Reading Time: 3 minutes Tokyo/Chicago | Reuters — U.S. beef exporters, unhappy after President Donald Trump pulled out of a multilateral trade pact in 2017, stand to sell more meat in Japan after the U.S. leader and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cut a deal to slice into tariffs. But agriculture experts say that for now, that boost may […] Read more
Japan deal levels field for U.S. beef, but sales surge unlikely
Big Ag wants a cut of booming fake-meat market
Reading Time: 4 minutes Winnipeg/Chicago | Reuters — Bunge, one the world’s biggest grain traders, recently disclosed the 1.6 per cent stake it had purchased in the fast-growing fake-meat startup Beyond Meat. The play looked smart after the stock surged more than 250 per cent since the faux burger and sausage maker’s initial public offering in May. Indeed, Beyond […] Read more
USDA to probe beef market after Tyson plant fire
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue ordered an investigation into widening prices between cattle and beef on Wednesday after a recent fire at a Tyson Foods slaughterhouse in Holcomb, Kansas, shut the plant. Cattle prices have tanked because the fire temporarily eliminated a key buyer of livestock. Producers have worried that meat […] Read more
Cargill not taking glufosinate-desiccated lentils
Reading Time: 2 minutes One of the world’s biggest grain companies has decided not to chance accepting Canadian lentils that were desiccated with a well known herbicide. Cargill announced Friday it will now have a “no tolerance” restriction on glufosinate ammonia in its grain delivery terms for lentils, including lentils that have had the Group 10 herbicide applied in […] Read more
Cargill shuts China feed mills as swine fever spreads
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Cargill shuttered animal-feed mills in China in recent months partly because the rapid spread of a fatal hog disease has reduced demand, a company executive said Friday. The closures highlight the pain for global agriculture companies from the outbreak of African swine fever in China, the world’s top hog producer and […] Read more
Cargill quarterly profit drops on trade tensions, U.S. floods
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Global commodities trader Cargill reported a 41 per cent drop in adjusted quarterly profit on Thursday, citing supply disruptions stemming from the U.S.-China trade war and also flooding in the central United States that hit marketing and transportation of grains and livestock. Cargill, the largest privately held U.S. company, said adjusted […] Read more
Major grain traders face one-two punch from U.S. floods, trade war
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Severe U.S. weather likely dented earnings for large grain companies including Archer Daniels Midland and Bunge for a second straight quarter, adding to headwinds from a still-unresolved U.S.-China trade war, analysts and economists said. ADM and Bunge, as well as peers Cargill and Louis Dreyfus, known as the ABCD quartet of […] Read more
U.S. CFTC awards nearly US$2.5 million to Cargill whistleblower
Reading Time: < 1 minute Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has awarded about US$2.5 million to a whistleblower in a 2017 case against global grain trader Cargill over alleged violations in how it handled trades, the agency said Tuesday. The award, while significant in size, was reduced “because of the whistleblower’s delay in reporting” the […] Read more
Former CGC assistant chief commissioner broke conflict rules
Reading Time: 4 minutes Jim Smolik, a former Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) assistant chief and acting chief commissioner, contravened post-employment obligations under the federal Conflict of Interest Act while working for Cargill Canada. That’s according to a 24-page report released May 30 by Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion. Dion ruled Smolik breached Sections 33 and 35(2) […] Read more
Ardent Mills to close four U.S. flour mills
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Ardent Mills will close three U.S. flour mills next month and a fourth in the first quarter of 2020, the flour miller and food ingredient maker announced Friday. The company, a joint venture between ConAgra Foods, Cargill and CHS, said the closures were necessary due to “anticipated demand and to enhance the efficiency […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
