Reading Time: 3 minutes Paris/Chicago | Reuters — Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is in exclusive talks to take over French animal feed business Neovia for 1.5 billion euros (C$2.3 billion) as part of the U.S. farm giant’s strategy to expand in the fast-growing animal nutrition sector. Neovia is majority owned by French cooperative group InVivo. Investment group Eurazeo […] Read more
ADM to buy French animal feed business Neovia
France open to phasing out glyphosate
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — France is open to phasing out common weedkiller glyphosate, the government said on Monday, following complaints from farmers worried about a potential imminent ban. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe reiterated Paris would vote against the European Commission’s proposal to extend for 10 years the licence for glyphosate, which is used in Monsanto’s […] Read more
French farmers fume as government rejigs EU subsidies
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris / Reuters – French farm unions cried foul over a government decision on Thursday to use part of European Union direct payments linked to output to finance rural development projects such as fast growing organic farming. The decision comes just days after France launched wide debate on the future of the food sector, aiming to […] Read more
France’s Roquette bets on pea protein with Manitoba plant
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — French plant-based ingredient maker Roquette will build the world’s largest pea protein facility in Manitoba to meet fast-growing demand for vegetable protein in food and pharmaceutical products in North America, the group said Wednesday. The global pea protein market has seen a sharp rise in recent years, mainly driven by increasing […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat rises for a second day on short-covering
Reading Time: 2 minutes Singapore/Paris | Reuters, 7:01 a.m. CT –– Chicago wheat futures prices rose for a second session on Friday with short-covering ahead of the Labour Day holiday weekend supporting prices, although the trend was set for a second week of declines amid plentiful world supplies. Corn was up for a second day, recovering from a multi-year […] Read more
Corn, wheat prices seen hitting 10-year lows in 2016
Reading Time: 2 minutes Geneva | Reuters — Hefty supplies, large expected crops and poor U.S. exports will weigh on grain prices later this year with corn and wheat set to drop to 10-year lows as harvest nears, consultancy AgResource said Friday. In its first 2016 price forecast, the U.S.-based consultancy forecast Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) December corn […] Read more
Think Europe’s halting GMOs? It could be heading for more
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — The large number of European countries opposing GMO cultivation may have given the impression the bloc is putting a brake on GMOs, but with new crops queuing for approval and key countries leaving the door open, output is more likely to grow than wane. Nineteen out of 28 EU member states […] Read more
U.S. bird flu virus seen under control within a few months
Reading Time: 3 minutes Paris | Reuters — An epidemic of bird flu that has devastated U.S. poultry flocks this year is likely to be under control within a few months as the U.S. steps up measures to contain the virus and the summer weather weakens it, senior officials said on Tuesday. There is, however, a high risk that […] Read more
China’s wine growers beat France into second place
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — China overtook France last year as the world’s second largest wine grower by area under cultivation as it continued to plant vast fields of mostly imported grape vines to meet growing demand. The world’s second largest economy, which since 2013 consumes more red wine than any other country, has more than […] Read more
CWB sees global grain crops falling back from records
Reading Time: 2 minutes Geneva | Reuters — The world’s wheat crop will shed three per cent this year to 703.4 million tonnes from last year’s record, but it will still remain above the five-year average, grain marketing company CWB estimated on Wednesday. The global 2015 corn crop should fall 1.6 per cent from a record last year to […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
