long period of time, and Apple with its typical foresight said let’s take the game to them and launched its own phone on its own terms. But that just meant that serious players are now taking Apple more seriously, sooner, and there are multiple advantages here that are not initially obvious.

First off this pitches Apple’s MP3 and Flash memory enemies, Samsung and LG Electronics, which make many of the first line Verizon handsets, directly against Apple. Samsung is probably the only company in the world that can get its hands on flash memory to store songs more cheaply than even Apple, which two years ago bought up around 30% of global NAND Flash production for its iPods.

Verizon Wireless has no love of Apple and is still smarting after it had to pay Broadcom through the nose to import handsets for its new EV DO rev A network which will also do the job of competing head on with the touchscreen interface of the iPhone. This was because of an indiscretion by supplier Qualcomm, which the court believes used power saving patents that belonged to Broadcom. Verizon will now do whatever it has to, to make these new devices successful.

Secondly Verizon will deliver all of this on handsets which are CDMA enabled, so instead of the waning powers of GSM, the technology that Apple aimed its first iPhone at, Verizon will have the latest, hottest phones from the CDMA community to deliver the service on. Apple is already up against the subscription based Rhapsody service through RealNetworks’ partners, including Best Buy, SanDisk and TiVo. SanDisk is the second biggest retailer of MP3 players in the US, and they could all become further integrated into the service and the new brand.

But with news services around Europe all pre-announcing new Apple partners this week, which include T-Mobile in Germany, Orange in France and O2 in the UK, it is pretty clear that 45 per cent owner of Verizon Wireless, Vodafone is NOT among them.

My friend's enemy
We had always thought that Vodafone would not align itself with the enemies of Verizon, and that also it likes to cut profitable and easy to work deals, and would not accept the kind of terms that Apple was rumored to be insisting upon. There will be some immediate betting that the 232 million customers that use Vodafone's service, the largest outside of China, could be tempted to become part of this "get iPhone" initiative.

Back in January 2006 Vodafone, launched its own interactive music service in conjunction with Sony NetServices called Vodafone Radio DJ. The service streams music to both 3G mobile phones and PCs for a flat monthly subscription, identical as a business model to Rhapsody. But the service is really a radio service with little control over what you listen to.

So Vodafone may well come to believe that the new US initiative could seriously damage the iPhone, and iTunes, and then it might shutter this service or add to it and join the push to build Rhapsody America into perhaps Rhapsody Global, assuming that it can sign overseas versions of its content deals. But even if Vodafone does not come on board, the global distribution of MTV, which can recommend the service, will have huge appeal to other operators, because MTV Networks operates on 135 television networks, and can be seen from 171 websites and reaches 496 million people around the world.

With that kind of support, this deal can internationalize to the benefit of all the partners. This pretty much leaves online and cellular music controlled by a handful of services lead by iTunes. Musicnet powers many of the smaller music services around the world including many that are Microsoft compatible such as the Zune device and can work with its new PlayReady DRM system.

But Musicnet will have lost at least one customer since until now it numbers MTV’s URGE among its clients; Nokia can still provide several millions songs through its purchase of Loudeye over a year ago, and Sony’s Connect collection is still operating, such as through Vodafone. If I’ve forgotten anybody, it's because they are, as of now, forgettable and that perhaps includes Wal-Mart, Amazon, eMusic and Napster, because without the support of a cellular operator, most services are doomed, if not to closure, then to irrelevance, over time.

Finally there is the issue of video. Verizon is just one customer for MediaFLO mobile TV, and it has launched in some markets already under the VCast TV brand. It already had a VCast cellular streaming business that is relatively successful. This will now line up against Apple iTunes on a Video iPod as a source of portable video, but can increasingly target deals with MTV and its parent Viacom, majority owner of the Paramount studio.

The cellular music war in the US is sure to spill over into the rest of the world during the remainder of this year, and that can only mean one thing, that the Apple franchise will begin to erode in percentage terms, but that the market for music on handsets will go through the roof over the coming 18 months to two years.

Tasteless import

Directed by Steve Bendelack. Stars Rowan Atkinson, Emma de Caunes. Opens Friday at theaters throughout New Jersey.


For a silly kids movie about an accident-prone man on a trip to the beach, "Mr. Bean's Holiday" is actually quite mean-spirited and pretentious.

There are laughs for kids as the title character (Rowan Atkinson) has a variety of misadventures in transit from Britain to southern France, but the picture also has an off-putting insider vibe, setting its closing scene at the Cannes Film Festival.

The hero crashes the event and plays pranks on an arthouse director (Willem Dafoe) who's premiering a ponderous movie to yawns from the crowd. The film within a film seems to be a parody of Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny," a misunderstood road movie that was booed when it screened at Cannes four years ago. The reference is pretty obscure given the preschool demographic.

The film pokes unfair fun at Gallo's work when it has its own questionable segments. During one particularly long, misguided set piece, the protagonist wanders onto a World War II film set where a faux French village is being attacked by German soldiers. Mr. Bean is put into costume as an extra and performs a mock goosestep march. It's always nice to see children's movies with Nazi jokes.

A belated follow-up to 1997's "Bean," the film contains distasteful scenes that make you feel guilty for laughing at the amusing ones. Highlights include a roadside outhouse mishap, a crisis involving a coffee-splashed laptop and an adventurous lunch of cold shellfish at a snooty restaurant. Yes, those are the highights.

Director Steve Bendelack, who has a lengthy résumé of Britcom credits, stages unfortunate incidents on French trains and highways. Occasionally, Mr. Bean is the victim of circumstance. Most of the time, however, he drags innocent bystanders down into his world of disorder. At one point, he unwittingly prompts a suicidal man to jump to his death from a bridge. Good times.

The journey begins when Bean wins a Cannes vacation and a digital camcorder in a raffle. En route, he loses everything, tickets, luggage and travel documents, but finds a few new friends. He teams up with a mischievous Russian boy (Max Baldry) separated from his father (Karel Roden), who's heading to Cannes to serve on the judging panel. Bean also inexplicably charms a beautiful actress (Emma de Caunes) on the road to the film fest for the premiere of her latest picture, "Playback Time" from an American auteur named Carson Clay (Dafoe).

Along the way, the hero captures his vacation on a camcorder and winds up accidentally creating a hit movie at the festival. Although "Mr. Bean's Holiday" takes a few swipes at Euro snobs, ultimately the most ridiculous character is the arrogant American. It's no surprise the comedy is already an international hit.

I sold my houses to begin suitcase manufacturing when banks refused me loans

At a time, no one thought it was possible to localize the production of once-upon- a- time imported brief cases in Nigeria, Chief James Uzuh dared and proved skeptics wrong.

Starting off under very stringent operational environment, for the Managing Director of J. Jumac International Company Limited, the journey was not only uncertain, but strewn with bumps.
Like a-never-say-die, Chief Uzuh brazed the challenges and today, boasts the first on the continent to begin the manufacturing of suitcases in this part of the world.

However, he tells anyone who cares to listen that as a manufacturer, if you can make a head way in this part of the world, where candle light has become the surest source of energy, coupled with other infrastructural desiderata, you can break even, even in hell.

According to him, it is only people with large hearts that can go into manufacturing and survive.
He lamented that because of the variable power supply, he spends about N2 million every month on diesel. This is besides the two generators, which cost a whooping N16million to procure.
In this chat with Saturday Sun, he also spoke on the vision he has for his company, what government should do to encourage manufacturers and sundry issues. Excerpts:

Beginning
As a young entrepreneur, I had wanted to be like the Razaq Okoyas and the Dangotes of this world. But I must say that as result of the lack of infrastructure in the country, manufacturing is not for lily livered people.
I was inspired by what they were doing, but when the Federal Government placed a ban on the importation of suitcases, which was one of the major items that I was importing from Europe, I thought that my time had come to be like my heroes. That is like Razaq Okoya-Thomas and Alhaji Aliko Dangote, but I did not know that I was venturing into a murky water without hope of getting out.

I first of all built a factory. After that, I began to go from one bank to the other to source for loans or at worst equity participation, but there was nobody interested in that because they felt that they would not make much money from it. Their interest was on short term loans and import finance. I thought then that as somebody going into manufacturing, that would not do me any good. I resorted to selling my houses. I sold three of my houses and with the capital I raised, I imported machinery for the commencement of production of suitcases. It was at this stage that banks began to come to do business with me, that is after I had built and equipped my factory with all that was needed to go into production.

Challenges
The challenges facing manufacturers in the country is enormous. I can use my personal experience as an example. After I had managed to build and set up a factory, I became broke. So I had to depend on the national grid for power. Because of that I lost a lot of machines due to power surge. Then I decided to go for generators. I spent N16 million on two generators. Now I use about N2 million every month on diesel. If this money is channeled into the company, we will grow faster. After production, it takes more than N200, 000 to transport the finished products to the markets. This is due to poor road network. If it were in countries where the railway system is effective, transporting goods from Lagos to Kaduna cannot take more than N50, 000.

The banks are also not helping matters. I had thought that after the much talked about re-capitalization, banks would make things easier for people who are in the manufacturing industry, but the reverse is still the case. Their focus is on short term loan and import finance. But how can our country develop if it remains an importer of finished products? When I was engaged in importation, I had only five staff, but now as a manufacturer I have more than 150 staff. If my company goes under as a result of unfavourable business environment and these people are thrown into the streets, they might be compelled to engage in vicious means to survive and by that, threaten the security of you and I. What I am saying is not peculiar to me alone, this is the experience of every manufacturer in the country. I am therefore calling on government to create an enabling environment for manufacturers to flourish. They should try to make the power sector functional. They should also address the poor road network being experienced in the country. Banks should reduce interest rate and also begin to encourage manufacturers by giving them long-term loans.

Between made in Nigeria and foreign suitcases
With all honesty, I want to say that suitcases manufactured in Europe for consumption are of very high quality, but the ones produced for export, especially for African markets are of very low quality. This is because they feel that Africans are poor and for that cannot afford quality suitcases. That is the reason why you see people handling imported suitcases, as if they are eggs, because they know that once anything happens to them, they will break.

Days are gone when people had the impression that made in Nigeria products were inferior to that made in Europe or Asia. For instance, there is no doubt that wires made in Nigeria are today the best in the world. Those who felt that Nigerians couldn’t come up with quality products have been put to shame by the wire manufacturing company in Nigeria. In the same vein, J. Jumac suitcases are the best in the world. Anybody who doubts this can go and ask anyone experienced in suitcases. Our products are very rugged. We have been to trade exhibitions in Ghana, Mali Tanzania and other countries where we exhibited our products alongside the ones produced in Europe and they came up tops. So we are no longer babies in the field of manufacturing

VISION
My vision is to make sure that Nigerians are given the best in terms of suitcases. I also want to control over 90 per cent of the suitcase market, not only in Nigeria but the whole of Africa. As I said earlier, we have gone for trade exhibitions to Ghana, Tanzania Mali and other African countries. Our finding was that we were on top of the industry. But the reason we have not begun to export was because we had not got the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (NIS) certificate. And without that, they would doubt the quality of our products.

Now that we have got the certificate, we can now start in earnest to export our products to other countries. So we have plans to also expand our factory, more so that we will become the biggest in Africa. If you go to our factory, you will see a new building that is being constructed.
I feel on top of the world receiving the NIS certificate from the Standards Organisation of Nigeria. It is a testimony that J. Jumac suitcases are of international standard. It is because only companies that their products have met International Standard Organisation specified standard that get the NIS certificate. Therefore, I see the certificate as a surety on our products from SON to the world that J. Jumac products are of international quality and standard.

Barbara Horscraft: The world is at her fingers

Barbara Horscraft had just given up a career in teaching when she met 19-year-old Indian named Mahaveer Jain at a hotel in Jodhpur, India.

The boy took her to his home on a Vespa scooter so she could see the items he wanted to sell, including a religious painting called a pawaya. Horscraft, who had just started an import business in Santa Cruz, bought a few things from him.

But when she got home, the boy called her frantically to ask that she send the painting back. He had just discovered it was stolen, he said. Horscraft packaged up the item and sent it back to him.

Years later, on another buying trip to India for her Santa Cruz store, Gravago, the owner of the large export businesses where she shopped offered to drive Horscraft back to her hotel.

Sitting in the back of his limousine, the elegantly dressed man turned and asked Horscraft if she remembered who he was.

"You changed the course of my life," he told her. If she had not sent back the painting, he would have been in prison instead of owning one of the largest export businesses in India, he said.

It's just one of the stories Horscraft has collected from her travels around the world; stories of sinking into village life in India, riding a swaying bus through Afghanistan and once fending off a group of drunken men who believed that, because she was traveling alone, she was for sale.

There are stories too in the colorful rugs, inlaid mirrors and shining vases she sells in her narrow storefront off Cooper Street: the smiling wooden lion that came from a children's merry-go-round in India in the late 19th century. The settee upholstered with camel skin that the nomadic Tuaregs of Africa decorated and once used for water carriers in the Sahara. The rugs she bought from a man in India who wanted to explain the complete history of natural dyes before he would allow her to buy.

It is something the slightly built woman with the curling blond hair has always loved: histories big and small.

It is a topic she was drawn to, studying history in college and teaching it in school. She loves the politics of history, the dark underpinnings, the mysterious details.

"I've always liked the intrigue of history," she says.

She wanders through her store telling the history of a girl who yearned to travel, of a woman who did just that; running a hand over the history of faraway lives in all the things she sells.

UAE bans import of birds from India

The United Arab Emirates has enforced a temporary ban on imports of all kinds of birds from India after bird flu was detected there.

Mohammed Saeed Al Kindi, Minister of Environment and Waters, said the ban covers "all domestic and wild birds, including ornamental birds, and their products."

The decision was taken as a precautionary measure following reports by the World Organisation for Animal Health on the emergence of bird flu cases in India, the official Emirates news agency said.

India confirmed on Thursday an outbreak of bird flu in poultry in the remote northeast part of the country was the H5N1 strain.

In June, the UAE has lifted a ban on Indian table egg.


Latest News Headlines on Bird Flu :
Bird Flu

India monitors four children after bird flu outbreak -- NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Health officials in India were monitoring four children suffering from fever on Wednesday after they had contact with dead or sick poultry in Manipur state, where authorities are fighting a bird flu outbreak in fowl. -- Reuters

U.S. report card shows work ahead for bird flu plan -- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has helped many countries watch and prepare for a bird flu pandemic, but lacks the rapid tests and hospital capacity to cope with one at home, the White House said on Tuesday. -- Reuters

Czechs confirm H5N1 bird flu at two more farms -- PRAGUE (Reuters) - Tests confirmed the H5N1 type of the bird flu virus in poultry at two farms in the eastern Czech Republic, the State Veterinary Authority (SVS) said on Thursday. -- Reuters

Va. flock of turkeys has bird flu -- Virginia banned all live poultry sales and shows for the rest of July following the discovery of suspected avian flu antibodies in a flock of 54,000 turkeys on a Shenandoah County farm. -- MSNBC

French swans test positive for bird flu -- Three swans found dead in a pond in eastern France have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Agriculture Ministry said Thursday. -- MSNBC

French Swans Test Positive for Bird Flu -- PARIS (AP) -- Three swans found dead in a pond in eastern France have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Agriculture Ministry said Thursday.... -- AP

UN Finds Progress in Tackling Bird Flu -- ROME (AP) -- Countries are making progress in fighting bird flu but concerns remain for some nations - especially Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria - where human contamination is still possible, the United Nations said Wednesday.... -- AP

Experts meet on bird flu threat -- Scientists trying to combat avian flu are being brought together in the Highlands by the UN. -- BBC News - UK

Bird flu heats up in Asia with five new cases -- Bird flu has resurfaced with a vengeance in Vietnam ? with five people falling ill in as many weeks ? after no human cases had been reported for a year and a half. -- MSNBC

U.S. leads bird flu preparation efforts: report -- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has pledged more than a quarter of all the funds being used to prepare the world for an influenza pandemic, but is still having trouble identifying which countries need the most help, according to a report released on Thursday. -- Reuters


Bird Flu information update
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MoF plans to cut import tax on CBU cars

Under the draft tariff compiled by MoF, several kinds of CBU imported cars will be imposed with a tax of 70% instead of 80%. These include cars capable of carrying 8 persons at maximum (including driver); cars capable of carrying more than 10 persons; 4WD cars; cars having diesel engines; cars having internal combustion engines with cylinder capacities of from 1,800cc to 4,000cc; cars designed to carry people (not including ones belonging to 87.02 group); vehicles specially designed for travelling on snow; and golf-class vehicles.



The new tariff is expected by MoF to be effective as of August 8, 2007.



As for used imports, MoF is also considering lowering the tax on medium-size cars by 5%, which would become effective on the same day as the tariff on brand new imports. The ministry has calculated that with the reduction of 5%, the average tax on every used car will be $1,000 lower.



MoF in February 2007 reduced the tax rates on used imports by 15-20%, which made the taxes lower by $1,500-3,000 per unit.


Under WTO commitments, the import tax on vehicles for carrying people can be 100% at maximum. Vehicles for carrying people now have the protection tax rate of 80%. However, the still relatively high protection level has led to the higher prices of cars in Vietnam compared to those in other regional countries and in the world.



Deputy Minister of Finance Truong Chi Trung said that MoF on August 4 officially asked the government to allow the application of the new tariff as of August 8.



Prior to that, when Vietnam officially became a member of the WTO on January 11, 2007, MoF lowered the tariff on imported cars from 90% to 80%.



In another move, MoF has decided to lower the tax rates on car parts. The 10% tax rate (instead of 20%) will be levied on the imports of semi-assembled engines used for vans of 10-20 tonnes. Used vehicles for carrying cargo with the maximum tonnage of 20-24 tonnes will bear the tax rate of 30% instead of 35%, while several other kinds of parts and accessories will be imposed 10%, 15% and 20%.

Singapore Dollar to Rise to Record, BNP Paribas Says

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The Singapore dollar may rise 10 percent to a record in a year as an influx of tourists and bankers supports economic growth, BNP Paribas SA said.

The currency may reach S$1.38 per dollar by June 30, passing the record of S$1.3835 reached in 1995, as the Monetary Authority of Singapore seeks gains to curb inflation, said Thio Chin Loo, senior foreign-exchange strategist in Singapore at France's largest bank by market value.

Appreciation in the Singapore dollar slowed to 1 percent this year, from 8.5 percent last year, as a global semiconductor glut caused electronics production to stagnate. The slack was taken up by drugs production, asset management and construction. The city this year started building a Las Vegas Sand Corp. casino and a gaming resort with a Universal Studios theme park.

``Efforts to try to draw investment into entertainment, education and financial services will continue to prop up the economy,'' said Thio. ``Growth is strong and inflation is on the rise.''

The Singapore dollar was at S$1.5187 against the U.S. dollar at 1:55 p.m. local time from S$1.5176 late in Asia on Aug. 3. BNP Paribas has the most bullish forecast of 24 financial institutions surveyed by Bloomberg News. It predicts S$1.42 for year-end, compared with the median estimate of S$1.50.

The Monetary Authority bank targets the exchange rate instead of interest rates to control price gains, as a stronger currency cuts import costs and curbs export earnings. In April, it reaffirmed a three-year policy of a ``modest and gradual'' appreciation of the Singapore dollar.

Export Outlook

The central bank, in its annual report released July 25, said policy makers need to remain alert on prices. It said inflation this year may be at the upper half of its 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent range and reach as high as 2 percent next year.

The government increased the goods and services tax to 7 percent from 5 percent on July 1, which will add as much as 0.6 percent to consumer prices next year, the central bank said.

The Singapore dollar fell 0.9 percent in the second quarter on concern a U.S. housing slump will restrain growth in the world's largest economy, curbing demand for the island's exports.

International Enterprise Singapore, the government's trade promotion body, last month cut its 2007 export growth forecast after an eighth decline in electronics shipments in nine months. It now expects between 4 percent and 6 percent growth in non-oil exports, from a 7 percent to 9 percent range in January.

``Housing concerns may escalate and threaten the U.S. growth outlook and impact Asia,'' said Emmanuel Ng, a currency strategist at Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp. in Singapore. ``Any Singapore dollar strength may be contained'' to S$1.4900 against the U.S. currency by year-end and S$1.4850 by June, Ng said.

Cars, Casinos

A Formula One race through the city, scheduled for September 2008, is among attractions planned to support economic growth. The government wants to double overseas visitors to 17 million by 2015.

The island-state also last year awarded two casino licenses to Las Vegas Sands, the world's largest casino company by market value, and Genting Bhd., Asia's biggest operator, which plans a Universal Studios theme park larger than that in Los Angeles.

Average hotel room rates surged to a record in June, surpassing S$200 ($132) for the first time, the Singapore Tourism Board said last month. More than 4.9 million tourists have visited Singapore this year.

``Hotels and restaurants are doing very well,'' said Philip Wee, senior currency economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Southeast Asia's largest bank. ``The Singapore dollar will resume its appreciation,'' reaching $1.49 by year-end, he said.

More Millionaires

The government is also hiring teachers and extending its subway, predicting the population will rise 44 percent to 6.5 million. Singapore cut its corporate tax rate to 18 percent from 20 percent to narrow the gap with Hong Kong's 17.5 percent rate.

Singapore had the world's biggest growth in the number of millionaires, rising 21 percent last year, a global survey by Capgemini SA and Merrill Lynch & Co. showed in June. The central bank forecasts the economy will expand as much as 7 percent this year, led by growth in financial services.

The city's expansion has caused inflationary pressures as electricity tariffs rise and employers offer bigger salaries to fill job vacancies. Average wages before accounting for inflation rose 5.5 percent in the first quarter, faster than the 3.1 percent rate of increase in the last three months of 2006.

Singapore's price index of private residential property rose 8.3 percent in the second quarter from the first to 147.8, the highest in almost a decade, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said last month. Rents of private homes climbed 10 percent from the previous three months, the URA also said.

Singapore's inflation data are ``understating'' the housing boom, said Glenn Maguire, chief Asia economist in Hong Kong at Societe Generale SA, France's second-biggest bank. ``The risks are to the upside.''

The Singapore dollar may advance to S$1.50 against the U.S. dollar this year, Maguire said.

Zimbabwe Warns of Bad Wheat Crop

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's upcoming wheat harvest is likely to be the worst since the country gained independence in 1980, state media reported Sunday, another sign of the economic crisis triggered in the former regional breadbasket by a land redistribution program.

An electricity shortage prevented farmers from irrigating the crop, the official Sunday Mail said. Production was expected to fall below the 86,000 tons harvested last year and well short of the 375,000-ton target set by the government of longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe.

"In some areas farmers could go for four consecutive days without electricity. It became impossible to irrigate and complete the required cycles, resulting in the crop wilting," President of the Zimbabwe Indigenous Commercial Farmers' Union, Wilson Nyabonda, told the newspaper.

Corn, rather than wheat, is the staple diet of most Zimbabweans, so a weak wheat crop is unlikely to cause mass starvation. Nonetheless, it means already scarce bread will be harder to find and adds to Zimbabwe's woes since seizures of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000.

The International Monetary Fund has warned Zimbabwean authorities that inflation could top 100,000 percent by the end of the year, South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said last week. Officially, inflation in Zimbabwe is 4,500 percent - the highest in the world - but economists say it's at least twice that.

Acute shortages have affected numerous sectors, including electricity, which in turn has affected the farming of wheat. Zimbabwe imports up to 40 percent of its power from neighboring nations, largely because coal shortages have shut down power-generating facilities.

The harvest usually takes place around August or September.

In many areas, mechanized farming has been replaced by cattle-drawn plowing since the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms began, disrupting the agriculture-based economy.

The World Food Program last week appealed for $118 million to help more than 3.3 million Zimbabweans - more than one quarter of the population - facing severe food shortages.

In rare welcome news, the Sunday Mail said the government had repealed proposed legislation to limit the amount of products including cooking oil and beef that Zimbabweans could import.

This would have cut an increasingly important lifeline to desperate Zimbabweans who flock to the borders each day to shop in neighboring countries.

Although South Africa bears the brunt of the influx, Zambian officials said Sunday that the number of Zimbabweans crossing the border to buy basics such as milk and bread had increased from 60 per day to 1,000.


Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Economic Prognosis

August has begun and Vlast analytical weekly is offering its traditional prognosis for the month. The following questions will be considered: what will happen to the ruble and dollar on the Russian currency market, how consumer prices will change, where world oil prices are going and what will happen to the euro and dollar on the world currency market. But first we will take a look at the main economic events from July.
The main economic event of July was probably the fact that inflation in Russia exceeded last month's indicator, reaching 1.1 percent according to the preliminary calculations of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, while prices rose only by 0.7 percent in July last year. Considering that inflation in June of this year reached 1 percent (compared to 0.3 percent last year), it has to be acknowledged that prices are rising noticeably faster this year. That acceleration has eliminated the lengthy lag in the inflation rate this year, compared to last. As a result, prices rose 6.8 percent in the first seven months of this year, which is an inflation rate comparable with last year's 6.9 percent in the same period. Meeting the plan for the year of 8-percent inflation looks as unlikely as it did last year, when the final result was 9-percent inflation.

At the end of July, the Economic Ministry issued a review of the condition of the Russian economy in the first half of the year. There it says that consumer prices rose 5.7 percent in the first half a year, against 6.2 percent in the first half of last year. Base inflation, which takes into account the rise of prices due to monetary factors, was 3 percent, compared to last year's 3.9 percent. The ministry noted that “Although inflation was reduced in the first half of the year on the whole, there were no stable tendencies in the development of inflationary processes in that period.” In the first quarter, everything looked fine. Consumer prices rose just 3.4 percent, while they rose 5 percent in that period of last year. However, according to the Economics Ministry, the first quarter showed only the continuing effects of the anti-inflationary factors – growth in the supply of goods, especially imports, and stronger competition in trade due to a rapid increase in the number of stores – from April-December 2006, when prices rose an average of 1.3 percent per quarter. Lower inflationary expectations also played a role, as did high growth in production and the continuing dedollarization of the economy, which led to a rapid increase in the demand for money. Finally, the slowing of inflation in the first quarter of the year was related to the slowing of the rise in prices for produce, which was due to growth in the supply of Russian potatoes and vegetables and a lower price for sugar. In the first quarter of last year, there were big problems with the supply of vegetables and, especially, sugar.

In the second quarter of the year, inflation was twice as high as in the second quarter of last year: 2.2 percent vs. 1.1 percent. The Economics Ministry emphasized that “reduced supplies of a number of food products and low competition on the foodstuffs market, simultaneously with rapidly growing salaries, were the basic causes of the increased pace of inflation in April-June 2007. Growth of the money supply did not cause inflationary pressures in the first half of the current year, as can be seen from the slowing of the growth of base inflation and lower growth rate of cash on hand.”

Prices for groceries in January-June rose 6.1 percent, somewhat less than in the same period a year ago, when that indicator was 7 percent. In January-April, groceries increased in price relatively slowly at 0.9 percent per month. But then price growth picked up and in June groceries increased in price by 1.7 percent, the biggest price hike since March 2006. Produce especially gained in price in June. Its price growth was 12.2 percent and, if vegetables are taken alone, the price growth hit 22.3 percent. In all, price for produce in the first half of the year grew by 38.6 percent. Last year in that period, they that price grew by 31.5 percent. Vegetables nearly doubled in price and the price of potatoes went up by 40 percent. Economics Ministry experts explain that the cause of the situation was mainly a reduction in imports of carrots, onion, cabbage and beets by an average of 17 percent, decreasing competition on the foodstuffs market, as well as a price increase of 40 percent for imported vegetables “as a result of the replacement of cheap imports from the CIS with more expensive imports from further abroad.”

Non-food items increased in price insignificantly in the first half year, by just 2.2 percent (compared to last year's 2.3 percent over the same time) “mainly because of the continued growth of imports, which dominated the given market. Nonetheless, in spite of the high saturation of the market, the rate of price growth did not decrease (leaving aside prices for gasoline, growth was the same as a year ago) as a result of the continual growth of solvent public demand.”

On the whole, conditions on the Russian market are interesting. The continued high exchange rate of the ruble in relation, for example, to the dollar looks strange. How can the currency of a country with inflation of close to 10 percent annually rise in relation to the currency of a country where 3-percent annual inflation upsets the authorities. On the other hand, the rise of the ruble against the dollar and other foreign currencies stimulates imports, which, according to official declarations, is practically the only anti-inflationary factor. Where import falls, consumer prices rise quickly, and where import does not fall, prices rise comparatively slowly. (We can note that the rise in value of currencies of a country that is too heavily dependent in consumer relations is not very logical either. What foreigner needs the money of a country that clearly cannot take care of its own needs?) In any case, July showed definitively that inflation does not want to decrease and the public is spending money in a hurry, before it loses more of its value.

1. What will happen to the ruble and dollar on the Russian currency market?

June began with an exchange rate of 25.81 rubles/$, and ended at 25.54 rubles/$. Thus, the Central Bank strengthened the rubles quite decisively. As the Economics Ministry indicated in its review of the Russian economy in the first half of the year, “A significant rise in the supply of foreign currency was characteristic of the domestic currency market in the second quarter of 2007 in connection with funds attracted to take part in auction of the property of OAO YUKOS and the initial placement of shares in Vneshtorgbank. As a result, the Central Bank's monthly balance of operations with foreign currency reached a historical maximum. The dynamics of quotations of the ruble to the U.S. dollar and euro was determined by changes in the exchange rate of the two leading world currencies on the international market, the surplus of foreign currency on the domestic market and Central Bank's rate policy. In the second quarter, multidirectional dynamics of movement of the nominal exchange rate of the U.S. dollar and euro to the rubles was observed. At the end of the quarter under consideration, the official exchange rate of the dollar to the ruble dropped by 0.75 percent to 25.8162 rubles to the dollar. The official exchange rate of the euro to the rubles rose insignificantly to 34.7150 rubles to the euro.”

In general, the Russian Central Bank may continue to raise the exchange rate of the ruble (especially in relation to the dollar), making reference to the fact that the American currency is weak not only in Russia, but throughout the world, world oil prices remain unbelievably high, a surplus of dollars is still observed on the Russian domestic market and, besides everything else, raising the ruble rate is an anti-inflationary measure, the need for which is not falling, but rising. The natural limit for raising the exchange rate of the ruble is the psychologically important 25-ruble mark, which should not be passed too quickly or the public will become alarmed.

Our prognosis: In connection with unwillingness to pass the 25-ruble mark, the dollar will remain higher than 25.3 rubles in August.

2. How will consumer prices change?

The final calculations of inflation in July have not been completed yet, but preliminary figures point to an inflation rate of 1.1 percent. Thus, in the first seven months of 2007, consumer prices rose 6.8 percent, with five months and 1.2 percent left to go to the planned 8-percent mark. Nonetheless, Russian officials have yet to admit defeat officially. Rather, they say that everything is still possible. Inflation may suddenly slow down – a lot.

Of course, price growth was insignificant last August and occasionally deflation was even noted. Produce became cheaper, which has great importance in the calculation of the consumer price index in Russia, bringing a general price reduction with it. This year, however, the sharp slowdown in inflation will look too effective. It was 0.3 percent June in last year, 0.7 percent on July, 0.2 percent in August and 0.1 percent in September. Thus the August result was far from off the chart. This year, there was 1.0 percent in June and 1.1 percent in July, and 01-0.2 in August would be strange to see, most of all for the public, which has gotten used to inflation over the summer. Russia no longer resembles Zimbabwe, where the situation is so serious that people get money in the morning and run to spend it while it is still worth something. But Russian buyers are spending money with great willingness too and one reason for that is that it is noticeably losing it value. That willingness to spend money causes price rises by itself.

Our prognosis: In August, inflation will be no less than 0.4 percent.

3. Where are world oil prices going?

July was a good month for world oil prices. Both American WTI and North Sea Brent gained more than $8 per barrel in the course of the month. And as soon as the month ended, on August 1, WTI set a new absolute record high of $78.77 per barrel, passing the old record of $78.40, set when the Israelis invaded Lebanon last year.

There were no particular causes for the new record. It is estimated that OPEC produced 26.75 million barrels per day in July, which is 150,000 more than in June. The cartel officially declines to expand production, in spite of the high prices, saying that U.S. petroleum product producers have more than enough reserves as is. In addition, the fact that the American economy is not in brilliant condition should play against rising oil prices. Economic growth is slowing and investors are made nervous by the problems with the mortgage crediting market. So there is unlikely to be any higher demand for toil in the United States.

Speculators still decided to have decided to play on American authorities' announcing a reduction of oil reserves by 6.5 million barrels due to increased petroleum product production. Thus oil may remain expensive not only from geopolitical causes, but also because of speculative funds' unwillingness to give up hope for a good profit from their investments in oil futures.

Our prognosis: In August, oil will not be cheaper than $74 per barrel after last month's highs.

4. What will happen to the euro and dollar on the world currency market?

July was a bad month for dollar prices on the world currency market. On July 2, the euro had already passed $1.36 and players on the world currency market began to talk about the euro setting new record, to replace the high of $1.3682, set on April 27 of this year. On July 10, the euro passed $1.37 for the first time since it was created in 1999. On July 12, the European currency cost more than $1.38. On July 24, a new absolute record for the fall of the dollar against was set when it reached $1.3852.

A host of reasons could be found for speculators to play against the dollar. For example, the euro passed $1.38 on July 12 after American authorities announced a fall in retail sales of 0.9 percent in June. The market decided that the American economy was in bad shape indeed if American consumers, who never failed to show lively demand, especially for imported goods, stopped wanting to shop. Consequently, the American Federal Reserve Board will not want to shake up shoppers any more by raising the interest rate to slow the economy down, and so the dollar will only become cheaper. (Theoretically, the board could suggest that, as a result of the reduction of demand for imported goods, the huge American foreign trade debt will be reduced as well, which was one of the arguments behind the IMF's urgings that the dollar be devaluated.) After Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before Congress and said that he was still worried about inflation, and even more worried about the condition of the mortgage market, everyone began to sell even more dollars after what they considered practically an official refusal to raise interest rates. Only toward the end of the month did speculators decide it would be better not to get carried away, and the dollar rose to $1.36/euro.