Dear readers,
As always, we start with some good news:
- An Alabama(USA) woman lived with a pig kidney for a record 130 days.
Scientists are genetically altering pigs so their organs are more humanlike After her body began rejecting it and is back on dialysis, Towana Looney is recovering well from the April 4 removal surgery at NYU Langone Health and has returned home to Gadsden, Alabama. In a statement, she thanked her doctors for “the opportunity to be part of this incredible research…Though the outcome is not what anyone wanted, I know a lot was learned from my 130 days with a pig kidney – and that this can help and inspire many others in their journey to overcoming kidney disease.”
- The Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment of Vietnam signed in Hanoi, within the framework of the official visit of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, a memorandum of collaboration on food quality and safety. This memorandum, in addition to strengthening cooperation between the two countries, should lay the groundwork for opening up trade.
- On the occasion of his visit to China and his meeting with the country’s president, Xi Jinping, the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, has announced an agreement reached with the Chinese authorities to establish a new protocol that will expand the range of pork products that Spain can export to this destination . This will allow the list of authorized products exported from Spain to be expanded with pork stomachs. The protocol will be valid for a period of five years and will be automatically renewed for equal and consecutive periods. A successful diplomatic tour of the leading country of the European pig industry!
Events calendar:
- The International Forum “Contemporary Trends in Pig Farming: Scientific, Market, and Regulatory Aspects,” organized by Trakia University – Stara Zagora, National Association for Breeding Traditional and Local Pig Breeds Association of Industrial Swine Breeding in Bulgaria, and Association of Swine Breeders in Bulgaria takes place on April 15, 2025, at Trakia University. See you there!
- Anuga Select Japan is a pivotal event in the global food and beverage industry, held annually at the prestigious Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo. Organized by Koelnmesse Co., it will take place on 3 days from Tuesday, 15. April to Thursday, 17. April 2025.
- The international “Baltic Grains & Oils Conference” will be held in Riga. The event is organized by APK-Inform. The forum will bring together around 170 delegates from 19 countries: key players from the agricultural products and logistics markets across the EU, the Black Sea region, and Asia. The event takes place on April 16-17.
Only time
Poland should either buy or lease the port in Odessa to export Polish and European grain, stated Michal Kolodziejczak, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Poland. The purchase or long-term lease for 50 years of would allow Poland to build its own grain port. This is not first initiative of this kind, Hungary did a similar move a few years ago, leasing an area of the port of Trieste, Italy. At least, this are business proposals, not threats, as we have seen recently in the speeches of president Trump.
President Trump managed to do one thing: generate an economic cooperation between entities that were on very different positions just a few months ago! This is also the case of the Chinese-Spanish agreement on pork export, threatened by the electric car taxation introduced by the EU. Asia is the birth place of the strategic games, but you cannot play such games with spoiled kids, with total disrespect of the basic rules of engagement. They get angry and turn over the table, when loosing. The permanent changes in the U.S. tariff policy and the unpredictability of the behavior of President Trump made him an undesirable partner.
What could be the outcome? We have 3 weeks with less working days, I suggest two books: “Bad Samaritans” by Haa-Joon Chang and “Why Nations Fail” by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson.
The U.S. has a long list of Presidents whose life was turned into movies: Lincoln, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon are maybe the most famous ones. There is also the case of an actor, Ronald Reagan, becoming one of the most successful republican politicians in history. Will the results of Trump’s second mandate include him in the list of the most successful U.S. presidents? Who can tell? Only time…
