BETTING ON BITCOIN
Cannabis brand Goodleaf has merged with cannabis producer Highlands Investments
(previously Canopy Growth
Africa). The deal values the combined company at R650-million. It is the largest vertically integrated cannabis operation in Africa, creating “Africa’s first truly seed-to-sale offering”, says Goodleaf founder and CEO Warren Schewitz. Highlands had its fourth outdoor harvest in Lesotho in April: almost six tonnes of premium cannabis, much of which is destined for the European medical market.
South African Breweries (part of Anheuser-Busch InBev) has announced it will invest R2-billion into its local operations.
This follows the company cancelling investments of R2.5-billion for the 2020 financial year and a further R2.5-billion for 2021 because of a “challenging environment”, Reuters reports. The new cash was for upgrades to operating facilities, installation of new equipment at selected plants, product innovations and other necessary operating systems, the company said.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that its Food Price Index, which measures the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, averaged 127.1 points in May, 4.8% higher than in April and 39.7% higher than in May 2020, driven by a surge in the international prices of vegetable oils, sugar and cereals. The FAO Cereal Price Index increased 6% from April, led by international maize prices, which averaged 89.9% higher than May last year, but they dipped towards month-end.
Working fast, El Salvador became the first country to make
Bitcoin legal tender, with 62 out of 84 congress members voting in favour of the move on 9 June.
President Nayib Bukele floated the idea on 5 June at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, US. It would offer users the fastest growing way to transfer remittances, he said. Its use as legal tender will begin in 90 days and tax contributions will also be payable in Bitcoin. Trading Economics put El Salvador remittances at $644-million in April 2021.
Elon Musk tweeted on 6 June that Tesla’s Model S Plaid+, the most expensive of its flagship sedans, was cancelled, because the Plaid “was just so good”. It’s scheduled for unveiling on 10 June. Musk called the Model S Plaid the “quickest production car ever made of any kind”. It can go from zero to 100km/h in 1.99 seconds, according to the Tesla website. It has an estimated range of nearly 630km – that will get you from Joburg to Durban with some mileage to spare.