(CBRY.L) Cadbury PLC Buy/Sell

By Emily Kaiser

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - Carlos Gutierrez, the former Kellogg Co CEO who left to become U.S. Commerce Secretary under George Bush in 2005, has no desire to go back to running a food company.
"Not really food companies," Gutierrez said on Thursday when asked by Reuters if he would be interested in returning to the CEO spot at a foodmaker.
After leaving his government role, Gutierrez now is on several corporate boards, including that of Corning Inc , United Technologies Corp and Occidental Petroleum Corp.
"The one thing that I'm doing now that I've never been able to do before is that I'm being choosy about where I live. I used to live wherever the company sent me and so therefore I was in Battle Creek, Michigan, for 15 years. Wonderful place, but I've done that. I wouldn't go back."
Kellogg is headquartered in Battle Creek. Gutierrez said he prefers to live in big cities like Miami or Washington. He currently lives in the Washington area.
In January, D.A. Davidson analyst Tim Ramey suggested Kraft Foods Inc's board of directors might want to consider tapping Gutierrez to run that company if Irene Rosenfeld did not succeed in her effort to acquire Cadbury Plc, though Rosenfeld won the takeover battle for the British chocolatier shortly after.
"I'm on two private equity boards, three corporate boards, so I'm having a good time. Very busy." Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez, 57, said one thing he liked as commerce secretary was that every day offered something different to do, in contrast to the sameness of running a company.
"Business is pretty one-dimensional," he said. "Make the quarter, then make the next quarter, then make the plan for the next year, go through your annual compensation routine. Everything's a process. I don't know if I want to do that. I really don't know."

(Writing and additional reporting by Brad Dorfman; Editing by Bernard Orr)

((bradley.dorfman@thomsonreuters.com; +1 312 408 8133; Reuters Messaging: bradley.dorfman.reuters.com@reuters.net; )) Keywords: GUTIERREZ/ (See http://blogs.reuters.com/shop- talk/ for Shop Talk -- Reuters' retail and consumer blog.)

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By Niluksi Koswanage and Julie Goh

KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 (Reuters) - Chicago-based CME, the world's largest derivatives exchange, is set to launch a U.S. dollar-based palm oil contract in May as global demand for the tropical oil heats up.
Some analysts fear the new contracts could prompt speculative funds to push up prices of palm oil, which is the best performing vegetable oil market this year, and constrain an plan by the Indonesian commodity exchange to launch a rupiah-based palm oil contract.
CME Group Managing Director of Agricultural Products and Services Tim Andriesen said the contract is to be launched on May 23 for trade the next day and final settlement prices will be based on the Bursa Malaysia's ringgit-based palm oil futures.
"Working with our Bursa Malaysia partners enables us to offer a contract that meets the growing customer demand for trading crude palm oil, one of the world's most widely used commodities, on CME Globex," Andriesen told a regional industry conference on Tuesday.
"Food processors, commercial firms and other multi-national companies who use crude palm oil and trade in U.S. currency now have an alternative for hedging that risk."
A senior CME official earlier on Tuesday said Bursa Malaysia's ringgit-based palm oil contract would still be the global benchmark, which could only be unseated by a far superior product.
Analysts and trader's reaction to the palm oil futures getting listed on CME's were mixed.
Dorab Mistry, a key industry analyst, said the move will allow big consumer companies like Kraft and Unilever to trade on spreads between Malaysian palm oil and U.S. soyoil the Chicago Board of Trade that belongs to CME.
"It is bound to work. The volumes are likely to be slow this year but it will catch up with Bursa Malaysia's benchmark index (next year)," Mistry told reporters.
For a graphic on the trading volumes of Bursa Malaysia's palm oil futures that surged 33 percent to 4 million contracts in 2009, see:

http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/0210/CMD_PLMCTC0210.gif
But other traders were worried about more speculative funds entering the palm oil markets that have traditionally been used by refiners and consumers to hedge palm oil production.
"It's going to spike up prices. Any news of bullish fundamentals will be amplified and that's the same for bearish news," a regional vegetable oil trader based in Malaysia said.
"The new rupiah based contract by the Indonesian Commodity & Derivative Exchange might not survive this development," the trader added.
Bursa Malaysia CEO Yusli Mohamed Yusoff told Reuters last week he expected more interest in the trading of palm oil futures contracts from speculative funds as well as consumers and planters.

(Reporting by Julie Goh and Niluksi Koswanage; Editing by Ed Lane)

((niki.koswanage@thomsonreuters.com; +603 2333 8035; Reuters Messaging: niki.koswanage.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: CME/ (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)

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By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) - A deal to sell healthier drinks in U.S. schools has slashed the amount of fattening beverages offered to students, former President Bill Clinton said on Monday as New York leaders pushed for a soda tax to tackle obesity and budget shortfalls.
Many health experts say non-diet soft drinks are a key source of excess calories in the U.S. diet and likely helping to fuel the obesity epidemic. Two-thirds of Americans, including one in three children, are overweight or obese.
An initiative by The American Beverage Association --including The Coca-Cola Co, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and PepsiCo -- the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association has helped cut shipments of full-sugar soft drinks to schools by 95 percent compared with 2004, Clinton said.
"There's been a dramatic shift toward lower calorie and more nutritious beverages in schools," Clinton told a news conference. "It could lay the foundation for broader changes in our society."
Although the American Beverage Association said school drink sales make up less than one percent of the total market, Clinton said companies were not asked to forgo revenue, instead "we asked them to make money in a different way."
The guidelines allow 100 percent juice drinks, low-fat milk and bottled water in elementary and middle schools, and diet beverages and calorie-capped sports drinks, flavored waters and teas in high schools.
A report prepared by Keybridge Research LLC said that while the agreement had only been in place since 2006, its progress had been measured against figures from 2004 because that was the most recent data available for comparison.
Keybridge Research president Dr. Robert Wescott said in a statement: "The reduction of calories in schools is real and meaningful. The data truly speaks for itself."

To tackle broader consumption of soft drinks, California and Philadelphia have introduced legislation to tax soda and now New York Governor David Paterson and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg are urging state lawmakers to do the same.
Referring to the large numbers of obese and overweight Americans, Paterson told reporters on Monday: "It's not going to be on my conscience, I think we need a sugar tax."
Bloomberg said in a radio address on Sunday that taxing soda would raise nearly $1 billion to help plug the state's shortfalls in health care and education funding.
"And, at the same time, it would help us fight a major problem plaguing our children: obesity," he said.
The U.S. Institute of Medicine says local governments should consider zoning laws to limit access to junk food near schools, and CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden supports taxes on soft drinks, as does the American Heart Association.
Speaking at Clinton's news conference on Monday, Susan Neely, American Beverage Association chief executive, said a soda tax would not solve "a complex problem like obesity."
Clinton declined to comment, saying: "It's dumb for me to get involved in (the tax) debate when I can save God knows how many kids lives by making other agreements."
The report on the initiative to cut the amount of sugary drinks sold in schools was unable to show if the changes meant children actually consumed fewer calories from the drinks available to them. But it suggested they bought fewer drinks.
And it echoes findings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported in October that a median of 63 percent of schools limited carbonated soft drinks in 2008, compared to 38 percent in 2006.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Center for Science in the Public Interest both praised the results of the initiative, which is part of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, but said more needed to be done.
"Children drink and eat an estimated 35 percent to 50 percent of their daily calories during school hours," said the foundation's chief executive Risa Lavizzo-Mourey. "Given the central role school plays in our children's lives, we must strive to make every school in the country a healthy school."

(Additional reporting by Maggie Fox, Phil Wahba and Basil Katz; editing by Todd Eastham) Keywords: OBESITY USA/DRINKS (michelle.nichols@reuters.com; +1 646 223 6117; Reuters Messaging: michelle.nichols.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - An initiative to get sugary drinks out of U.S. schools has begun to work, with diet beverages and smaller portions replacing some full-size, full-calorie varieties in school vending machines, organizers said on Monday.
The American Beverage Association said an agreement with the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation had cut shipments of full-calorie soft drinks to schools by 95 percent since 2004.

It added that "the shift towards more lower-calorie, smaller-portion beverages is also contributing to the overall reduction in calories available from beverages in schools."
The agreement, brokered in 2006 by the groups working together as the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, included The Coca-Cola Co, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and PepsiCo.
The guidelines allow 100 percent juice drinks, low-fat milk and bottled water in elementary and middle schools, and diet beverages and calorie-capped sports drinks, flavored waters and teas in high schools.
A progress report, prepared by Keybridge Research LLC, was unable to show if the changes meant children actually consumed fewer calories from the drinks available to them. But it suggested they bought fewer drinks.
"The current high school shipment levels mean that the average high school student purchased less than 8 ounces of beverage product per week at school in the first half of the 2009-10 school year," the report reads.
"Furthermore, the average high school student purchased just half an ounce of full-calorie carbonated soft drinks per week. This is down from more than 12 ounces per week in 2004," it adds.
The report echoes findings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported in October that a median of 63 percent of schools limited carbonated soft drinks in 2008, compared to 38 percent in 2006.

Many health experts agree that full-calorie soft drinks are an important source of excess calories in the U.S. diet and likely helping to fuel the obesity epidemic. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.
And while there is a debate about whether so-called junk food such as soft drinks are to blame, the American Beverage Association agreed to limit the availability of such drinks in U.S. schools.
"A critical component of the Alliance's national effort to end childhood obesity has been our work with the beverage industry to reduce the amount of calories our kids consume in schools," former president Bill Clinton said in a statement.
The report shows some success. "Bottler shipments to all schools (total ounces basis) have fallen by 72 percent," the report reads.
Keybridge Research president Dr. Robert Wescott said in a statement: "The reduction of calories in schools is real and meaningful. The data truly speaks for itself."
The U.S. Institute of Medicine says local governments should consider zoning laws to limit access to junk food near schools, and CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden supports taxes on soft drinks, as does the American Heart Association.
California and Philadelphia have both introduced legislation to tax soft drinks to try to limit consumption.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham) Keywords: OBESITY USA/DRINKS (Maggie.Fox@ThomsonReuters.com; Washington bureau newsroom +1 202 898 8492)

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