2008 October | IndusLatin

Promoting India Latin America Collaboration

Colombia to have six palm biodiesel plants by 2009

October 19th, 2008 Posted in colombia, Energy

Colombia, the leading producer of palm oil in the Americas, will have six palm biodiesel plants by next year and plans to increase its share of the biofuels market, sources from the sector said

In an interview Friday with Efe, the president of Colombian palm oil producer Comercializadora Internacional Acepalma, Maria Emma Núñez, said that four of these six plants have already begun operating, but that production will be stepped up next year and the other two plants will also come on stream.

“At this time, (palm oil production) is destined for processing plants to make cooking oil, margarine and soaps, and there has been a little this year for the biodiesel plants, but by next year a significant percentage of production will be destined for the biodiesel plants,” she said.

On the sidelines of a meeting on sustainable palm oil that ended Friday in the Colombian coastal city of Cartagena, Núñez said that this year just a small percentage of palm oil output was destined for biofuels production “because the plants have not begun to function fully.”
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Boutique Wineries, Elite Wine Travels the World

October 19th, 2008 Posted in Argentina, Chile, Food and Beverages

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Event Planner Spain

Small plots of land and a careful grape selection are the first steps that should be taken to produce “boutique wines”, a market in which Latin-American producers have surged ahead of the field in the past years. Even though is not an original idea from the New World, but French, since it emerged two decades ago with the “vin de garage” phenomenon, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and a good number of other South American countries have penetrated the luxury product market up exporting their best wines to restaurants, wine merchants and the most exclusive hotels in cities worldwide.

Patience, dedication and passion are the attributes needed to create these wines, which are defined by their excellent quality and originality. The production process of these very personal wines starts with small vineyards, which are not expected to have a high yield – quite the contrary in fact – and finding the best grapes for the type of wine in question, which is always unique with its own personality standing out from the rest and difficult to produce, which adds to its exceptionality.

In short, these wines of superb quality, produced on a very small scale, are a great success abroad. Only in Chile, the wine boutique boom has given rise to more than 200 brands, while Argentine boutiques like Altos Las Hormigas, Renacer Winery and Vineyards Altocedro export between 50-90% of their production to countries as disparate as United States, Belgium, Brazil and South Africa, among others.

Technorati Tags: wine

Popularity: 7% [?]

Impact of Global Financial Crisis on Latin America

October 19th, 2008 Posted in Economics - Indicators, Policy and Trends, Latin America

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Jorge Castaneda writing in Newsweek International Edition

[A]s Latin economies globalized over the past two decades, the number of local companies listed in New York rose rapidly. Thirty-eight Brazilian companies are quoted on Wall Street; 20 Mexican ones are; 15 Chilean; and a growing number of Peruvian, Colombian and Argentine corporations are too. They all represent large proportions of the market capitalization in their own home exchanges (Telmex alone accounts for nearly 50 percent of the Mexican Bolsa’s trading), and they all track the Dow with great fidelity.

If the Dow plunges, their value follows in New York, the fall spreads to São Paulo, and so on, and local investors flee the local exchanges and buy what the rich in Latin America have always bought: dollars. The currency plummets, central banks raise interest rates to retain money at home, and a domestic debt bubble bursts: mortgages, automobile loans and credit-card balances become unsustainable. All of this is beginning to happen, and will probably get worse before it improves.

Some countries will emerge from the current crisis better than others. Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay should manage just fine, with only bruises and scrapes; others will weather the storm, though suffering greater harm (Colombia, Peru). But others will incur severe damage: Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Central America and the Caribbean.

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Colombian coffee icon defies Starbucks doldrums

October 17th, 2008 Posted in andean, colombia, entrepreneurship

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International Herald Tribune

Starbucks may be struggling, but a Colombian cafe chain built on the fame of the world’s biggest coffee icon is determined to buck the trend.

Even as cash-short consumers cut back on gourmet blends, the Juan Valdez Cafe is selling coffee at 101 stores across Colombia, as well as at outposts in New York, Seattle, Philadelphia, Santiago, and Spain. It plans to add 500 more shops across the U.S., Latin America and Europe by 2010.

The Bogota-based chain has a unique premise: its shops are owned not by investors, but by 22,600 coffee-growing shareholders who opened them to advertise the beans they sell, not to make a profit.

The slick cafes named for a fictional coffee grower invented as an advertising pitchman nearly 50 years ago are meant to draw younger consumers, introducing them to Colombian coffee in hopes they’ll start requesting it at restaurants and grocery stores.

“What we’re doing is financing our promotion through a business” using the stores as tasting shops for customers to sample the product, said Gabriel Silva, CEO of the National Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers. The group created the chain in 2002 and now helps oversee it.

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Agenda set for Afro-Andeans

October 17th, 2008 Posted in andean, Arts, Culture and Society, Latin America

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Latinamerican Press

Afro-descendants of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru — member countries of the Andean Community, or CAN, bloc — met in late September to agree on steps to increase their political representation and participation in their home countries.

Andean organizations that compose the Andean Region Afro Civil Society umbrella group met in Cartagena, Colombia Sept. 18-19 to debate their “Plan of Action” for Afro-descendants of the region, a set of goals that includes the recognition and protection of individual and collective rights for this highly marginalized group, as well as improved education and inclusion in national and regional census.

With 26 percent of its 47 million inhabitants, Colombia has the largest Afro-descendant population in the Andes, according to the CAN. Ecuador follows with 10 percent, Peru with 7 percent.

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Havas Media: India most alarmed by climate change

October 17th, 2008 Posted in Brazil, Ecology/Environment, India, Mexico

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Eco-absorbed scores in line with National Geographic survey results from earlier this year.
Televisionpoint.com News

Based on interviews with more than 11,000 respondents in India, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Mexico, Spain, UK and US, the study unearthed both local and global characteristics that develop the current theories on a number of widely-debated issues.

Brazil, China and India are among those who claim to be most alarmed by climate change, while respondents in the US, UK and Germany demonstrates far lower levels of concern. Likewise, consumers in China, Brazil, Mexico and India would be significantly more willing than their North American, British and German counterparts to spend extra on environmentally-friendly products.

The survey revealed that 86 per cent of Indians would rather buy from companies that are trying to reduce their contribution to global warming. Further, 50 per cent of Indian respondents would be more likely to buy environmentally-friendly goods in the next 12 months, if they were at the same price and standard as their usual brands.

43 per cent of the Indians would be willing to pay a little extra for those goods. Interestingly, Indians believe the oil and fuel sector is the most damaging of all economic sectors in terms of the environment, while banking is perceived to be the least damaging. 57 per cent of Indian respondents also agree that their government is making a significant effort to combat climate change, the second highest proportion, behind only China

Further, 89 per cent of Indian respondents agree that tackling the issue of climate change means changing the way we live our lives. 50 per cent of respondents can be classed as eco-absorbed. The eco-absorbed are those who are very focused on the issue of climate change and India has the third-highest proportion (50 per cent) in the world – behind Brazil (58 per cent) and Mexico (56 per cent ) but far ahead of countries such as Germany (15 per cent) and the UK (17 per cent).

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India, Brazil discuss enhancing cooperation in Oil & Gas sector

October 17th, 2008 Posted in Brazil, Energy, India

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IndlawNews

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade of Brazil Migel Jorge have discussed measures on how to strengthen the ties between the two countries in the oil sector.

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) has significant presence in Brazil, having invested in the year 2006 an offshore block (BC 10) in Campos Basin of Brazil and acquired exploration rights of two offshore blocks in Brazil in March 2008.

ONGC and Petrobras, the premier oil and gas company of Brazil, are strengthening their partnership by swapping participating interests in three blocks in each other’s country.

OVL and Petrobras are working jointly in an oil block in Colombia.

Bharat Petro Resources Ltd, a subsidiary of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, has acquired 10 offshore petroleum blocks in Brazil in September 2008, in partnership with Videocon Industries Ltd.

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India Interested in Investing in Brazil’s Ethanol Industry

October 17th, 2008 Posted in Brazil, Energy, India

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BrazzilMag

India is interested in importing hydrated alcohol from Brazil to supply its fleet of vehicles, and also in purchasing equipment for the installation of plants, as the country produces large quantities of sugarcane. Brazilian businessmen in the sector attended the India, Brazil, South Africa Summit (Ibsa) in New Delhi, India, and initiated talks concerning sales of those products.

The information was supplied by the executive manager for foreign trade at the National Confederation of Industries (CNI), José Frederico Álvares.

“The Indians use 5% of alcohol in gasoline and might increase the proportion to 10%. That alone would double alcohol consumption overnight, creating an excellent opportunity to Brazil” said Álvares. The use of 5% ethanol in gasoline by the Indians, which is mandatory in 9 out of 29 states, was the result of a technological cooperation agreement signed by Brazil and India in 2003.

Álvares recalled that it is quite probable that Indians will increase the amount of alcohol in gasoline up to 10%, because that level of concentration does not require engines to be modified. There are no alcohol-fueled engines in India and, also because of that, the country is interested in the biofuel technology widely used in Brazil.

According to Álvares, at first, the Asian country will need to increase its ethanol imports, because its domestic production is not enough to fuel the entire fleet. “However, given the fact that the country produces large volumes of sugarcane. At a second phase, Brazil may export several plants to us,” said Álvares, by telephone, from New Delhi.

Another possibility, according to the executive manager of foreign trade at CNI, is for Indians to start investing in the sector in Brazil.

Technorati Tags: biofuels

Popularity: 1% [?]

Corus, Vale in pact for supply of iron ore

October 16th, 2008 Posted in Brazil, Commodities, India

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livemint.com

Tata Steel has said that its European subsidiary Corus has entered into a long-term contract with Brazilian miner Vale to secure supplies of about 63 million tonnes of iron ore for a period of five years.

The contract would come into effect in 2009, Tata Steel said in a statement here.
“We are pleased to have reached this important agreement with Vale. This contract complements the raw material strategy for Tata Steel Group’s European operations of combining external sources with future captive supplies,” Corus CEO Philippe Varin said.

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Global Financial Crisis a Bad Sign for Andean Biodiversity

October 15th, 2008 Posted in andean, Ecology/Environment, Energy, Latin America

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Guatemala News |

The Andean region is rich in petroleum and natural gas deposits. There are more than 180 petroleum and natural gas fields across the
western Amazon, which comprises the five Andean countries, and 72
percent of the jungle territory of Peru is affected by plans for fossil
fuel exploitation, according to a study published in August by the
online scientific journal PLoS ONE.

According to the most recent official data from CAN, which date to 2004, production of oil and derivatives in Colombia was 686,000 barrels per day — three times the average national consumption. Colombia exported some 460,000 barrels per day.

Bolivia produces around 41 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, 35 million of which is exported to Brazil and Argentina.

This enormous sources of wealth is difficult to bring into line with environmental conservation and the standards for protected areas. It also challenges the effectiveness of international agreements ratified by the CAN nations, such as Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, which protects the rights of indigenous peoples.

Governments and indigenous communities interpret the Convention text in different ways.
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