Fruit/Vegetables, Agriculture News & Resources

Deal sealed to save Ont. tomato processing plant

By Country Guide Staff May 22, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes Farmers around Leamington, southwestern Ontario’s tomato-growing capital, will continue to supply tomatoes to the local 105-year-old processing plant under new management. Michael Mullen, senior vice-president of corporate and government affairs for U.S. food processing giant H.J. Heinz, confirmed Tuesday the company has completed its deal to sell the Leamington plant to Highbury Canco, a consortium […] Read more

Crops, Fruit/Vegetables, Markets, Potatoes

New rules to ease seed potato exports to U.S.

By Country Guide Staff May 22, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes New changes to the guidelines meant to keep potato cyst nematodes (PCN) in check are expected to reduce the cost and testing burden on seed potato growers exporting to the U.S. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture announced adoption of their revised guidelines Tuesday. Seed potato growers, effective immediately, can be […] Read more

The old-vintages cellar at Chateau Haut-Brion. Collectors of fine wines such as Haut-Brion could have earned annualized real returns of 4.1 per cent on their investment between 1900 and 2012, a study shows. (DomainClarenceDillon.com)

Crops, Fruit/Vegetables, Grapes, Markets, Reuters

Red wine a winning investment in 20th century

By Guy Faulconbridge May 20, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes London | Reuters — Forget government bonds, fine art and even stamps: red wine outperformed them all over the 20th century. At least that’s what research by a team of academics from the University of Cambridge, HEC Paris and Vanderbilt University of Nashville shows. The Warren Buffetts of the fine wine world could have earned […] Read more

Apples, Crops, Fruit/Vegetables

N.S. backs apple orchard renewal plan

By Country Guide Staff May 17, 2014

Reading Time: < 1 minute Nova Scotia’s government and apple industry will put up seven figures over the next six years to update over 400 acres of the province’s apple orchards with new varieties. The apple sector will put $6.9 million into the program while the provincial ag department will put up a total of $2.2 million over six years, […] Read more

Crops, Fruit/Vegetables, Grapes, Markets, Reuters

U.S. becomes world’s biggest wine market as French drinkers cut down

By Sybille De La Hamaide May 13, 2014

Reading Time: 3 minutes Paris | Reuters — The United States became the world’s biggest market for wine last year, beating France into second place for the first time as consumption slides in the country long seen as its natural home and Americans develop a greater taste for it. U.S. consumers bought 29.1 million hectolitres of wine in 2013, […] Read more

Crops, Fruit/Vegetables

CFIA widens plum pox net in Niagara region

By Country Guide Staff April 13, 2014

Reading Time: < 1 minute The quarantine area is now slightly larger in southern Ontario’s Niagara region where tender fruit trees are still considered at risk for the yield-robbing plum pox virus. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Tuesday it has expanded its regulated area for plum pox virus by 800 metres. The expansion is in response to a confirmed […] Read more

Crops, Fruit/Vegetables, Markets, Reuters

Zimbabwe bans fresh fruit, vegetable imports

April 2, 2014

Reading Time: < 1 minute Harare | Reuters — Zimbabwe has banned imports of fresh fruit and vegetables with immediate effect, the agriculture ministry said Wednesday, arguing that increased local production will meet domestic demand. The ban will mostly impact supplies of tomatoes, potatoes, mangoes, grapes and apples from neighbouring South Africa, the ministry said in a statement. South African […] Read more

Heinz has described its Canadian tomato juice products as produced from “high-quality tomatoes grown in Canada from Heinz seed” with “exceptional sweetness and taste.” (HeinzFoodService.ca)

Crops, Fruit/Vegetables, Markets

Juice supply deal to rescue S. Ont. tomato operations

By Country Guide Staff February 27, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes Growers in southern Ontario’s tomato capital may soon resume plans for a 2014 crop, as Heinz’s storied processing plant in the region switches from ketchup to juice under a proposal to save the plant from closure. H.J. Heinz Co. announced Thursday it’s signed a letter of intent to sell the U.S. company’s Leamington, Ont. plant […] Read more

New regulations specifically require products sold as icewine in Canada to be made exclusively from grapes naturally frozen on the vine. (WineriesofNiagaraontheLake.com)

Crops, Fruit/Vegetables, Grapes, Markets

New standard to define icewine in Canada

By Country Guide Staff February 13, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes If it’s not made only with grapes naturally frozen on the vine, it can’t be called icewine. As obvious as it may seem, a new move to enshrine that notion in the federal Agricultural Products Act is expected to ease and boost exports of Canada’s most lucrative wines and weed out any pretenders claiming to […] Read more

Daily Network News

‘We should always aim for free trade’: low tariffs not good enough say agriculture leaders on Hoekstra remarks

CBOT weekly outlook: Soybeans/corn awaiting acreage data

ICE Canada Weekly: More behind canola, soyoil than crude oil prices

Fruit/Vegetables