Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago / Reuters – The U.S. pork industry could be heading for higher hog prices as processing plants come on line at an unprecedented rate with packers investing millions of dollars to satisfy the appetite of protein-hungry China, industry analysts said. Pork packers including Seaboard Foods and Triumph Foods, who slaughter hogs and turn them into […] Read more
U.S. pork packing plant boom may boost hog prices
Wet wheat weather watched worldwide
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Generous rainfall has benefited but also boosted the risk of disease on wheat crops in much of Canada and the U.S., and has also cut into grain quality in parts of Europe. However, according to Drew Lerner of U.S. forecast agency World Weather Inc., conditions during the harvest season will be the […] Read more
ICE weekly outlook: Room for additional downside in canola
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada –– ICE Futures Canada canola contracts moved lower on the week, and the market’s declines are likely not finished yet, one analyst says. Canola lost $42.90 in the July contract and $35.60 in the November contract in the week ended Wednesday, as a rout of fund selling pressured the market. “I think we’ve […] Read more
Cleavers not threatening exports, Canola Council says
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Suggestions that canola shipments to China could be in jeopardy because of concerns over herbicide-resistant weeds are being refuted by the Canola Council of Canada. Great Northern Growers Inc., an agriculture service business in Saskatoon that sells herbicides and other products, said it has heard China doesn’t want pesticide-resistant weeds coming into […] Read more
Flax industry fighting to regain lost acres
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — After losing ground to pulses this year, a flax industry group is working on ways to be competitive going forward. “It’s the year of the pulses, and certainly growers are taking advantage of good prices for pulses,” said Don Kerr, president at the Flax Council of Canada, referring to the United Nations […] Read more
Beijing to release frozen pork to temper price rise
Reading Time: < 1 minute Beijing | Reuters –– Beijing will release 3.05 million kilograms of frozen pork from its reserves over the next two months to combat rising pork prices, the city government said on Wednesday. Starting from Thursday and lasting until July 4, the Beijing municipal government will sell 50,000 kg of pork each day to 121 supermarket chains […] Read more
Australia to defer decision on China land deal
Reading Time: 2 minutes Sydney | Reuters — The Australian government is deferring until after an upcoming federal election a politically sensitive decision on whether to allow the sale of one of the country’s biggest cattle empires, S. Kidman and Co., to a Chinese-led consortium. Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison rejected a previous foreign-led offer for the ranching company — […] Read more
World wine trade buoyed by rebound in China demand
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters –– Wine exporters toasted an upturn in Chinese wine consumption in 2015 after a two-year decline, as a growing taste there for reds helped global wine trade expand, the International Vine and Wine organization (OIV) said Monday. Chinese imports jumped 44 per cent to 5.5 million hectolitres, while overall consumption in the […] Read more
China may cultivate GM corn in next five years
Reading Time: < 1 minute Beijing | Reuters — China, the world’s second-largest corn consumer, may allow commercial cultivation of pest-resistant genetically-modified (GM) corn within the next five years, an agriculture ministry official said Wednesday. “We will push forward the commercial process of new strains of pest-resistant cotton and pest-resistant corn among other key crops,” during the 13th Five Year […] Read more
Global GMO area dips in 2015 in first-ever decline
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — The world scaled back biotech crop planting for the first time ever in 2015, led by a decline in the U.S., which has fuelled rapid expansion of genetically modified crops since their commercial launch two decades ago, according to an annual report released Wednesday. The decline was blamed largely on lower crop plantings […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
