Business

JOHANNESBURG — A South African court on Sunday ordered the government to allow the owner of the world's biggest private rhino herd to hold an online sale of rhino horn, which he aims to hold this week, his lawyer said.

John Hume has about 1,500 rhinos on his sprawling farm southeast of Johannesburg, where he breeds the animals.

White rhinos nearly went extinct last century but South African conservation efforts and private game farms have swelled their numbers in recent decades, though poachers are again putting them in danger.

Hume regularly cuts his rhinos' horns, which then grow back, and has built a large stockpile, some 500kg of which he plans to auction after in April successfully challenging government rules banning their sale.

He last week took South Africa's department of environmental affairs to court, as he had been issued with a permit which he said had not been handed to him.

"The court ordered they [the department of environmental affairs] should hand over the permit to us," Hume's lawyer Izak du Toit told Reuters, saying he would take collection of it on Monday.

South Africa is home to more than 80 per cent of the world's rhinos, whose population has been devastated by poaching for buyers in Vietnam and China, where it is coveted as an ingredient in traditional medicine.

Global trade in rhino horn is banned under a UN convention. That means any horn acquired legally in South Africa could not be exported, but conservationists have expressed concerns that domestic buyers could illicitly supply Asian markets.

Hume had said in papers to the high court seen by Reuters that the government was withholding already authorised permits for the sale of 264 horns in the August 21-24 auction.

The number of poached rhinos in South Africa fell by 13 to 529 between January and June compared with 2016, a trend welcomed with "cautious optimism" by the government in July.

But numbers had surged from 83 in 2008 to a record 1,215 in 2014 to meet burgeoning demand in newly affluent countries such as Vietnam, where the horns are used as status symbols and believed to contain aphrodisiac properties.

AMMAN — The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) board of directors on Wednesday elected Jawad Anani as chairman of the board, according to the ASE website. Anani was appointed as a representative of the government in the ASE board as of July 26th, 2017.

ANFEH, Lebanon — At 93, Elias Al Najjar has spent half a century harvesting salt by hand from ponds on Lebanon's Mediterranean shore, but he and his colleagues fear their way of life is dying.

Traditional coastal salt production was once popular in Lebanon, but the fully artisanal practice now survives in just a single seaside town, Anfeh, around 70 kilometres north of Beirut.

Producers like Najjar say the sector has suffered a series of blows, from an exodus of pond owners during Lebanon's civil war, to the lifting of import tariffs.

"I used to produce 300 tonnes myself in the 1950s," the elderly man says.

"Now I make 30 tonnes maximum."
Anfeh's salt producers accuse the government of refusing them permits to repair their equipment in order to turf them off prime coastal real estate and make way for developers. 

"If they can't destroy the ponds, they want to make them unworkable so it's easier for fat cats to buy them to build resorts," says Hafez Jreij, 67.

"The land the ponds are on is going to be handed over to developers who want to build beach resorts."

The municipality confirmed to AFP that the central government is not giving any more permits.

But municipal spokeswoman Christiane Nicolas said the local council has no desire to destroy the sector.

"The government stopped collecting taxes on traditional salt production because it considered it an infringement on public property," she told AFP.

But she added: "There's no evidence the authorities want to hand over the coast to developers."

Seasonal process 

Salt extraction is a time-consuming process subject to the vagaries of weather, meaning it can only be practised around four months a year.

First, sea water is drawn into metre-deep concrete ponds via pumps powered by small windmills. 

The water sits in the ponds of up to 20 square metres for at least 20 days, evaporating to leave a salty liquid residue.

That salty water is then swept into shallower concrete pans, and left to concentrate further for another 10 days.

Setbacks 

Each day, producers sweep the sea water across the pan to ensure it dries evenly.

As the liquid disappears, blindingly white salt crystals emerge in lines, twinkling in the sunlight.

Jreij says Lebanon's traditional salt industry produced 50,000 tonnes a year during the sector's heyday between 1955 and 1975.

"Lebanon did not need to import salt, and the state imposed a 200  per cent tax on salt imports," he says.

But from 1975, when Lebanon's 15-year civil war erupted, the industry began suffering a series of setbacks.

Many pond owners were among the Lebanese who fled in waves over the years of the grinding conflict.

With their departure, production started to fall below demand, prompting the government in the 1990s to lift the import tax on foreign salt.

The decision made it hard for local producers to compete and, with the sector in free-fall, the government announced it considered many of the salt pans to be illegal construction on public coastline.

As a result, it stopped taxing income from salt production in 1994. 

And without tax receipts, municipalities started rejecting permit applications from producers to maintain their equipment, producers say. 

Those refusals prevent repairs on worn-down infrastructure, thereby killing the industry, they complain.

Jreij estimates half of all the salt pans in Anfeh are now unusable as a result of the 1994 decision.

Scraping by 

Jreij also said that local authorities tried to shut him down in 2015 and 2016 by claiming the sea water feeding the ponds was contaminated.

"We did laboratory tests on the water at extraction points and they all conformed to safety specifications," Jreij says.

Najjar, who said he had had a similar problem, showed to AFP the analysis results, carried out in Lebanon.

For now, producers in Anfeh are scraping by, selling salt to individual and industrial buyers at a rate of between $2-4 per kilogramme, much less than the price of imported salt.

Bigger battle
Fisherman Daniel Fares, 37, says he is a loyal customer of Jreij because the entire production process is transparent. 

"The sea is clean, and you know where the salt is coming from," he tells AFP. 

"I prefer it over imported salt because it has no additives, which makes it suitable for pickling sardines too," says Fares, who also sells some of Jreij's salt to his own customers for home use. 

Jreij sees the fight to preserve the salt ponds as part of a greater battle to protect Lebanon's coastline, much of which has been gobbled up by developers.

"Salt ponds don't produce waste, they don't block the way to the sea, and they don't block the beautiful view of the Mediterranean," he says.

"Resorts do all of that."

LONDON — Britain's unemployment rate has struck a new 42-year low, official data showed on Wednesday, as the uncertainty of Brexit boosts temporary hirings.

The rate dipped to 4.4 per cent in the three months to June to record the lowest level since 1975, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement. It had stood at 4.5 per cent in the quarter to May.

A total of 1.48 million people were recorded as unemployed at the end of June, down 157,000 compared with a year earlier, although growth in wages has been struggling to keep pace with inflation.

"The employment picture remains strong, with a new record high employment rate and another fall in the unemployment rate," said ONS Senior Labour Market Statistician Matt Hughes.

"Despite the strong jobs picture, however, real earnings continue to decline."

Employment reached an all-time high, rising by 125,000 to 32.07 million people in the three months to June.

"The headline figures shout growth and stability — and yet there's a huge amount of uncertainty on the ground, particularly due to Brexit," said David Morel, head of employment firm Tiger Recruitment.

"Against a backdrop of political and economic uncertainty, people are choosing to stay put rather than speculatively look for other jobs."

But he noted that "Brexit-related and broader economic uncertainty" was supporting the temporary jobs market as employers "have put their permanent hiring on hold".

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwaiti authorities on Tuesday reported a second oil slick off the Gulf state's shores days after saying another large spill was under control.

The new slick was spotted near the capital, some 60 kilometres north of the first spill, tweeted Sheikh Talal Khaled Al Sabah, spokesman for national oil conglomerate Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC).

Kuwait's Environment Public Authority said the latest spill was about 1.6 kilometres long, adding that measures were being taken to contain it.

Private environmental group Kuwait Green Line said on Tuesday that new oil slicks had been spotted and the spill was spreading.

Last week, a large oil spill hit Kuwait's southern coast near Saudi Arabia and close to the joint Saudi-Kuwaiti offshore oilfield at Al Khafji.

Oil officials had said emergency workers managed to clean up most of the spill and that the situation was under control.

Precautionary measures were taken around vital installations in Al-Zour area where a huge $30-billion oil complex including a 615,000-barrel-per-day refinery is being built.

The area also has two power and water desalination plants which were declared safe from contamination.

The source of the crude spill has not yet been determined but officials said samples were sent abroad for examination.

Kuwaiti media on Sunday quoted local oil experts as saying the spill came from an old 50-kilometre-long pipeline from Al Khafji.

The experts estimated that as many as 35,000 barrels of crude may have leaked into the waters off Al Zour.

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, located south of Kuwait along the Gulf coast, said slicks from the spill had not reached their waters.

The KPC said teams from Saudi Arabian Chevron and Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) had joined the coastal clean-up operations.

OPEC member Kuwait pumps around 2.7 million barrels per day of crude oil, providing around 85 per cent of its public revenues.

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia and Iraq are to launch a joint trade commission, the Saudi Cabinet announced on Monday, in a sign of a thaw in ties between the two neighbours.

“The Cabinet has decided to approve the establishment of the Saudi-Iraqi Coordinating Commission and to delegate the Saudi minister of trade and investments to sign on behalf of the kingdom,” read a statement carried by state-run SPA news agency.

The two countries went a quarter century without diplomatic relations, which were cut following Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait after which Saudi Arabia served as the launchpad for a US-led coalition to oust Iraqi forces.

Saudi Arabia and Iraq, OPEC’s top two producers, were both dealt a serious blow when oil prices plummeted following a global production glut in 2014. 

Riyadh and Baghdad showed an improvement in ties in June, when Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi visited the kingdom followed by a series of visits by high-ranking officials. 

Iraq’s Energy Minister Jabbar Al Luaybi and his Saudi counterpart Khalid Al Falih last Thursday jointly announced they would strengthen their commitment to pledged oil production cuts and vowed to ensure coordination of their nations’ oil policies.

OPEC and non-OPEC members have pledged to cut back on production in an effort to stabilise market prices. 

While Saudi Arabia met its production limits in July, Iraq only made one-third of the cut it had pledged, according to a report published by the International Energy Agency. 

Influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, who led a militia that fought against the US occupation of Iraq, last month made a rare trip to Saudi Arabia, a key regional ally of Washington. 

The rekindling of ties comes at a time of diplomatic crisis in the Gulf after Saudi Arabia cut all ties with neighbouring Qatar in June, accusing the emirate of supporting Islamist extremists and working with Shiite Iran. 

Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, has denied the allegations.

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia's budget deficit halved in the first six months of this year, the finance ministry said on Sunday, following sweeping spending cuts and a stabilisation in oil prices.

The ultra-conservative kingdom has moved to diversify its traditionally oil-dependent economy following a sharp fall in crude prices.

The budget deficit dropped by 51 per cent to 72 billion riyals ($19.2 billion) in the first half of 2017, the finance ministry announced.

"This result reflects an improvement in the management of public finances as a result of economic reform introduced through Vision 2030," said Saad Al-Shahrani, a high-ranking ministry official. 

The Vision 2030 plan, announced by the kingdom last year, aims to develop Saudi Arabia's industrial and investment base and boost small-and medium-sized businesses to create local jobs and reduce reliance on oil revenue.

It is the second budget report released by Riyadh since the authorities announced in May they would begin issuing the figures on a quarterly basis to boost transparency.

The kingdom has regularly posted budget deficits since 2014, following a slump in oil prices.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude exporter, in December projected a budget deficit of $53 billion for this year.

Revenues for the first half of the fiscal year were up 29 per cent to 308 billion riyals ($82.1 billion) from the same period last year.

Spending in the first six months dropped 2 per cent to 380.7 billion riyals.

As part of its reforms, Saudi Arabia is due to introduce value-added tax (VAT) in early 2018 along with the UAE and Qatar.

Three other Gulf states — Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman — plan to follow at a later date.

Riyadh announced in June it had begun taxing foreigners working in the private sector as part of its fiscal reforms.

The country is also preparing to sell just under 5 per cent of energy giant Aramco next year.

Saudi Arabia raised $17.5 billion in its first international bond offering in October 2016.

PARIS — European consumers complained of being "left in the lurch" by food safety authorities as a scandal over insecticide-tainted eggs snowballed on Friday, but said they have no intention of removing eggs from their shopping lists completely.

Eggs contaminated with an insecticide called fipronil — which can be harmful to humans — have now been found in 15 EU countries, as well as in Hong Kong and Switzerland, the European Commission said on Friday. 

Fipronil is commonly used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks from animals, but is banned by the EU from use in the food industry. It can harm people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

While officials engaged in finger-pointing and mutual recriminations, consumer protection groups said it is clear who is to blame. 

"Every single actor has committed serious mistakes," said Daniel Sarmadi of Foodwatch in Germany.

"The Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the German regional governments, have only informed the public in a limited way that was obvious from the first days of the scandal. From a consumer's point of view, we've been left in the lurch," Sarmadi said.

''Foodwatch had been saying for a long time that the food sector was especially vulnerable to fraud," Sarmadi added.

"In this case, like others in the past, nothing was noticed for a long time, or at least the information didn't get through to the public."

'Blaming and shaming' 

But Vytenis Andriukaitis, the European Commissioner for health and food safety, said that "blaming and shaming will bring us nowhere". 

"We need to work together to draw the necessary lessons and move forward instead of losing energy on finger pointing," he told AFP.

For their part, European consumers, perhaps hardened by a string of food safety scares in recent years, appear to be mostly phlegmatic about the latest scandal, even if they insist they will exercise greater caution in the supermarket.

"We don't eat many eggs in my family, but we've been especially careful about which products might contain them recently. I won't be buying any mayonnaise until we've got the all clear," said one German shopper, Hans Grofferbert, a federal unemployment agency worker.

Jacky Kur, a supermarket customer in London, said,”  The news reports he had read said there was no risk to human health, so I still buy eggs. And almost everything you buy now has eggs in, so I won't pay attention." 

In the Netherlands, Else Steenbergen, 28, also told AFP that she was not scared. 

"It's in a number of different products and if you have to avoid everything that contains eggs, I don't know what's left." 

'Nothing you can do'

A great deal of customers said they would simply buy their eggs from "safer" sources.

"I buy organic eggs, and I think organic eggs weren't affected, these were only imported eggs," said Gosia Mieczkowska in London.

"I always check whether the stuff is imported or not. So I don't feel particularly concerned, to be honest. There is nothing you can do really." 

While millions of eggs have been pulled off supermarket shelves all across Europe, retail chains say it's too early to gauge what effect the scandal will have on sales.

"We don't have numbers. But with every food scare, you always see some degree of reticence on the part of consumers," said Axel Haentjes of BVLH, a federation of the biggest German food retailers including REWE, Edeka, Aldi and Lidl. 

"There's always a little dip in the sales of the product concerned,” he said, but the situation would return to normal "quickly". 

Barbara Pfenniger, of the Romande Consumer Federation, or FRC, in Switzerland, said she had received a number of enquiries from concerned consumers. 

"Even though the majority of eggs bought by Swiss consumers are Swiss produced and therefore not affected, the scandal highlights the risks of fraud with foodstuffs of animal origin," she said.

Limited hit 

In France, the discounter Lidl has seen sales of battery eggs fall by around 2 per cent, but that drop was being made up for by sales of eggs from other sources. 

"In free-range or organic, there's been no drop. On the contrary, stocks have been sold out in some shops," said Michel Biero of Lidl France.

Customers had already been switching away from battery eggs prior to this scandal, he said. 

"This will only amplify the trend."

LONDON — Around 700,000 eggs implicated in a Dutch insecticide scandal have been distributed in Britain in processed food, authorities said on Thursday, while playing down the risk to public health.

"It is likely that the number of eggs that have come to the UK is closer to 700,000 than the 21,000 we previously believed had been imported," said the Food Standards Agency, a government department.

"However, as this represents 0.007 per cent of the eggs we consume in the UK every year, it remains the case that it is very unlikely that there is any risk to public health from consuming these foods."

It said the eggs had not been sold individually, but were in processed foods such as sandwich fillings and salads — some of which will have already been eaten, with the rest now being withdrawn from sale.

"Many of the eggs involved were mixed with other eggs, which have not come from affected farms so fipronil residues will be highly diluted," said the agency, referring to the insecticide which was first found in Dutch eggs.

The statement added: "The decision to withdraw these products is not due to food safety concerns, but is based on the fact that fipronil is not authorised for use in food producing animals."

Around 85 per cent of eggs consumed in Britain are produced domestically, and the Food Standards Agency said that testing on UK-laid eggs has so far found no evidence of contamination.

Agency chairwoman Heather Hancock said: "The number of eggs involved is small in proportion to the number of eggs we eat, and it is very unlikely that there is a risk to public health. 

"Based on the available evidence there is no need for people to change the way they consume or cook eggs. However, fipronil is not legally allowed for use near food-producing animals and it shouldn't be there."

LONDON — US card payment processing giant Vantiv has agreed to buy British peer Worldpay for £9.3 billion ($12.1 billion), the pair said on Wednesday.

The deal will create a leading international e-commerce payments provider that will process about $1.5 trillion in payments and 40 billion transactions per year in 146 countries and 126 currencies, they said in a statement.

The new group — which will be called Worldpay — will have a combined stock market value of approximately £22.2 billion.

"The boards of directors of Vantiv and Worldpay are pleased to announce that they have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended merger of Worldpay with Vantiv... in the form of a recommended offer," they said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

The announcement, which followed an initial agreement last month, was billed as a merger but will see Vantiv shareholders take a 57 per cent stake of the combined group. Worldpay investors will hold 43 per cent.

The new company will have its global and corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, while London will be its international base.

Vantiv will pay 397 pence per share for Worldpay, or £8 billion, plus another £1.3 billion to cover debts.

"This is a powerful combination that is strategically compelling for both companies," added Charles Drucker, Vantiv president and chief executive.

"It joins two highly complementary businesses, and will allow us to achieve even more together than either organisation could accomplish on its own.

"Our combined company will have unparalleled scale, a comprehensive suite of solutions, and the worldwide reach to make us the payments industry global partner of choice."

Worldpay Chief Executive Philip Jansen added that the deal would offer "substantial opportunities to capitalise on the rapid evolution of payments".

The deal will "offer more payment solutions to businesses, whether large or small, global or local, enabling them to meet consumers' increasing demands", he added.

Drucker will be executive chairman and co-chief executive of the new group, with Jansen as co-chief executive.

The combined company will have a secondary listing on the London stock market, but will have its primary listing in New York.

Worldpay was formerly owned by Britain's state-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland, which sold off its remaining stake to private equity firms Advent International and Bain Capital in 2013.

The group was then floated on the London stock market in 2015.