(Dave Bedard photo)

Maple Leaf to consolidate Ontario poultry processing

Reading Time: 2 minutes A new $660 million plant at London, Ont. will house Maple Leaf Foods’ Ontario fresh poultry processing operations by mid-2021 as the food processing firm prepares to shut three older facilities. Toronto-based Maple Leaf announced Monday it will build a 640,000-square foot plant at London, billed as “one of the most technologically advanced poultry-processing plants […] Read more

CME February 2019 live cattle with 20-day moving average. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Cattle, hogs gain in thin trading on demand optimism

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. livestock futures were higher on Friday, with lean hogs rising sharply and cattle notching relatively smaller gains as each market was buoyed by hopes of better meat demand, traders said. Hog futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange continued to rise on expectations that the spreading African swine fever virus in […] Read more





Taste-testing during a Canadian Beef Advantage Seminar in Shanghai in 2013. (Canada Beef via YouTube)

Trade pact clause seen deterring China trade deals with Canada, Mexico

Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington | Reuters — China’s hopes of negotiating a free trade pact with Canada or Mexico were dealt a sharp setback by a provision deep in the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that aims to forbid such deals with “non-market” countries, trade experts said on Tuesday. The provision specifies that if one of the current North […] Read more

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Outrage, acceptance greet Son of NAFTA

Reading Time: 7 minutes Responses from Canada’s farm sectors range from acceptance to anger as concessions and market access granted under the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) come into clearer view. Dairy: ‘Who needs an enemy?’ The new agreement, announced Sunday and dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) by the U.S. government, is expected to […] Read more


A view near the Canadian end of the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor and Detroit and is considered one of North America’s busiest trade routes. (Steven_Kriemadis/iStock/Getty Images)

Canada sticks to plan to stay at NAFTA talks despite Trump attack

Reading Time: 3 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canada on Thursday shrugged off U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism that talks to modernize NAFTA were moving too slowly and made clear it had to keep negotiating as long as there was a chance of success. The prospects for a quick deal to update the North American Free Trade Agreement appeared […] Read more

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer testifies at a Senate subcommittee hearing in Washington on July 26, 2018 on proposed budget estimates for the Office of the USTR. (Photo: Reuters/Mary F. Calvert)

Canada not making concessions needed for NAFTA deal, says U.S.

Reading Time: 2 minutes New York | Reuters — Canada is not making concessions needed to reach a deal with the U.S. for a trilateral NAFTA pact and is running out of time before Washington proceeds with a Mexico-only agreement, a top U.S. official said on Tuesday. The administration of President Donald Trump has recently begun increasing the pressure […] Read more


A farm in Switzerland. (Funky-data/iStock/Getty Images)

Swiss voters reject more aid for farmers

Reading Time: < 1 minute Zurich | Reuters — Swiss voters decisively rejected more help for farmers in two referendums on Sunday, heeding the government’s warnings that the measures would send food prices rocketing and hurt the economy, projections for broadcaster SRF showed. Opinion polls had shown early widespread support for more farm aid was fading as the vote neared […] Read more

World crop briefs: North Carolina losing crops, livestock to Florence

Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Record-setting rain and floods in North Carolina caused by Hurricane Florence have destroyed the state’s poultry sector with 3.4 million chickens and turkeys reported killed. Pig losses are estimated at 5,500. Widespread power outages and flooded roads are making it difficult to get help to abandoned livestock operations. The state is home […] Read more