How Fast Food’s Global Takeover Was Underwritten by Development Banks
April 24th, 2024
Courtesy of TruthDig, a report on how – from South Africa to Ukraine – five industrial chicken companies that supply KFC have benefited from financing from the World Bank Group and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development: With its unparalleled purchasing power and exacting demands, fast food has long shaped agricultural systems in the United […]
Read more »For Multinationals, Africa’s Allure Is Fading
April 21st, 2024
Courtesy of Bloomberg, a report that – after decades of optimism about the region – global giants such as Bayer, Nestlé and Unilever are cutting back: Nestlé SA in August shuttered production of Nesquik chocolate milk powder in South Africa, citing falling demand. A year ago, Unilever Plc pulled the plug on the manufacturing of home-care and skin-cleansing […]
Read more »The Rare Earths Mine Becoming a Bellwether For U.S. Minerals Policy
April 20th, 2024
Courtesy of The Financial Times, an article on U.S. attempts to challenge China’s global dominance in critical minerals: A site close to Kruger National Park in South Africa is becoming a testing ground for US attempts to fight China’s global dominance in critical minerals. Washington has committed to finance a little-known London-listed miner hoping to […]
Read more »Emerging Powers and the Future of American Statecraft
April 10th, 2024
Via the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a new report on how, collectively, emerging powers in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East are growing in their geopolitical weight and diplomatic ambition. How closely do they align with the United States when it comes to Russia and China? What drives their decisions on the […]
Read more »Candy Crush: Crushing It In Africa
March 31st, 2024
Courtesy of Semafor, interesting analysis of a recent survey on video games in Africa: I’ve been digging into a survey on video game players across Africa, by Geopoll/Pan Africa Gaming Group, looking for nuggets. It’s a sector which is still in its early stages of development on the continent and has very little analytical coverage. […]
Read more »South African Ports Fail to Gain From Diverted Red Sea Traffic; Namibia and Madagascar Gain
March 16th, 2024
Courtesy of Bloomberg, a report on how Namibia and Madagascar are gaining from diverted Red Sea traffic: Madagascar, Namibia, among those benefiting from rerouting South Africa’s port problems see it miss out on some traffic Africa’s inefficient and aging ports are hampering the continent’s chances of capitalizing on a surge in ship traffic that’s avoiding […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.