Amid devastated homes and businesses.
Jamaicans are beginning to assess the cost of Hurricane Melissa.
We don't have no access to no money, no land, no gas, no food, nothing we don't have.
What do you do?
I try to potentially leave if there's nothing else to do.
This is World Business Report from the BBC World Service.
I'm Will Bain, and today we hear an urgent plea for cash to support the relief work.
Elsewhere on the programme.
A third of all the world's hazelnuts go into making Nutella spread and that's causing an extraordinary financial standoff.
We'll explain all.
And the boss of the chipmaker and 5 trillion company Nvidia, tells the BBC he's not worried about being frozen out of the Chinese market.
Desperation, despair and miles and miles of destruction.
Jamaica is beginning to tot up the huge emotional but also the huge financial costs of Hurricane Melissa.
And the bill for both already looking pretty significant.
19 people are known to have died, but the Jamaican government is warning that figure is set to rise.
Elsewhere in the region too.
The Haitian government in the past few hours have now said at least 29 people have died there, whilst in Cuba 700000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes.
Communication is still patchy and our reporters have spoken to people walking hours to try and find basic supplies like food and water.
As Neda Torfik reports from the town of Black River in Jamaica.
Nothing can prepare you for the sheer levels of destruction and chaos here in Black River, what is, of course, ground zero of the destruction from Hurricane Melissa.
No inch of this town was spared.
And this is the commercial hub of the entire parish.
And so it's not just residents here, but residents who have been walking for miles to try to get their hands on anything they can any drinks, food supplies, basic essentials that they'll need for the next few days, because no help has arrived here.
And so people are absolutely desperate.
Everyone that I've spoken to has lost their home.
They're staying in makeshift shelters.
They have no idea what their future holds for them, when their kids will be back to school, how long it will take to rebuild here.
But there is one common plea across everyone that they need aid.
They need help as soon as possible and they want to be able to tell their loved ones that they're okay.
Neda Torfik in Black River there.
Well, the Jamaican government says it does have some money to deal with the cleanup.
Here's the country's information minister, Dana Morris-Dixon.
We do have readily available as a part of the contingencies fund which we budget for every single year.
We have 53 billion in that.
And in our disaster risk fund, our national disaster risk fund, we also have another billion dollars Jamaican.
These are Jamaican dollars that is ready to be mobilized.
Having said that, obviously all the support we can get from our partners is important because a Category 5 that destroys entire parishes, the funds we have will never be enough.
So where could that extra money come from?
Well, some of it, about 150 million in fact, will come from a catastrophe bond, a kind of insurance policy that pays out when a weather event is powerful enough to trigger it.
Melissa, as we heard there from the Minister, was a Category 5 hurricane. so it qualifies.
But what exactly is a catastrophe bond?
Florian Steger is the CEO and founder of Acosca Investments, a Swiss-based firm specialising in those very niche kind of bonds.
A catastrophe bond is a financial instrument and the whole purpose of that is to transfer reinsurance risk into the capital market.
The traditional reinsurance market is not big enough to absorb the financial impact from large scale catastrophes in some place of the world.
So the idea was born to take some of that risk out of the reinsurance market and place it into the capital markets.
The insurance market can get rid of what they would see as concentration risk.
They can reduce it.
They become safer.
But also for us investors in financial markets.
Our portfolios become more stable by adding these CAT bonds into our portfolios.
It's like an insurance policy.
If nothing happens, the investor earns the premium.
But of course, if you get a big event like now, what we've just had in Jamaica, the capital is at risk.
But the BBC's Nick Davis says it's no longer just about the scale of the money needed, but the pace and urgency for it as well.
In terms of a payout, that's not coming.
In terms of trying to hustle, that's happening already.
Prices for certain things are going up.
And that's understandable.
People are charging more to make short distances because they themselves can't get the petrol to be able to fill up the vehicles.
When you try and buy petrol, there's lines going way, way down the road.
People who work in construction, they can see that there's going to be a lot of rebuilding work.
So that's going to come.
But when will that come?
When will the supplies companies be able to do it?
They need money now.
They need food now.
They need water now.
I think as soon as those things start coming in, people feel better.
Until then though, ordinary people are trying to work out what exactly does come next, as this woman told the BBC's World Tonight programme.
We don't have no access to no money, no light, no gas, no food, nothing we don't have.
Jamaica wrecked.
We need help, help.
No help has come.
No help, but we need help.
Well, here on World Business Report, we've been in contact with Dean Jones, an estate agent and builder who moved to Jamaica from the UK more than four years ago to set up a business called Jamaica Homes.
I've reached out to friends of mine who own businesses and they've been devastated in Westmoreland.
And I you know I'm on the outside of.
I'm sure we were getting close to over 100 mile an hour winds.
It was terrible.
And there is destruction and devastation around me.
So I'm remaining somewhat positive.
Although...
I may not have a business to go back to.
My clients are wondering whether their homes are still there.
I'm still yet to hear from some.
And as for Jamaica Homes that I started in a partnerships agreement, I was looking to sign.
I'm not too sure if that will still be on the table.
So right now I could be in a position like many other people looking for a job.
Yeah, Mr Jones went on to tell us he feared his hopes for Jamaica Homes were now in ruins.
There are lots of professionals who have come back, like myself, who are in this position, who may need to leave now because the situation as it is, you know, it's an entrepreneur's paradise, if you like.
But once things go wrong and they quickly can like now, what do you do?
But try to potentially leave if there's nothing else to do.
Estate agent and builder Dean Jones there, who got in contact with us here on World Business Report.
And of course we'll keep you up to date with all the latest on Hurricane Melissa and the relief efforts right here on the BBC World Service right through the weekend as well.
Let's move to some corporate news now though, because the chip giant NVIDIA, a company that became a little earlier this week the first 5 trillion firm on the planet by the value of its share price, announced more deals Friday, growing its operations in South Korea, for example, with big partners like Samsung, LG and Hyundai.
Jensen Huang, the president and chief executive officer of NVIDIA, has been speaking to the BBC's Asia Business correspondent, Surajana Tiwari.
The best way to think about it is that China is a very large market.
It's a very important market.
The development in the industry is really vibrant.
It's dynamic.
The vast majority of the world's open source AI is developed in China.
QN is developed in China, Qimi, DeepSea, so on and so forth.
There's so many amazing AI research in China and they do amazing work and they do it in an open source way.
The China market is just simply unique.
It's important.
It's an important and large market for all of the reasons that I mentioned.
And so there is no replacing it.
But is it justified that you're being locked out of the market because of the U.S.-China relations?
I hope that we will be able to go back to China.
And I'll keep explaining the reasons why it's important for American companies to be able to participate in the China market.
And I'll keep optimistic that China would want American companies to be in the China market, because China wants to be a region, a market where people invest and where people can build businesses.
And they love companies coming into the China market.
They want it to be an open market.
And so I'll continue to be optimistic about these things and And hopefully things get worked out.
Is Nvidia suffering because you've not got access to the Chinese market?
If the definition of suffering means that we're not in China market, then we're suffering.
Obviously, Nvidia just became a $5 trillion company from that perspective.
Obviously, we're doing just fine.
But that's not the way to think about it.
Whether we suffer or not...
The way to think about the China market is it's a singular vital important, dynamic market and nobody can replace that.
And it's in the best interest of America to serve that China market.
It's the best interest of China to have the American technology company bring technology to the China market.
It's in the best interest of both countries.
I hope that policymakers will ultimately come to that conclusion.
Jensen Huang there, the boss of the chipmaker Nvidia, and he referenced a big week, didn't he?
In global trade as well?
That's been the backdrop to an extraordinary week on international stock markets, but very much American stock markets as well.
And Chris Lowe, chief economist at FHM Financial, as always on a Friday here on World Business Report, is joining us live from New York to look back at that week.
Chris, great to have you on the programme.
What a week.
Oh, it's good to be here.
Thanks, Will.
Yeah, it was what a week.
We ended up trading up today.
Most of the major indexes, anyway, higher today.
But it's noteworthy.
We jumped higher on Monday and ended up closing the week above last Friday's close, but below Monday's close.
So it was sort of a topsy-turvy week of very small moves in both directions.
And how much then, was what Jensen Quang was talking about there with Surinjana, President Trump meeting with President Xi, the sort of trying to thrash out a trade truce kind of backdrop, and how much of it was actually – and all the fundamentals that have kind of driven a lot of these companies along for the last year and a half or so.
I think, look, the Trump-Xi meeting, that was the highlight of the week.
It was the reason we came in off last weekend and were so optimistic.
It's not perfection, but for another year anyway, it looks like the US-China trade relationship continues.
Most of the barriers put up by both sides have been lowered for now, but and investors optimistic about that.
I think the other big thing we're getting toward the end of the earnings season now and it was the best quarter for BEAT that is, earnings coming in above analyst expectations at the most companies since coming out of the pandemic five years ago.
What do you think that tells us?
Well, it tells us that, despite the fact US job growth has slowed to an absolute crawl, the economy is still growing rapidly, near 4 percent, and that's generating earnings.
I think the important takeaway for policymakers certainly should be if you're growing the economy without jobs, then that income is going to a small group of people.
It's not working down to working Americans.
I was going to say.
That's the sort of light potentially flashing the warnings amongst a lot of those positives you talked about.
Absolutely.
And, you know, the Fed was pressed on that.
Jay Powell questioned about that by reporters.
The Fed is aware.
But at the moment, it's not part of their policymaking decisions.
Yeah.
And certainly right now for some of those big companies and those earnings that Chris was talking about.
Things like tariffs that we've talked about a lot on the program haven't had quite the same negative impact yet.
Yet, have they?
Perhaps some, including Jerome Powell and the others at the US Central Bank and the Federal Reserve, had first feared they might, which is an interesting factor as we get into the back half of the year as well.
Chris, one of those companies that was reporting this week was Amazon.
And even though it reported...
It's financial results yesterday on the program that Andrew Peach and the guys were talking about.
Today, the shares have continued rallying.
This was what Nancy Tengler, the chief executive officer at Lafleur Tengler Investments in Arizona, made of that.
I think what you're seeing is a company that is delivering.
They are rationalizing the business because they overhired during COVID.
And so now what they're trying to do is become quicker faster, reduce layers in corporate management.
And indeed, that is what they're doing.
And they're going to grow the retail business with the same number of employees, but they're going to double it in five years.
So that's pretty impressive.
Chris, what was your take on Amazon and what's kind of got investors excited or what have they dug into today that's kept that kind of rally in the share price going?
Well, you know, with Amazon's announcement, the thing that occurred to me was something Governor Chris Waller said, another one at the Fed who said look, when we consider AI and the potential impact, what we're hearing from big retailers like Amazon is that AI is allowing them to do more with fewer people and that for now, they're keeping headcount steady, but they're able to grow the business anyway.
Bear in mind, though, Amazon now has laid off 15,000, plans to let another 15,000 people go.
That's a fairly substantial headcount cut.
And the fact they managed to beat on earnings while cutting back like that.
I think it's remarkable and it's likely an indication of what we should expect in the broad economy as other companies begin to bring AI to bear.
Yeah, and we've got a really interesting programme on that coming out on Tuesday here on the World Service on Business Daily.
Ed Butler and Gideon Long have been looking at exactly what Chris is talking about and whether you've heard it talked about as well.
There's a bubble around those AI investments, so do tune in to that next week.
Chris, thanks so much for now.
Chris Lowe there of FHN Financial in New York.
You're with World Business Report on the BBC World Service.
Now, if you like chocolate, if you like nuts, if you like both of those two things together in one brand, then you'll like this company.
The ambassador's receptions are noted in society for their host's exquisite taste that captivates his guests.
Ferrero Rocher, a taste sensation.
Rich, luxurious, unique.
Monsieur, with Ferrero Rocher, you're really spoiling us.
And finally, a delicious touch...
Because Nutella always adds something tasty.
Nutella, it's good to be together.
Yeah, the Italian confectionery giant Ferrero is the owner of both those brands Ferrero Rocher, the chocolates Nutella, the spreads.
Ferrero gets most of the hazelnuts it uses in those two products from Turkey.
Indeed, Turkey is by far the largest producer in the world of hazelnuts, accounting for more than 70 of the entire global supply.
But...
Its crop has been hit by a poor harvest.
Bad weather and a pest infestation have slashed supply and sent prices soaring.
Ferrero, as a result, have accused some Turkish speculators of driving that price up higher again.
Filiz Kinikli is an agricultural economist in Turkey.
The whole value chain is affected from these problems.
It's not good for the consumers as well because the prices are increasing.
So also in the domestic markets.
The rising labor costs, the inputs costs, have weakened the Turkish competitiveness, and Chile is one of the largest competitors compared to Turkey.
And then exporters also fear of losing the market share.
It's this growing, the shilling is expanding aggressively.
And that's a problem.
So a standoff over our favourite spreads.
But, as you heard there, all of this is good news for other smaller producing countries like Chile, but also Georgia.
I've been speaking to Irakli Kavritskar, the CEO of the Black Sea Hazelnut Company.
Ferrero is the largest buyer, and the largest product of them, which uses one third of the world's hazelnuts, is Nutella.
A third of the world's hazelnuts.
Yes, one third of all production of the world is used for Nutella.
And so we have this standoff at the moment between the company and the kind of buyers right the intermediaries in Turkey, because the company feels that they're being held to ransom, that actually speculators have kind of bought a lot of these hazelnuts and are charging an even higher price again.
Is that the root of the standoff?
I think that Turkish producers are not speculating.
I think that this is based on the real crops and the real yields that Turkey is having this year.
Otherwise, there is no point for the Turkish suppliers of keeping their stocks for so long.
Turkey is currently exporting hazelnuts from previous crops and they have not started actively selling new crop hazelnuts so far, since they are waiting for the higher prices from the market.
Turkish suppliers didn't accept the offer from ferrero, which was, if i am not mistaken, like 20 dollars per kilogram.
And does all of this have an impact on you guys in georgia?
The price, the market, the demand does it change anything for your business?
Yes, actually everyone since April, all people who are involved in hazelnut business, like small farmers, large plantation owners, small processors, large exporters and so on and so on.
Everyone was expecting the, let's say, high margin season for 2025 crop.
What is the share of the market that Georgia provides at the moment for kind of global hazelnuts?
Currently georgia is on the third or fourth place in the global rankings and for georgian market the impact was pretty positive because georgian market was for europe the lower priced alternative for european buyers, so georgian farmers were not getting quite as much as turkish farmers were getting for their initial productions.
So Georgian market was like struggling and now the farmers have significantly more motivation to increase their yields, increase their quality, and more and more people are thinking to create new plantations to increase their production, because prices for Georgian farmers have almost doubled compared to previous seasons.
So this is a very positive change for Georgian hazelnut market overall.
And what are you doing as a company?
As a company.
It was great for me as well, because our focus was connecting with the European market fully.
And this season gave us the possibility to connect with more serious clients than before.
So this season gave us the chance to connect and prove ourselves with top European companies which are sourcing hazelnuts.
So it is a great season for me as well.
Our thanks to Irakli Kavratskova there, the chief executive of the Black Sea Hazelnut Company in Georgia.
Now, wherever you're listening, around the world, we're either knocking on the door of the weekend or you're already the lucky ones enjoying it.
Either way, it's often a time to relax, isn't it, for many of us?
And that means...
Flicking on something good on the TV for plenty of people, whether it be a film, a box set or a big sports game.
As the home has become more of our entertainment kingdom.
Spending around the world and supercharging that experience has boomed too, including on seemingly never-endingly larger and wider screened TVs with ever higher definition pictures out.
There are some people who are just sensitive, you might say.
Highly attuned.
I tend to be someone who is very, I guess, perceptive and very obsessive.
Rahul Banerjee, a tutor in Long Island, is among the afflicted.
So is food scientist Vikrant Lal in New Jersey.
He notices weird things on screen that other people don't.
And then you don't want to say anything because other people don't eat or they don't get in.
And you're like, I'm just going to pretend like I didn't notice that.
No, this isn't a sixth sense kind of thing.
It's a problem with watching cinematic content like that on modern TVs.
All those spooky slow pans and tense tracking shots meant to pull viewers into the imaginary world, just look wrong to them somehow.
The only way to describe it is just like it's very surreal and unnatural.
The motion seems off to me like as if there's a skip, like as if the internet connection broke down.
Banerjee has actually bought and returned two top-of-the-line OLED TVs.
Even though this is supposed to be a better technology, I'm really not enjoying this.
I'm really distracted by the unnatural motion on it.
So he bought an old plasma screen on Facebook Marketplace for $40, while two is a plasma partisan.
I don't care that it's 15 years old.
Like I love that old TV.
To me, that sounds better, looks better than anything that's on the market right now.
New LED and OLED TVs can display images in much higher resolution than plasmas.
The picture is so clear, bright and sharp it can feel like you're right there at the 50-yard line of a football game and you can actually follow the passes downfield.
But the same advances that have made TVs better for sports have actually made them worse in some ways for movies, says Samuel Breton at the TV testing site Readingscom.
It is always a trade-off, right?
Like, there is no perfect TV.
Movies and most prestige narrative content are shot at a lower frame rate than other TV.
It's a relic of film reels, but helps create the dreamy aesthetic we associate with cinema.
On older tech like projectors and plasma.
Those frames were displayed in imperceptible flickers.
Our brain filled in the gaps.
But new TVs hold one frame and instantaneously show the next, And because movies have fewer frames per second, they hold each one longer, giving almost a slideshow feel at times.
The difference in space between the two frames sometimes is large enough that it looks like it's jumping between.
It looks like the image is like flashing and bouncing back and forth.
The more clear and bright a TV is, the worse the stutter appears, particularly in panning shots.
There is a fix on new TVs, a setting, if you can find it, that inserts fake frames to smooth motion out.
The unfortunate side effect is that it makes most movies look like they were shot on high-speed video rather than film.
That's Tom Cruise in a 2018 PSA, warning viewers about the dreaded soap opera effect, where everything just looks digitized, overly sharp and almost hyper-real, like surveillance video of actors on a soundstage.
But without motion smoothing, stutter just keeps getting worse.
You can actually make these systems more intelligent.
Mahesh Balakrishnan is VP of Consumer Technology at Dolby, which has developed a new system to turn motion smoothing on selectively only for shots or scenes where it's needed.
Creators can encode their preferences in the metadata.
We also have built systems where this can be to a certain extent automated.
Yep, AI could hold the key to more natural cinematic motion.
For those more interested in the tried and true tech of yesterday, I hear you can get a pretty good deal on a used plasma.
Megan McCarthy Carino there.
Chris Loster with us from FHM Financial.
Chris, you're a big, as in size-wise, TV guy.
Yeah, well, we don't watch a lot, but we do enjoy it.
You know what I'm thinking, though, Will? is you've pretty much done me in.
I've been trying to convince my wife to get a new television for years.
And you've just lost that argument now.
Stick with our old plasma.
Well, as long as it shows the rugby nice and clear for me tomorrow, I'm going to stick with mine as well.
Chris, thanks as always for your time.
Chris Lowe of FHM Financial.
Thanks so much to you guys for listening to World Business Report.
