Reading Time: 3 minutes Winnipeg/Paris | Reuters — Crop-scorching drought in Europe is providing Canadian canola farmers a timely new opportunity to move supplies that have piled up since China stopped buying this year. Rising European sales are taking some of the sting out of losing the Chinese market for Canadian farmers, although ICE canola futures prices are down […] Read more
Shut out of China, Canada finds canola buyers in drought-damaged Europe
France’s Hulot calls on parliament to vote against EU-Canada trade deal
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters – Popular former environment minister Nicolas Hulot on Monday urged the French parliament to vote against the EU-Canada trade deal in a last-minute bid to block the agreement. The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) provisionally took effect from September 2017, but still needs to be approved by all 28 EU […] Read more
EU says ready to launch U.S. trade talks, but without agriculture
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — The European Union is ready to start talks on a trade agreement with the United States and aims to conclude a deal before year-end, European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said on Monday. The EU approved two areas for negotiation, opposed by France with an abstention from Belgium. But agriculture was not […] Read more
French rapeseed farmers destroy 18,000 hectares over GMO risk
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — French farmers destroyed a total of 18,000 hectares of rapeseed, more than double the area initially expected, following the discovery of a non-authorized genetically modified organism (GMO) in seeds, German group Bayer said on Friday. Bayer had announced in February that farmers in France and Germany were turning over thousands of […] Read more
France’s glyphosate exit seen 80 per cent complete by 2021
Reading Time: < 1 minute Paris | Reuters — France expects to have cut the use of glyphosate herbicide by 80 per cent by early 2021, its agriculture minister said on Friday, less than previously anticipated due to the number of farmers who will qualify for an exemption. In November 2017, President Emmanuel Macron pledged to ban glyphosate in France […] Read more
France delays food price rise for farmers after protests
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — France, reeling from violent protests over the cost of living, said Wednesday it will delay a planned rise in minimum food prices, incurring the wrath of the main farmers group which urged street action next week. A powerful constituency in French politics, farmers have long complained of being hit by a […] Read more
Fearful of swine fever, France to put up fence on Belgian border
Reading Time: < 1 minute Strasbourg, France | Reuters — France will put up fencing along its border with Belgium to prevent wild boars spreading African swine fever, a virulent livestock disease that could disrupt Europe’s pig industry. France has been on alert for African swine fever since Belgium detected the virus last month among wild boars a few kilometres […] Read more
France to the rescue as drought hits EU barley crop
Reading Time: 2 minutes Hamburg | Reuters — Drought has seriously damaged barley harvests in northern Europe, potentially tightening supplies of animal feed and malt for beer brewing, but a decent crop in France could save the day, experts said on Thursday. “There are painful crop losses in Germany, Poland, Britain and Scandinavia,” one German trader said. “The volume […] Read more
U.S. grains: Soybeans down on trade war worry
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures closed at their lowest level in more than two years on Monday while corn fell to fresh contract lows on strong U.S. crop prospects and worries about trade fights with China and other main export partners. Wheat also retreated as rising supplies from the U.S. winter crop harvest […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat sets two-week high
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures touched a two-week high above US$5 a bushel on Friday on reduced expectations for France’s harvest while corn prices rose on concerns over unfavourably hot U.S. crop weather. Soybean futures touched a one-week low after a bout of selling late in the trading session erased earlier gains. An […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
