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
France backs non-GMO regulation for crop gene-editing in EU
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
Britain’s wheat imports climb, Canada top supplier
Reading Time: < 1 minute London | Reuters — British wheat imports were sharply above year earlier levels in July, with Canada and France the main suppliers, customs data showed on Friday. Wheat imports for the month totalled 149,337 tonnes, up from 91,965 tonnes in July 2019, the figures show. July is the first month of the marketing year. Imports […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat futures top two-month high on global harvest worries
Corn, soybeans firm as U.S. weather looks hotter, drier
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures on Thursday leapt to their highest prices in more than two months as the latest crop estimates in major exporting countries like Argentina, France and Russia raised questions about global supply. Corn and soybean futures also strengthened, as weather forecasts predicted more heat and dryness […] Read more
U.S. grains: CBOT wheat hits one-month high
Global wheat production estimates shrink; U.S. crop report due out Friday
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures jumped on Wednesday on concerns about shrinking crop production estimates in countries from France and Russia to Argentina, traders said. Prices approached a one-month high at the Chicago Board of Trade as adverse weather and lower-than-expected plantings have reduced expectations for harvests in major exporters. The neighbouring corn […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn, soy slip on less-threatening weather
CBOT wheat futures rise
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn and soybean futures eased on Tuesday as weather forecasts looked less threatening to America’s crops than they had a day earlier, analysts said. Traders took profits after soybean futures reached a four-month high on Monday on concerns that hot, dry conditions could threaten crop yields in the U.S. Midwest. […] Read more
China-Australia row to reshuffle trade in bulging barley market
Gains for Canada, other exporters won't be 'magical'
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — A prohibitive Chinese import tariff on Australian barley will benefit other suppliers without changing the bleak global outlook caused by large stocks and depressed beer demand, analysts and traders said. Beijing said on Monday it would apply an 80.5 per cent tariff on Australian barley imports for the next five years, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
