EUROPE NEWS ON FASTMOVING

Johannesburg - The EU is preparing a ban on South African citrus imports that could take orange juice off Europe’s breakfast tables next summer and sour efforts in Brussels to broaden trade with Africa’s biggest economy. read more

Meat processing companies, Meatco and Witvlei Meat, have once again bid for the lucrative beef export quota to Norway, which is set at 1600 tonnes per year and pays 72% more than exports to other parts of Europe. Earlier this month, the Meat Board of Namibia requested for bids for the Norway quota from local meat companies.  read more

BOS Ice Tea has recently celebrated its third birthday in South Africa, and has taken the first steps into European markets, launching in Belgium and Holland earlier this month. read more

Johannesburg - Markets across the world on Thursday gave a lukewarm reaction towards the US debt deal, due to fears that the scenario will repeat itself early next year. read more

Brussels - The CEO of Delhaize Group's European division has resigned, effective Oct. 31, the Belgian supermarket operator said. read more

Frankfurt - Germany, Europe's second-biggest grain producer after France, reported a 3.0% increase in its harvest this year, despite the bad weather and flooding, data showed on Thursday. read more

On Carrefour’s second-quarter results, Gildas Aitamer, Retail Analyst at Planet Retail, commented:  read more

New research from the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that PC shipments in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) continued to contract in the second quarter of 2013 (2Q13). read more

New York - US stocks Friday opened higher following a better-than-expected US jobs report, even as US Treasury yields spiked.  read more

New York - There's expensive and then there's Hong Kong. read more

Zurich - Luxury goods group Richemont [JSE:CFR] said its annual profit rose nearly a third from the previous year's €1.54bn, helped by favourable currency swings.  read more

Not only is Germany forming a last line of defence against the euro’s implosion, the land of steins and beer kellers also offers fertile ground to distillers foraging for sales in Western Europe’s withered landscape. read more

Unilever’s breadth of businesses and markets would enable it to ride out the tough environment in Europe, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company said yesterday as it reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter growth. read more

(Reuters) - Global wine production fell sharply last year due to bad weather in Europe and a recent policy to drain its "wine lakes", while Chile and United States saw a jump in harvests, according to a recent report. read more

Cape Town - Major fishing company bosses on Wednesday described a meeting with Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson as a watershed moment.  read more

Bucharest - French food industry group Danone said Monday it had withdrawn some of its dairy products from sale in Romania after a potentially carcinogenic substance was found in milk from one of its suppliers.  read more

Johannesburg - South African furniture maker and retailer Steinhoff International reported a 5 percent rise in first-half profit on Tuesday as the weaker rand currency helped offset slack consumer demand.  read more

A wine company bearing the name of the former president Nelson Mandela has been established in the United States, the Sunday Sun reported. read more

The Red Meat Industry Forum (RMIF), which represents the entire red meat industry chain, from primary producer through the abattoir to the meat trader and eventually the consumer, has noted with extreme concern the condemning statements made on the research findings by Prof Louw Hoffman and his colleagues on the inclusion of various unlabeled ingredients used in meat products sampled from retail butcher stores and butcheries. read more

Mastercard unveiled its bid to dominate the mobile payments market on Monday with a ‘virtual wallet’ allowing customers to keep personal payment details in their phone and avoid checkouts by scanning bar codes in-store to pay. read more

Stocholm Swedish furniture giant Ikea has withdrawn some of its company-branded meatballs in 14 European countries after horsemeat was found in the product by Czech authorities, the company said on Monday.  read more

Cape Town - South African meat consumers have nothing to fear from a horsemeat scandal currently rocking Europe.  read more

London - GlaxoSmithKline, Britain's biggest drugmaker, renewed its promise to return to growth this year, after failing to deliver a hoped-for sales and margin recovery in 2012. read more

London - Global consumer confidence dipped at the end of last year, a survey showed on Monday, and more than 60 percent of respondents said the next 12 months would not be a good time to spend. read more

Abu Dhabi - Dutch food retailer Spar International plans to enter the Middle East, aiming to have 30 stores in the region by the end of 2015, its managing director said on Sunday. read more

London - Drug companies are spending record amounts on acquisitions in emerging markets, with China the most attractive target nation, reflecting sharply rising sales of western medicines in the country.  read more

London - Crude oil prices fell on Wednesday following recent gains, mirroring events across world stock markets, as traders showed caution ahead of Greek talks, Fed minutes and US energy inventory data.  read more

London - British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline on Wednesday said its second quarter net profit rose 13.3% from a year earlier to £1.21bn. read more

The downturn in the euro zone’s private sector is becoming entrenched and Chinese factories are finding the going increasingly tough, business surveys showed yesterday, painting a gloomier outlook for the world economy. read more

Johannesburg – As global demand firms and domestic demand remains robust‚ economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to strengthen to 5% in 2012‚ the World Bank says in its newly-released Global Economic Prospects (GEP).  read more

Brussels - The eurozone narrowly escaped technical recession in the first quarter as exports offset a plunge in investment and inventories to produce a flat reading, data showed on Wednesday, but it was unlikely to escape contraction again in the second quarter.  read more

Manufacturing output contracted unexpectedly in March, suggesting that the recession in Europe is already taking a toll on exports and signalling growth in the economy may be slowing more sharply than expected.  read more

Planet Retail, the leading global retail analysis company, has strengthened its European division with the appointment of Frank Weibelzahl as Sales Director.  read more

Georges Plassat, Carrefour (CA) SA’s fourth chief executive officer in eight years, relishes a challenge.  read more

Hong Kong - Fresh signs of a mooted wave of Chinese money looking to buy European assets on the cheap emerged on Friday, with a major bank said to be in the running for parts of Britain's RBS and an Italian yacht maker seen in the sights of Shangdong Heavy Industry. read more

European glass packaging production volumes have grown by 4.7% in the first half of 2011, according to figures from the European Container Glass Federation (Feve). read more

Cocoa has hit its lowest level since December 2008 on the back of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and increased supplies from West Africa according to commodity analysts familiar with the industry. read more

As European leaders head into the last summit of the year today, the future of the euro as a currency will come under the scrutiny of both global policy makers and investors, as politicians try to restore confidence in the currency used by 17 nations within the European Union (EU). read more

Jupiter Drawing Room in Cape Town has been notified that as of the end of January, Woolworths will no longer be doing business with them. read more

Johannesburg - South Africa’s trade account recorded a wider-than-expected trade shortfall of R9.6bn in October compared with a R2.5bn surplus in September, the South African Revenue Service said on Wednesday. read more

Pretoria - South Africa’s economic growth came in less than expected at 1.4% in the third quarter of 2011 on a seasonally adjusted and annualised basis, compared with a 1.3% rise in the second quarter, data showed on Tuesday.  read more

Bureau for Economic Research survey shows domestic order volumes rose to a four-year peak, while export sales and order volumes gave positive readings for the first time in more than eight years read more

London - Brewer SABMiller [JSE:SAB] narrowly missed forecasts with an 11% rise in half-year earnings on Thursday, and warned that trading in Europe and North America will stay tough as its input costs tick higher. read more

Washington - US retail sales rose broadly in October and a gauge of New York state manufacturing showed growth this month for the first time since May, suggesting the economy started the fourth quarter with vigour. read more

Hong Kong - Hong Kong's wine imports have remained strong even as global economic uncertainty cuts demand for luxury goods, underscoring the city's credentials as a preeminent wine hub buoyed by strong demand from mainland Chinese buyers.  read more