In a bid to arrest the price fall in India, 17 India-based tyre companies have agreed to procure natural rubber from domestic market at 25 per cent rate higher than the international price
Crops
Vietnam bans Australian fruit and vegetable imports

Australia is among the top five largest fruit exporters to Vietnam besides China, the USA, New Zealand and South Africa. (Image source: Kerry J/Flickr)
Vietnam has stopped issuing import permits for Australian fruit and vegetables for 2015, citing concerns about fruit fly
Cambodia and China sign deal to set up agricultural promotion centre
Cambodia and China have signed an agreement to establish a Cambodia-China Agricultural Promotion Centre to help the Southeast Asian nation develop agriculture sustainably
Research to aid develop six new rice varieties in Indonesia
By 2017, Indonesia may see six more rice varieties grown in the country as a result of an US$800,000 research project funded by Temasek Foundation, an Asia investment firm headquartered in Singapore
Thai rice exports to hit 11mn tonnes in 2014

India had toppled Thailand two years ago to become the world’s top rice exporter as the intervention scheme priced Thai rice out of the export market and as Indian capital Delhi lifted a four-year ban on non-basmati rice sales in 2011 to trim stocks. (Image source: Pascal Thauvin/sxc.hu)
Thailand will export 11mn tonnes of rice by end of this year marking a 67 per cent rise since 2013, according to Thai Rice Exporter Association