Page 16 of articles about costs

The plan aims to protect French livestock and food industry and to limit the impact on the consumer end.

In recent days two of Canada's largest pork producers, Humboldt, Saskatchewan based Big Sky Farms and Niverville, Manitoba based Puratone, have filed for bankruptcy protection citing high feed costs due to drought in the U.S. coupled with low hog prices.

Output, prices and export values rose by 9%, 12% and 18% respectively.

Current forecasts for agricultural products are at 279 million tonnes of cereals. This is 2% lower than the average over the past five years.

According to Da Silva, the establishment of the agricultural market information system (AMIS) makes us better prepared for the current situation.

The Index, which measures the monthly change in the international prices of a basket of food commodities, averaged 213 points, up 12 points from June.

The world needs to take a hard look at speculation on the financial markets and its potential impact on food price volatility.

The drought is hitting a wide swath of the corn belt, including Iowa and Illinois, the two largest corn-producing states.

Increased demand for meats will mostly stem from large economies in Asia, crude oil exporting countries and Latin America, where income gains are expected to be significant.

As a result of rising feed prices, pig production costs are at a record high — 173p a kilo.

U.S. farmers planted 96.4 million acres of corn, up 5 percent from last year, making it the highest corn acreage in the last 75 years.

Swine producers in the south are on the verge of bankruptcy due largely to the decline in exports to countries like Russia and Argentina.

It averaged 204 points and was 9 points down from April. This was the lowest level since September 2011 and about 14 percent below its peak in February 2011.