Reading Time: 2 minutes Sydney | Reuters — Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott backed plans on Thursday to introduce country-of-origin labelling in the wake of a hepatitis A outbreak, potentially risking contravention of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. With 18 confirmed cases of hepatitis A linked to consumption of berries sold by Patties Foods Ltd., Abbott said he had […] Read more
Australia plans country-of-origin labelling after hep A outbreak
Australia tightens rules over foreign buying of farmland
Reading Time: < 1 minute Sydney | Reuters –– Australia tightened rules on Wednesday over foreign ownership of its agricultural land amid concerns that it is losing control of its own food security, slashing the amount beyond which land purchases would require regulatory approval. From March 1, foreign purchases of agricultural land over A$15 million (C$14.51 million) will be subject […] Read more
Canada on the fringe of the grain export market
In a world where a country’s market power starts with its grain storage capacity, we’re losing ground fast
Reading Time: 6 minutes Canada’s performance, its objectives and its market power as a grain producer and exporter have changed significantly since the mid-1900s. Unfortunately those changes have not always been positive. In 1966 Alex McCalla, who was then at the University of Minnesota but who would go on to become one of the world’s top economists studying agricultural […] Read more
Australia’s temperatures found fastest-rising worldwide
Reading Time: 2 minutes Sydney | Reuters –– Australia faces a rise in temperature of potentially more than 5 C by the end of the century, outpacing global warming worldwide, the country’s national science agency said Tuesday. In its most comprehensive analysis yet of the impacts of climate change, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) painted a […] Read more
Australia weather bureau says models show low chance of El Nino
Reading Time: < 1 minute Sydney | Reuters –– Weather models show a low chance of an El Nino, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said Tuesday, after indicators of the climate event eased in recent weeks. El Nino — a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific — can prompt drought in Southeast Asia and Australia and heavy rains […] Read more
Australia’s approach to grain co-ops
Owned by 4,200 farmers, the giant CBH Group adds a whole new dimension to phrases like value-adding and diversification
Reading Time: 6 minutes Given the demise of the prairie pools and the recent sales of a number of Canada’s new-generation co-operative grain terminals, it would be understandable if many Canadian farmers, grain traders, farm advisers and policy makers believe co-operative grain marketing ventures are simply not viable in today’s world. Just don’t try and tell that to Western […] Read more
Australian ag exports to China still face hurdles after trade pact
Reading Time: 3 minutes Sydney | Reuters — A trade deal signed with great fanfare between China and Australia has been touted as a major step toward Australia shifting its economy from a “mining boom” to a “dining boom,” but the reality is likely to be more sobering. Australia is looking to replace its reliance on exports of minerals […] Read more
Australian farmers hold back wheat sales as dryness curbs yields
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Australian farmers are holding back wheat crop sales as dryness in parts of the country’s eastern grain belt cuts yields, raising the likelihood for a boost to global prices that have dropped 13 per cent this year. Farmers in the world’s fourth biggest wheat exporter have sold only about a quarter of this […] Read more
Australia, China on track to sign lucrative cattle deal
Reading Time: < 1 minute Sydney / Reuters – Australia will export up to 1 million head of cattle a year to China, worth around A$1 billion ($856 million), to meet booming demand for red meat under a long-awaited deal set to be signed shortly, Australian officials said on Friday. Shipping live animals from Australia to China has been discussed for many years. Official talks began […] Read more
Soil plays a major role in precision sustainability
Precision technology is teaching us some surprising eye-openers
Reading Time: 2 minutes Seriously? Can it really be better to till up and down some slopes instead of across? That’s one of the conclusions from early work with precision agriculture in Australia, where the technology is proving a boon for field crop productivity. It turns out that older technologies have blinded us to much of what’s really going […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
