Biofuels

Despite continued economic growth, U.S. businesses and farmers are increasingly concerned about the trade spat with China which already has pushed prices higher, according to a Federal Reserve survey released on April 18.

Fuel sales continued in the first quarter of the year the decline recorded in 2017, while the sector pins its hopes for a market recovery on tourism and the measures for containing smuggling phenomena.

Jets in Europe will soon run on eco-fuel produced from vegetable oil and animal fat. The new fuel will be mixed with traditional kerosene.

Biofuels in the EU are deeply intertwined with global food and feed markets. As the EU discusses its future biofuels policy, their contribution to the bloc’s animal feed supply and impact on food prices have emerged as major battlegrounds between supporters and critics.

The agricultural sector has contracted by 6 percent last year due to plunging exports and the consequent decline in prices in the domestic market, the head of a leading sector association announced on Jan. 5. 

A 20-year-old British tourist, identified as Hannah Powell, was being treated in a hospital in Patra, in western Greece, after consuming spiked drinks that caused her blindness and kidney failure, according to reports.

Powell remained in intensive care a week since her collapse after partying with friends in the Laganas resort on the Ioanian island of Zakinthos, reports said.

Bulgaria's National Audit Office has cautioned in a report that the country is falling to meet biofuel production and use targets.

Investments in biogas are not profitable in Romania at a 4 million euro cost per MW installed, Deputy Rodin Traicu, member of the committee on industries and services, said on Thursday.

Deputy Rodin Traicu, member of the Committee on industries and services

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) price index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of cereal, oilseed, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 171 points in April, 1.2 percent below its reading in March.

High global production, a strong U.S. dollar and cheaper crude oil have helped cap food prices for the past year and the index has been declining since April 2014.

Turkish refiner Tüpraş aims for all units in the $3 billion upgrade project at its İzmit refinery to be online at the start of next year, its General Manager Yavuz Erkut said Dec. 1.

Tüpraş had said in its third-quarter results announcement in early November that the upgrade would be completed before the end of year.