Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters –– French agricultural group InVivo is looking to acquire a wine distributor in the U.S. and could open up to 200 food shops in its home market as part of plans to double in size within a decade, InVivo’s CEO said on Tuesday. InVivo entered the wine sector this year through the […] Read more
French co-op InVivo plans U.S. wine deal, more food shops
ConAgra to spin off Lamb Weston potato unit, rebrand
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — ConAgra Foods said it will spin off its Lamb Weston frozen potato products business into a separate public company, the latest in a series of changes announced by the maker of Chef Boyardee pasta and Slim Jim jerky at a time when consumers are shifting to less-processed foods. Lamb Weston will hold ConAgra’s […] Read more
Pete Luckett’s stores to become arm of Sobey’s
Reading Time: 2 minutes A hero to foodies across Canada is set to sell his retail and wholesale grocery businesses in Nova Scotia off to grocery giant Sobeys. Pete Luckett, the owner of the Pete’s Fine Foods stores in Halifax and Bedford, N.S. and a related wholesale business, announced Thursday he’ll sell those operations to Nova Scotia-based Sobeys for […] Read more
Tomato producer Mastronardi said seeking buyer
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Mastronardi Produce, an Ontario grower and distributor of hothouse tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, is exploring a sale it hopes could value it at as much as $900 million, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter. Privately-held Mastronardi has hired Bank of Montreal (BMO) to run an auction process, the people said […] Read more
Bayer expects to compensate grape growers over crop damage
Reading Time: 2 minutes Zurich | Reuters — Bayer expects to pay wine growers compensation starting early next year after vineyards in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Switzerland reported 2015 crop damage possibly linked to one of the company’s fungicides. European grape growers reported deformed leaves and lower yields after using Bayer CropScience’s Moon Privilege, also known as […] Read more
Treasury Wine to buy Diageo U.K., U.S. wine assets
Reading Time: < 1 minute Sydney | Reuters –– Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates, the world’s biggest standalone wine maker, said Wednesday it had agreed to buy most of Diageo Plc’s U.S. and British wine operations for US$552 million (C$716 million). Treasury also announced a fully underwritten rights issue to raise around A$486 million (C$460 million) to fund the acquisition. The […] Read more
Dawson: Ag exporters applaud historic TPP deal
Reading Time: 3 minutes Export-oriented Canadian farmers are giving the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement reached in Atlanta on Monday two thumbs up. The deal, which remains to be debated in Canada’s House of Commons and could take more than a year to be ratified by all 12 member countries, will see tariffs on Canadian products in those markets eliminated […] Read more
Market access, income supports come with Trans-Pacific pact
Reading Time: 5 minutes Canada’s federal government has pledged a suite of compensation programs for supply-managed dairy, poultry and egg sectors, against what it promises will be a mousehole in Canada’s tariff wall. Federal officials on Monday confirmed negotiations have concluded on the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership, now billed as “the largest, most ambitious free trade initiative in history.” The […] Read more
U.S. workers sue Monsanto claiming herbicide caused cancer
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — A U.S. farm worker and a horticultural assistant have filed lawsuits claiming Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide caused their cancers and Monsanto intentionally misled the public and regulators about the dangers of the herbicide. The lawsuits come six months after the World Health Organization’s cancer research unit said it was classifying glyphosate, the active weed-killing […] Read more
The hub of an opportunity
Food hubs are moving north, making it easier for medium-size farms to break into ‘local’ sales without all the marketing
Reading Time: 7 minutes Trissia Mellor is on a mission to boost the sustainability of farmers and small businesses in eastern Ontario. In Northumberland County’s economic development and tourism department, she’s the energetic agriculture manager, and she’s also heavily involved in getting the new Ontario Agri-Food Venture Centre (OAFVC) up and running. The venture centre is one of a […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
