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The underlying cause for the 120,000 potato-growers’ protests in the areas of Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Nariño, and Antioquia is the decline of the agricultural sector due to cheaper potato imports from the United States, Europe, Canada, and Argentina.

The Dutch Disease is the result of the windfall of revenues that distorts manufacturing and agricultural production for sale on the global markets by increasing the price of the local currency. In Colombia’s case, the rapid growth of the extractive sectors (oil, coal, gold, nickel, and emeralds) and foreign direct investments associated with these sectors and with bio-fuels and ethanol production have consolidated the grip of the Dutch Disease on the political economy.

Effects of the Dutch Disease can be seen in Cundimarca, where labor is scarce due to the availability of jobs in the extractive sector. The higher rate of mining activity in Cundinamarca impacts wages for agricultural workers, as the industries compete for labor.

Growth in the manufacturing sector in China, a big consumer of commodities from Canada, slowed unexpectedly in April as new export orders fell

Energy shares gave back 2 percent as oil prices slipped. Among them, Suncor Energy Inc shed 2.7 percent and played the biggest role of any single stock in leading the index lower.

Miner Yamana Gold Inc fell 6.5 percent to C$11.66 after it reported a 40 percent drop in first-quarter profit late on Tuesday, hurt by lower gold prices and higher costs.

The spread, or price difference, expanded 0.27 cent to 23.86 cents a gallon as weather deemed favorable may have helped farmers put machines in the fields to make progress toward planting the 97.28 million acres, the most since 1936, predicted by the Agriculture Department.

Ethanol is made mostly from corn in the U.S., compared with sugarcane in Brazil. The worst drought since the 1930s last year pushed prices for the grain to a record and forced biofuel companies to temper output or idle operations.

Below-average output has helped deplete stockpiles of the fuel. Inventories that week slid 2.5 percent to 16.4 million barrels, the lowest since Dec. 3, 2010, the Energy Department’s statistical agency said in a May 15 report.

Illegal mining is rife in South Africa, where about one in every four people is unemployed. Diggers often break seals to enter miles of disused underground tunnels to extract mainly gold.

Three months ago, a man searching illegally for gold died at Durban Deep, Ramaloko said. He had been trapped underground with another miner who was later hospitalized and survived.

“We have arrested more that 100 people who have been caught mining diamonds illegally at the Durban deep mine in 2013, mostly foreign nationals,” he said. “Going to jail has not deterred them, so we are working with key players in the mining industry to shut down the shafts.”