Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures took a breather on Monday after setting 8-1/2-year highs last week on concerns about tightening supplies in exporting countries hit by harsh weather. Russian agriculture consultancy Sovecon trimmed its forecast for Russia’s crop by 0.3 per cent from last week in the latest estimated reduction […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat ends mixed, near 8-1/2-year high
Pro Farmer corn, soy tour begins in U.S.
Durum markets reckon with weather
'There was no wiggle room for a crop problem'
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — The higher temperatures soared and the longer between rains in Western Canada, the lower the yield projections for most crops — and drought-tolerant durum wheat is no exception. With bids already elevated due to a downturn in potential new-crop supply, the price of durum could rise even higher. “There’s not a lot of […] Read more
Morocco reimposing 170 per cent duty on hard wheat
Reading Time: < 1 minute Rabat | Reuters — Morocco will reimpose customs duty on soft and hard wheat of 135 and 170 per cent respectively from May 15 in order to cut imports at a time of higher prices in international markets, the agriculture ministry said Monday. The government had said last week the duties would be reintroduced from […] Read more
Argentine truckers end strike, freeing China-bound barley
Canada, France would have been buyers' Plan B
Reading Time: 2 minutes Buenos Aires | Reuters — Argentine truckers ended a 20-day strike that had blocked access to ports in Buenos Aires province, agricultural industry sources said on Tuesday, following a deal struck with local officials to increase freight-hauling rates. Trucks owners grouped in the informal TUDA association (Transportistas Unidos de Argentina) began blocking highways last month, […] Read more
China’s appetite for feed barley sucks in new crop from Canada, France
Tariff on Australian barley favours other suppliers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Paris | Reuters — China’s buying spree of French and Canadian barley is spilling into the 2021-22 crop with large forward purchases, due to its major feed grain needs and a prohibitive tariff on Australian barley, traders and analysts said. China has been sweeping up huge volumes of foreign crops to help feed a pig […] Read more
France backs non-GMO regulation for crop gene-editing in EU
Reading Time: < 1 minute Paris | Reuters — France sees crops developed using gene-editing techniques as different to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and opposes a European Union court decision to put them under strict GMO regulations, the country’s agriculture minister said. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in 2018 that mutagenesis, among so-called new breeding techniques (NBT) based […] Read more
InVivo in talks to acquire French agribusiness Soufflet
Firms see limited overlap outside grain trading
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — Co-operative group InVivo has entered exclusive talks to acquire family-controlled Soufflet in a deal that would create one of Europe’s biggest agricultural businesses with 10 billion euros (C$15.5 billion) in sales, the French firms said on Wednesday. The potential consolidation comes as France, the European Union’s largest agricultural producer, is trying […] Read more
France to help farmers to abandon glyphosate weedkiller
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters – France will give financial aid to farmers who agree to halt use of glyphosate, the farm ministry said on Monday after President Macron said he had failed with efforts to ban use of the weedkiller by 2021. Glyphosate, first developed by Bayer’s Monsanto under the Roundup brand, has generated intense global […] Read more
Barley trade routes redrawn as China tariff hits Australian farmers
China's barley purchases from Canada more than double last year's
Reading Time: 3 minutes Sydney/Paris | Reuters — Out in Australia’s grain fields, farmers have started harvesting one of their biggest-ever barley crops, after drought-relieving rains convinced many to plant to the edges of their paddocks. Yet the tractors are working under the cloud of a new tariff imposed by China — seen widely as retaliation for Australia’s push […] Read more
Monsanto loses final appeal over French farmer’s herbicide accident
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — Bayer’s Monsanto division on Wednesday lost a final appeal in a long-running French legal battle in which the crop chemical maker has been held liable for a farmer’s accidental inhalation of a herbicide. Monsanto had been trying to overturn a decision by an appeals court in 2019 that had found the […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
