BASF closed the acquisition of Bayer’s global vegetable seeds business, mainly operating under the brand Nunhems. The transaction adds a well-recognized brand with a very successful business track record to BASF’s portfolio. The acquired vegetable seeds business comprises 24 crops and about 2,600 varieties. It also includes well-established, strong R&D and breeding systems with over 100 unique breeding programs in more than 15 crops.
The addition of the vegetable seeds business enhances BASF’s global offer to farmers. It strengthens BASF’s seed platform and complements the recently expanded Agricultural Solutions portfolio, which includes seeds and traits, chemical and biological crop protection, soil management, plant health, pest control and digital farming.
This closing completes BASF’s acquisition of a significant range of businesses and assets with combined 2017 sales of €2.2 billion, which Bayer offered to divest in the context of its takeover of Monsanto. The all-cash purchase price amounts to a total of €7.6 billion, subject to certain adjustments at closing.
BASF closes acquisition of vegetable seed business from Bayer
Number of IDPs in Ethiopia reaches 2.8 Mln- UNICEF
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday said the number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) has reached 2.8 million in Ethiopia, up from 1.6 million at the beginning of the year.
In a press statement, UNICEF said Ethiopia also hosts more than 920,000 refugees, mainly from neighbouring Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea.
UNICEF said it expects seasonal flooding to affect 2.5 million people, possibly further increasing the number of IDPs in Ethiopia.
Helping the IDPs and refugees needs an estimated 111.8 million U.S. dollars, 31 per cent of which has so far been donated to UNICEF.
Increasing communal violence and natural disasters across various parts of Ethiopia in the first half of 2018 is thought to be behind the spike in the number of IDPs in the country.
Oromia, Somali and Southern regional states house most of the IDPs in the country.
Ambassador Taye to represent Ethiopia in UN
The outgoing Ethiopian ambassador to Egypt, Taye Atske-Selassie, has said he will be flying to New York to represent Ethiopia in the United Nations.
He will replace the outgoing Ethiopia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Tekeda Alemu, who was made Ethiopian Permanent Representative to the UN in January 2011.
In a press conference issued in Cairo, Ambassador Taye said “he has concluded his 18 months of work in Egypt, and will be flying to New York to represent Ethiopia in the United Nations.”
In his presser, the ambassador also hailed the bilateral relations between Ethiopia and Egypt.
. He added that the three have created a board of technical specialists to iron out any remaining disagreements. Ambassador Taye will leave Cairo by the end of this month.
PM Abiy meets with key player in coffee sector
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) met with key industry actors and regulators of the coffee sector to address the binding constraints in order to improve productivity, value addition export earnings.
The Premier “addressing the poor export performance and weak trade balance is an urgent priority for Ethiopia,” according to Fitsum Arega, Chief of Staff at the Premier’s Office
Ethiopia earned USD 2.8 billion from export, slightly higher than half of the planned USD 5.23 billion in the concluded Ethiopian budget year, ENA reported.
Agriculture, manufacture and mining sectors were the top sectors in achieving better performances of 64.9 percent, 45.9 and 15.2 percent of the plan respectively, the press release added.
Compared to the same period of last year, the revenue earned in the budget year witnessed lower performance by USD 71.4 million.
