Word: croppings
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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During their winter months of June, July and August, Brazilian coffeegrowers observe a time-honored ritual: they spread rumors of crop-killing frosts in hopes of pushing up coffee prices on commodity exchanges. Hence there was nothing out of the ordinary about reports of a "White Friday" last month -except that this time the stories turned out to be true. For the first time since 1943, snow fell in the southern state of Paraná, which produces half of Brazil's coffee. In neighboring São Paulo state, frost damaged 50% to 70% of the coffee trees...
...power. Other suggestions focused on improving mass-transit finances. Several people proposed that municipal buses, trolleys and subway cars earn additional Income by hauling freight in off-hours. To produce perhaps $1.5 million in annual revenues, Benjamin Lawless of Washington, D.C., urged that a grain crop be grown on the 5 million acres of federal land bordering the interstate highways. Then there was San Diego Bus Fleet Owner Jack Haberstroh's idea: he charges no fares on his buses, but makes a profit nonetheless by turning each vehicle into a rolling advertising medium that is not only completely slathered...
Further inflationary surprises may be on the way, though. Most worrisome are the possible price implications of renewed Soviet hunger for U.S. crops. Big purchases of corn, wheat and barley an nounced last week brought the total amount of U.S. grain the Soviets have contracted to buy to 9.8 million metric tons. That is still within the 10 million tons that Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz figures the U.S. can sell with only a minimal impact on domestic prices. But continuing drought in the U.S.S.R. is raising worries that the Soviets might later seek to buy huge additional quantities; at midweek...
...wheat crop this year is forecast at a record 2.2 billion bu., leaving ample supplies for export sales without serious impact on home prices. Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz predicts that sales of grain to the Soviet Union will have only a minimum effect on American prices even if they reach 10 million tons, which he believes they will. One possible effect: meat prices will be kept from falling, because a general tightening of grain markets will hold feed costs high...
...commodities markets traders were disappointed by the size of the Cook and Cargill deals. Wheat, corn, soybean and oat futures fell. The question mark, says Crop Analyst Conrad Leslie, "is at what price level the Russians will make further commitments." Meaning: the shrewd Soviet buyers may be waiting for prices to come down a bit further before placing further orders...