Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago corn and wheat futures declined on Wednesday, following as Wall Street equity markets fell sharply on fears of the coronavirus causing a global recession and a lack of immediate U.S. measures to counter the economic fallout. Soybean futures turned lower, erasing early advances tied to a pick-up in export demand […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn, wheat decline as Wall Street tumbles
Chicago soy turns lower
U.S. grains: Robust global demand supports Chicago wheat
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Profit-taking pulled down Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures on Wednesday after robust global demand and concerns about tightening supplies pushed the most-active contract to its highest price since August 2018. Soybean futures also ended lower, while nearby corn futures inched higher. Traders in the farm markets continued to wait for […] Read more
U.S. vows 100 per cent tariffs on France’s champagne, cheese over digital tax
Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters — The U.S. government on Monday said it may slap punitive duties of up to 100 per cent on US$2.4 billion in imports from France of champagne, handbags, cheese and other products, after concluding that France’s new digital services tax would harm U.S. tech companies. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said its […] Read more
China, France sign deals worth $15 bln during visit
Reading Time: 2 minutes Beijing | Reuters – China and France signed contracts totalling $15 billion during a visit by President Emmanuel Macron, a Chinese government official told a news briefing on Wednesday. Deals were struck in the fields of aeronautics, energy and agriculture, including approval for 20 French companies to export poultry, beef and pork to China. They also agreed to expand […] Read more
Global wheat production to decrease, USDA says
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — In the latest supply and demand report from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the global wheat forecast was revised downward due to difficult weather conditions. USDA has now projected 765.53 million tonnes of wheat to be produced in 2019-20, according to the department’s world agriculture supply and demand estimates (WASDE), released Thursday. That’s […] Read more
Shut out of China, Canada finds canola buyers in drought-damaged Europe
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
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
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
