Food security is an issue in this election for 54 per cent of Canadians. (FatCamera/E+/Getty Images)

Food, farming not expected to be big election issues

Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadians don’t think that food and agriculture will be a significant issue in the current federal election. A survey conducted Sept. 9 and released Tuesday by Angus Reid Global with the support of Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab shows 31 per cent of Canadians believe food and agriculture will be a prime electoral issue during […] Read more

The USDA building in Washington, D.C. (Art Wager/iStock/Getty Images)

Global wheat production to decrease, USDA says

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — In the latest supply and demand report from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the global wheat forecast was revised downward due to difficult weather conditions. USDA has now projected 765.53 million tonnes of wheat to be produced in 2019-20, according to the department’s world agriculture supply and demand estimates (WASDE), released Thursday. That’s […] Read more


Federal International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr speaks at the China-Canada economic and financial strategy dialogue in Beijing on Nov. 12, 2018. (Photo: Reuters/Jason Lee/Pool)

Canada takes first step at WTO to challenge China’s canola ban

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canada, locked in a major dispute with Beijing, is taking the first formal step at the World Trade Organization to challenge China’s decision to block Canadian canola exports, Trade Minister Jim Carr said Friday. China, angry at Canada’s detention of a top Huawei Technologies executive last year on a U.S. arrest […] Read more

CBOT December 2019 corn with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Corn hits contract lows on sluggish exports, mild weather

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures fell to life-of-contract lows on Friday, pressured by disappointing weekly U.S. export data and forecasts for benign weather in the heart of the Midwest crop belt, analysts said. Soybeans turned down, retreating from early advances, and wheat followed the lower trend. Chicago Board of Trade December corn settled […] Read more


Dominic Barton. (Video screengrab from McKinsey.com)

Industry groups hail appointment of new China envoy

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canada has appointed veteran business consultant Dominic Barton as ambassador to China, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday, as the government grapples with a major diplomatic and trade dispute between the nations. Barton, 56, a Ugandan-born Canadian who stepped down as global managing partner of consulting firm McKinsey and Co. […] Read more

Louis Dreyfus’ grain elevator at Joffre, Alta., northeast of Red Deer. (LDC.com)

P+H to buy Louis Dreyfus’ Prairie elevators

Reading Time: 3 minutes Updated — Commodities and agrifood giant Louis Dreyfus Co. is stepping out of the grain handling business it built in Canada with a deal to sell its Prairie elevator network. Louis Dreyfus (LDC) announced Wednesday it has an agreement in place to sell its 10 elevators across Western Canada to Winnipeg grain company Parrish and […] Read more


File photo of wheat being loaded onto a bulk vessel at port in Russia. (YGrek/iStock/Getty Images)

Brazil expected to introduce tariff-free wheat import quota from 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazil is expected to introduce a tariff-free wheat import quota of 750,000 tonnes per year starting from 2020, the president of the country’s wheat industry group Abitrigo, Rubens Barbosa, said on Tuesday. Brazil announced the opening of the tariff-free wheat import quota earlier this year in connection with President Jair […] Read more

File photo of fresh cherries from a roadside fruit stand at Penticton, B.C. (Amy Mitchell/iStock/Getty Images)

New EU import curbs on fruit not Canada-specific

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — New European Union rules that could block shipments of Canadian cherries and other fruits to the 28-nation grouping apply to all countries and “was not unusual,” a senior Canadian official said on Friday. The clarification from federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau came a day after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) […] Read more


File photo of fresh cherries from a roadside fruit stand at Penticton, B.C. (Amy Mitchell/iStock/Getty Images)

EU set to halt imports of Canadian cherries, other fruits

Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — The European Union will halt imports of Canadian cherries and other fresh fruits starting Sept. 1 as it enforces new import requirements related to pests, according to a Canadian government document sent to industry on Thursday. In the notice, which was seen by Reuters, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the […] Read more

File photo of a canola field in northern France’s Normandy region. (Brasil2/iStock/Getty Images)

Shut out of China, Canada finds canola buyers in drought-damaged Europe

Reading Time: 3 minutes Winnipeg/Paris | Reuters — Crop-scorching drought in Europe is providing Canadian canola farmers a timely new opportunity to move supplies that have piled up since China stopped buying this year. Rising European sales are taking some of the sting out of losing the Chinese market for Canadian farmers, although ICE canola futures prices are down […] Read more