Business news in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The more requirements you put on the highly regulated banks, the greater is the incentive to find ways around the tougher rules.”

Bert Ely, independent banking consultant Article, 1D

Sign-up period opens for farm assistance

Farmers and ranchers can now sign up for federal disaster assistance programs restored by passage of the 2014 farm bill, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday.

Producers, who have three to nine months to apply depending on the program and year of the loss, can get details about the programs from any Farm Service Agency office.

Assistance programs include the Livestock Forage Disaster Program and the Livestock Indemnity Program, which provide payments for livestock deaths and grazing losses that have occurred since the expiration of the livestock disaster assistance programs in 2011, and including calendar years 2012, 2013, and 2014. Another program, the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program, can provide emergency assistance to producers that have suffered losses because of disease, severe weather, blizzards and wildfires.

The agency is also now accepting enrollees for the Tree Assistance Program, which assists orchardists and nursery tree growers to replant or rehabilitate trees, bushes and vines damaged by natural disasters.

Information about the disaster assistance programs or the 2014 farm bill is available at http://www.fsa.usda.gov/ FSA/ or by contacting area Farm Service Agency offices or USDA service centers.

Pecan growers workshop set for April 24

ATKINS - Homeowners and commercial growers will be able to learn more about pecan trees at an April 24 workshop in Atkins.

Speakers at the Pecan Growing and Grafting Workshop: Years 1-5 will include Dan Chapman, director of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Fruit Research Station, as well as Miller County Extension Agent John Turner, considered the Cooperative Extension Service’s “Mr. Pecan.”

Phil Sims, Pope County extension staff chairman, said Chapman and Turner will talk about techniques to keep the American native nut tree healthy and productive. Topics include planting, grafting, fertility, insects and diseases. Graft wood will be available for $1 per stick. Participants will also be able to observe grafting demonstrations at an adjacent pecan orchard.

The workshop, which will include lunch, will run from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and will be held at the Point Remove Wetlands Reclamation and Irrigation District Office at 65 McLaren Loop in Atkins. Attendees are asked to make reservations by Friday.

More information is available by contacting Sims at (479) 968-7098 or by email at [email protected].

  • Glen Chase

Istanbul airport Europe’s 3rd-busiest

Istanbul’s Ataturk airport lured more travelers than Frankfurt and Amsterdam in the first quarter, setting the Turkish Airlines base on course to establish itself as Europe’s third-busiest air hub this year.

Ataturk, Europe’s No. 5 airport in 2013, increased passenger numbers 11 percent to 12.4 million, edging past the 12.2 million for Frankfurt, last year’s No. 3, and the 11.2 million at Amsterdam, the No. 4, according to the latest traffic data.

The airport, west of Istanbul on the European side of the Bosporus, is benefiting as Turkish Airlines piles on capacity to tap local growth and build a long-haul transfer base. Should Ataturk cement its first-quarter standing, Frankfurt will find itself outside the top three for the first time since the 1960s.

“Growth has been enormous in Turkey for years but this will mark a changing of the guard,” said Hans-Peter Wodniok, an analyst at Fairesearch GmbH in Kronberg, Germany. “West European airports are losing transit passengers, which are the most lucrative as they spend the most in airport shops, and it’s even worse for airlines, who are losing customers entirely.”

Istanbul Ataturk, renamed in 1980 after modern Turkey’s first president, boosted passenger numbers almost 14 percent to 51.2 million in 2013, the biggest gain among the world’s top 30 hubs after Kuala Lumpur, with a 21 percent jump in 2012.

Price of shrimp jumps to 14-year high

Prices for shrimp have jumped to a 14-year high in recent months, spurred by a disease that’s ravaging the crustacean’s population.

Restaurant chains, already struggling with shaky U.S. consumer confidence, are taking a profit hit as prices climb. Even worse, the price surge came during Lent, when restaurants rely on seafood to lure diners who abstain from chicken, beef and pork on Fridays.

“It’s coming at a tough time for the industry,” said Andrew Barish, a San Francisco-based analyst at Jefferies LLC. “With the Lenten season, what you’ll see out there is a lot of promotions with seafood, and usually shrimp is a big part of that.”

In March, shrimp prices jumped 61 percent from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The climb is mainly attributed to a bacterial disease known as early mortality syndrome.

Shrimp costs rose about 35 percent last quarter for Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants Inc., the company that owns Red Lobster.

  • Bloomberg News

Business, Pages 28 on 04/16/2014

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