Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington | Reuters — Canada’s top trade negotiator joins her Mexican and U.S. counterparts in Washington on Tuesday in a bid to remain part of a revamped trilateral North American trade pact, as U.S. officials expressed optimism a deal could be reached this week. But Ottawa will be under pressure to accept new terms on […] Read more
Canada rejoins NAFTA talks, deal seen as possible this week
Coop federee buys into Ontario feed sector
Reading Time: 2 minutes Fresh off its recent investment in the Prairie livestock feed business, Quebec ag co-operative giant La Coop federee is headed down a similar path in southwestern Ontario. The co-operative announced Monday it will pay an undisclosed sum for a 50 per cent stake in W-S Feed and Supply, based at Tavistock, Ont., about 30 km […] Read more
As U.S., Canada spar, farm hopes ride on two men in lobster boat
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — While Justin Trudeau vowed last week not to be pushed around and U.S. President Donald Trump called the Canadian prime minister “weak,” two key officials in their governments with a seemingly harmonious relationship were making fishing plans. On Friday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue visited the farm of Canadian Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay […] Read more
Saputo to build new Vancouver-area processing plant
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian dairy giant Saputo plans on further “maximizing its manufacturing footprint” in Canada in the next few years, starting with a new $240 million Vancouver-area processing plant at Port Coquitlam. The “state-of-the-art” plant is expected to be built within the next three years and commissioned in fiscal 2021, the company said in its fiscal 2018 […] Read more
Canadian dairy sector skimming global exports, U.S. complains
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg/Chicago | Reuters — Canada’s surging exports of protein-rich skim milk powder have angered farmers in the U.S., as the sheltered dairy sector in Canada draws the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump for its high tariffs. Canada cannot expect to have both a protected system and compete globally, U.S. Dairy Export Council CEO Tom […] Read more
Trump’s tweets spew ire on Trudeau, EU, NATO
Reading Time: 4 minutes Singapore | Reuters — U.S. President Donald Trump fired off a volley of tweets on Monday venting anger on NATO allies, the European Union and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the wake of a divisive G7 meeting over the weekend. The escalating clash over trade between Washington and some of its closest global partners […] Read more
NAFTA officials set for Washington meeting to push for progress
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — The top U.S., Canadian and Mexican officials driving NAFTA renegotiations will meet in Washington on Thursday, a Canadian government source said on Tuesday, as pressure for a quick deal mounted. Although the United States is eager to quickly wrap up negotiations to update the US$1.2 trillion North American Free Trade Agreement, […] Read more
After milk quotas
French dairy farmers look for a way ahead after Brussels gives up the European supply management system
Reading Time: < 1 minute French dairy farms are in turmoil. France is the second-largest dairy producer in the European Union, and for the past 30 years, governments there had used quota to tie milk production to assigned farm regions. But then Brussels pulled the plug on the EU quota system in 2015, and now decisions about where and how […] Read more
The most hated dairy farm in France
Milk After Quotas: Some dairy farms in southern France are facing an existential crisis
Reading Time: 4 minutes The least we can say is that Michel Welter, director general of France’s biggest dairy farm, is a tough cookie. At 51, this former dairy producer works not only under daily pressure from the citizens of his village, Abbeville, located in northern France, but from the whole country for having built an “industrial farm” of […] Read more
Setting their own quota
Milk After Quotas: Milk producers find more success with cheese
Reading Time: 3 minutes Jean-Marie Guinchard looks across his ancestral farm located at la Sommette, a hamlet near the Swiss border. “We are cheese producers before being milk producers,” he tells me. “That’s saved us because we get a much higher return than conventional milk.” With his herd of 160 milking cows of the Montbéliarde breed, the 58 year […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
