Speakers set for annual rice trade show
Betsy Ward, president and chief executive officer of USA Rice, is among the featured speakers at the 2019 annual meeting and trade show of the Arkansas Rice Council and Arkansas Rice Farmers on Jan. 8 in Stuttgart.
A legislative overview will highlight both state and federal issues including tax exemptions and the recently enacted Farm Bill, according to a news release.
Attendees also will hear from state Sen. John Cooper, R-Jonesboro, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, who will preview the regular session of the General Assembly, which begins this month; and Drew Westerman, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, who will provide an analysis of groundwater levels and trends and forecasts for rice-growing regions.
About 250 people are expected at the event, which begins at 8 a.m. at the Grand Prairie Center in Stuttgart.
The meeting will focus on family farming and include presentations on estate planning and the rice checkoff program. The event also will include an industry trade show and conclude with a free catered lunch for registered attendees.
-- Noel Oman
Amazon plans to add Whole Foods sites
SEATTLE -- A report Monday said Amazon plans to expand its Whole Foods grocery stores in the U.S.
The e-commerce giant aims to add locations to suburbs and other areas where the organic grocer is adding more customers since it was bought by Amazon, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited a person familiar with the plans. The move would allow more customers to tap into Amazon's Prime Now two-hour delivery service.
A spokesman for Amazon couldn't immediately be reached by Bloomberg News.
Amazon has been pushing to expand in the $840 billion grocery business since buying Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017. Amazon has used discounts to lure Prime members to physical Whole Foods stores. Now, it needs more stores that are closer to more people, according to a report over the summer by Sense360. Amazon's Prime Now service offers delivery from Whole Foods in as little as an hour in more than 60 cities.
Amazon intends to expand its delivery and pickup services to almost all of its more than 400 Whole Foods stores in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal said.
Despite Amazon's investment in Whole Foods, the number of Amazon Prime members who shop for groceries at least once a month declined in 2018 compared with 2017, according to an annual consumer survey by UBS.
The Journal reported that Whole Foods employees have looked at potential retail locations in the Rocky Mountain region, including in Idaho, southern Utah and Wyoming. Some of those spaces were about 45,000 square feet, according to the report.
-- Bloomberg News
NYC bans tobacco sales at pharmacies
NEW YORK -- New York City pharmacies won't be allowed to sell cigarettes or other tobacco products starting today.
The Wall Street Journal reported the ban also includes businesses that contain pharmacies, such as supermarkets and big-box stores.
The city's health department said the change will affect about 500 pharmacies currently selling tobacco products.
The new rules follow a ban on electronic cigarette sales at pharmacies that took effect in late August.
The owner of the St. George Pharmacy on Staten Island said cigarette sales had drawn customers who ended up making other purchases. Al Gentile said the government shouldn't ban certain stores from selling tobacco products that can be purchased elsewhere.
But a deputy health commissioner, Sonia Angell, says it's important for pharmacies to promote health.
-- The Associated Press
Coffee analysts predict price rise in '19
SCARSDALE, N.Y. -- It's been a big year for the companies that sell coffee, but not so much for the growers that supply them.
Historically low prices for coffee beans in 2018 will likely reduce the incentive for farmers to expand supplies, said Rodrigo Costa, the U.S.-based coffee director for Brazilian trading company Comexim. That could mean a price spurt ahead, analysts say, as major moves within the industry promise to boost consumption worldwide.
Coca-Cola Co., for instance, spent $5 billion in 2018 to get into the java space. Meanwhile, Nestle SA made its third-largest deal in 152 years when agreeing to pay $7.15 billion for the right to market products from Starbucks Corp., which is now expanding in China at a rate of a new store every 15 hours as demand in the world's second-largest economy booms.
"You can't have everybody in the chain winning at the same time," said Lucio Dias, commercial director at Cooxupe, the world's largest coffee-growers cooperative, in an telephone interview from Guaxupe, Brazil. "Now, it's been the time of the industry."
Next year, he and others say, the growers may get a bigger piece of the action. Coffee futures are forecast to average $1.24 a pound in 2019, according to the mean estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That's up from $1.15 a pound this year, which is below the past five-decade average price.
That will come as consumption has increased by an average 3.6 million bags a year since the 2014-15 season, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
-- Bloomberg News
Georgia starts taxing online purchases
ATLANTA -- Many online retailers will have to start adding a new line to their Georgia customers' bills -- one for sales taxes.
Starting today, online retailers are supposed to charge taxes on their sales to Georgians, something some big companies, such as Amazon, have done for years. That will add the 4 percent state sales tax and any local sales taxes to the cost of online purchases made from companies not currently charging the levies.
Lawmakers approved legislation during the 2018 session supporting a universal sales tax on online sales, and the U.S. Supreme Court in June backed Internet sales taxes, knocking down a 1990s decision that limited states in collecting such duties.
President Donald Trump praised the ruling, as did store owners who felt they were at a disadvantage against online retailers who could sell products without the tax. They said that allowed Internet retailers to undercut them on pricing products.
The change could mean an extra $500 million to $600 million a year in sales-tax collections for state and local governments, according to state estimates.
Under the previous Supreme Court ruling, Georgia and other states could only force online retailers to charge sales taxes if the company had a physical presence within their boundaries, such as Amazon, which has warehouse and distribution centers in Georgia.
-- Cox Newspapers
Business on 01/01/2019