On January 30th 2010 was published Ordinance No. 14 issued by the Romanian Government on the financial arrangements for regulating State aid to farmers, starting with 2010.

From the agricultural business enterprises investments, agri trading or livestock farming  to agri associations or consolidation (aggregation) of land all these areas are well covered by different types of State aids.

Posted: 5 February 2010 under Uncategorized.
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~ Author: Dana Bucur ~

From acquiring the self propelled vessels for transporting cereals, fertilizers etc on the Danube River, up to conditioning and storage facilities, TRANS EUROPA Group (http://www.teu-group.ro) clearly distinguishes itself from other companies through the quality of its services being on the first place in the 2009 Top of Galatz Small and Middle Sized Companies.

Under the same aegis of management three business units work together:

•    TRANS EUROPA PORT S.A. Galatz
•   AGROPORT S.A.
•   TRANS EUROPA S.A.

These three companies are strategically placed in the East and South-West of Romania covering one of the most important Romanian business areas, area bordered by the Danube River, from Galatz to Braila (East of Romania) and up to Drobeta Turnu Severin (South-West of Romania), thus, the agricultural producers, inputs suppliers etc, can dispose of the hole range of commercial and port services.

Hereafter, a short presentation of the three companies:

TRANS EUROPA PORT S.A. Galatz, founded in 1996, with branches in Galatz, Braila and Drobeta Turnu Severin Ports, has as objects of activity: handling, port operations and storage, as well as cereals operations and conditioning.

In GALATZ, this company has a cereals Silo with a total capacity of 30,000 to and a built area of 4,162.02 m2, with multiple facilities:
-    Activities on water:        loading/unloading ships of up to 5,000 to/dwt;
-    Activities on land:         loading/discharging railcars, usual and broad railways;
-   Loading/discharging trucks of all capacities.

By the networks of roads and railways, the location offers a connection with the whole country, as well as with the whole territory of Moldavian Republic, Russian Federation and Ukraine. The working place is specialized in handling cereals, with the facility to store and transit from railcars for broad railway in railcars for usual railway and the other way round.

In BRAILA, the activity of TRANS EUROPA PORT S.A. GALA?I – BRAILA BRANCH, consists of the following objects:
•    loading/unloading of the vessels;
•    stowing goods;
•     lashing goods;
•    storing goods

The company has an operational berth (Berth 24) with an active length of 102 m, having a vertical landing pier, with landing fenders, allowing river and sea vessels operations up to the maximum allowable draught on the maritime Danube (23 feet).
Due to the company’s continuous activity increase, through the volume increase of the operated goods and their diversifying, the development of the operating/storage spaces on the platform was required, by making a concrete platform, inside port precinct, for storing general goods with an area of 2,700 m2, on which a storage place for fertilizers was created and by making a platform for storing laminated products on the waiting quay, down stream.
The operated goods: cereals, meals, stone, iron plates, fertilizers, prefabricated products, brick, sugar.

The operating rate is between 700 and 1,000 to/24  hours, depending on the goods’ nature, means of transport and type of handling operation.

In DROBETA TURNU SEVERIN, the commercial Port has:
•    vertical quay of grate capacity with a length of 300 ml with operating possibilities on three berths at the same time;
•    waiting berths with a length of 423 ml;
•    wintering berths with a length of 375 ml;
•    executing building, ground floor + 1 floor (Ac = 188 m², Ad = 376 m²);
•    two cranes of 16 tf x 32 m;
•    one portal crane of 5 tf x 32 m;
•    concrete platform for goods handling and storing of  13,725 m²;
•    cereals storage space with a capacity of 3,000 to.

AGROPORT S.A. currently has, in TRANS EUROPA Braila Port, a storage capacity made up of a silo with 4 metallic cells of 1,100 TO wheat each (810 to barley, 650 to sun flower, 950 to corn) each and a storage capacity in 6 barges of 1,500 to wheat each (1,100 to barley, 1,000 to sun flower, 1,400 to corn, 1,000 to sun flower meal) as well as three storehouses of 500 TO each.

The cereals can be taken over through two unloading platforms from specialized railway cars, trucks or river/sea vessels, and the delivery can be made either directly in the sea/river vessel, or in specialized railway car or trucks.

The take over and delivery capacity is of 120 to/hour, the silo having conditioning equipment for the stored cereals with forced ventilation or recirculation, fanner and drier with a drying capacity of 600 to/24 hours.
Each cell has a centralized system of monitoring the stored cereals temperature. The company ha a lab for cereals and an electronic weigher of 50 to with which the goods reception and delivery is made. The company ensures also cereals acquisition services, at the request of the port services’ beneficiaries, by order.

Besides the activity with cereals, AGROPORT S.A. company imports complex quantities of fertilizers that are packed in bags of 50, 500, 600 and 1,000 kg with two packing equipments of high capacity and are distributed throughout the whole country. The company has 4 storehouses and a covered area for storing fertilizers throughout the year.

TRANS EUROPA S.A. has three self propelled vessels “SPERANTA 1″, “SPERANTA 2″ and “SPERANTA 3″ with navigation and communication equipments of the highest technical level. Through its specific management, TRANS EUROPA S.A. ensures transports of short standing being responsible fort the integrity of the transported goods.

The maximum capacity: 84.948 to / 1,087.247 to / 935.864 to.

With normal navigation conditions, the transport standings are:

• Galatz (Constanta) – Russe:             2 days
• Galatz (Constanta) – Novi Sad:         7 days
• Galatz (Constanta) – Budapest:         9 days.

All three companies have certification of EN ISO 9001:2001quality management system (this system is applied also in the field of river transport services on internal waterways). The certification was made in conformity with the TUV CERT certification and auditing procedures.

All persons interested in the activity of these companies are invited to contact us on the e-mail address: teu@teu-group.ro or on the phone number: +40 - 236.416.204 or fax number +40 - 236.460.838.

Posted: 5 February 2010 under Dana Bucur articles, Europe, Romania.
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Author: MATT CAWOOD
Via: Farm Weekly - online

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) has placed 2009 as the warmest year in the Southern Hemisphere since records began 130 years ago, and the past decade as the warmest globally.

Globally, 2009 tied with 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007 as the second warmest year on record after 2005, according to the GISS analysis of planetary temperatures.

The decade from January 2000 to December 2009 was clearly the warmest since modern instrumentation was introduced in 1880.

“There’s substantial year-to-year variability of global temperature caused by the tropical El Nino-La Nina cycle”, said GISS director James Hansen.

“But when we average temperature over five or ten years to minimize that variability, we find that global warming is continuing unabated.”

Over the past three decades, according to the GISS analysis, the global average temperature has increased 0.2 degrees Celsius a decade.

The Australian Bureau of Meterology (BoM) is waiting on the results of a similar analysis by the UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre, which BoM has traditionally used as a guide to global temperature trends.

The Hadley Centre analysis tends to be more conservative than GISS, according to BoM senior climatologist Dr Karl Braganza, because Hadley scientists leave out areas of the Arctic and Antarctic where climate monitoring stations are scarce.

GISS extrapolates data for these areas from the nearest monitoring stations in an attempt to deliver a fuller climate picture.

In the Hadley analysis, polar areas without monitoring stations are assumed to be warming at the same rate as the global average. GISS incorporates sea ice data from satellites that indicates the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet.

Dr Braganza said while the two methods produce slightly different results - although often within a tenth or a hundredth of a degree - both show the same global warming trend.

A key driver of natural climate variability is the El Nino-La Nina cycle, which stems from the cyclic warming and cooling of the Pacific Ocean.

GISS and BoM climatologists believe the El Nino of late 2009 combined with greenhouse gas-driven warming to produce an unusually warm year in 2009.

“The unusual thing about this El Nino when it got going around mid-2009 was that Pacific ocean temperatures were already very warm, which was likely a continuation of the greenhouse warming effect,” Dr Braganza said.

That warmth across the Pacific generated rain, which counteracted the usual El Nino drying effect on eastern Australia for several months. But as the year went on, across eastern Australia as a whole it was very dry.

“Tasmania got some good rainfall, and Victoria had two or three rainfall events, but they were just weather events. Typically during an El Nino we get less of them.

“When you are talking about climate, you’re talking about what history can tell you might happen over a particular stretch of time–but during an El Nino, you can still get a good rainall event coming through with the normal weather that gives a bit of relief.”

The global warming trend, which is reflected in the warming of the Australian temperature record, appears to be continuing despite the deepest recorded solar minimum.

During solar maximums, high sunspot activity is generally correlated with higher surface temperatures on Earth. Solar minimums, or low sunspot activity, are generally related to cooler temperatures, but this is not the case during the current minimum.

Aerosols, particularly sulfate aerosols produced by volcanoes, are also known to cool global temperature by reflecting sunlight, but aerosols appear not to have played a significant role during 2009.

Source: http://fw.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/warmest-since-records-began-2009/1734382.aspx?storypage=1

Posted: 1 February 2010 under Agribusiness worldwide, australia.
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