Topic “In the News News” — Exporter Magazine

UAE-based Agthia Group, a leading FMCG firm, has signed a franchise agreement with Yoplait Group of France for exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute fresh dairy products under the Yoplait brand, according to TradeArabia.com. Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, announced a ban on all the country’s grain exports, effective within 10 days, after a severe drought devastated crops and wildfires spread across the country, according to the Financial Times of UK. Fonterra has revealed that prices were down sharply at its latest auction, as concerns about supply, which had fueled recent price increases, eased, according to DairyReporter.com. The PLAnet Cup, launched by Melissa Floreani, owner of Espresso Syndicate, a company which supplies sustainable, organic fair trade coffee to cafes across Melbourne, is lined with biodegradable PLA (cornstarch) which is harvested from renewable resources and can be composted after use. Sudan will double its sugar output to at least 1.5 million tonnes a year to become a net exporter by 2014, part of a larger plan to catapult the African nation into the world’s top five producers, according to a Reuters report carried by TradeArabia.com. Austrian house builder Elk announced last week that it’s entering a new business sector by offering prefabricated hotels which can be built in just eight weeks and can be set up anywhere in the world, according to GulfNews.com. Chinese car maker Geely Holdings Group Co. Ltd. said it has completed its USD1.8 billion (MZ$2.45 billion) buyout of Ford Motor Co.’s Volvo unit, in a landmark foreign acquisition by a Chinese company.