Austria

Hosted in Austria by Martina Kröfel, who I must thank for organising such a wonderful visit to Austria, there I visited a farmer on the who produces pumpkin seed and also has a wheat processing business, interestingly gaucho has been banned as a seed treatment due to issues with bees, stemming back to the issues they had when I last visited Germany back in 2006.
Interestingly nearly all of the pumpkin seed produced in Hungary, Russia, Slovenia, and Ukraine comes back to Austria for processing by just a couple of companies.
They view China as there greatest threat to their market but only from a price point perspective, china is really struggling to get the quality and processing right, they don't have the practical expertise on the ground to get it right. It's is something that you see a lot of in China where they don't have the skill level or expertise in the middle management or supervisors to get the processes right, something in time I think they will sort out but it will take some time.
Austria is the home of schnitzel so here, I am in my element, you can have schnitzel three meals a day if you want! Love a good schnitzel.
Interestingly Austrian farmers seem to have similar weed pressures as we do, which has seen them incorporate a tillage technique mounted on the front of there bed preparation implements to remove the weeds mechanically, they say this has far more impact than any chemical could ever have. Certainly something to think about.
I've really got to brush up on my German, I just walked into the ladies room, I guess I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right, bugger!
Vienna is another European city steeped in history, today had a visit to the royal palace which was home to Sisi who was queen Elizabeth the 2nd I think? Very impressive, almost more so than Buckingham Palace.
There is a lot said for not fighting wars too hard, as it preserves your heritage far more than being bombed to oblivion like some other European cities have been.
Tomorrow off to Paris, stay tuned.