MARKET NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

July 20, 2010

Livestock

1.        JBS SA agreed to buy McElhaney Feedyard in Arizona for around $24 million.  The feedyard has a capacity to feed 130,000 head of cattle, and is strategically located near the JBS production facility in Tolleson.

2.        JBS SA agreed to buy the Toledo Group, a small Belgium company that makes and markets cooked and frozen beef products.  JBS paid $14 million for the company, which has more than 100 clients across western Europe.


Grains

1.        Monsanto Co. and BASF said they will nearly double their investments into an already established joint venture to develop biotech crops, including wheat.  The companies said they hope to develop a yield-enhanced biotech wheat for North American and Australian markets, but initial commercialization will occur sometime after 2020.  The joint venture is still on track to introduce a genetically modified drought-tolerant corn around 2012, pending regulatory approvals.

2.        Monsanto has agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine for misbranding biotech cotton seeds in what regulators called the largest settlement of its kind for violating U.S. insecticide law.