File photo of grain silos and other buildings at harbourside at Saint Nazaire on France’s west coast. (Sissoupitch/iStock/Getty Images)

French agency drops fumigant ban on non-EU grain exports

Limit on phosphine won't apply if use required for export

Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — French health safety agency ANSES on Thursday cleared the use of phosphine pesticide in contact with grains exported outside the European Union when importing countries require the process, averting a halt to shipments from the EU’s top grain exporter. In late October ANSES cleared the use of phosphine tablets used for […] Read more

File photo of grain silos and other buildings at harbourside at Saint Nazaire on France’s west coast. (Sissoupitch/iStock/Getty Images)

France says pesticide ban will not hit grain exports

Fumigant can't be in 'direct contact' with grains

Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — France will ensure that a decision by health and safety agency ANSES to ban the use of a pesticide in direct contact with grains does not hamper its exports outside the European Union, its trade and agriculture ministers told Parliament on Tuesday. In late October ANSES cleared the use of phosphine […] Read more


Manitoba researchers say that the mustard should be flailed rather than mowed and that it should be incorporated within a few minutes because isothiocyanates can volatilize within 20 minutes of chopping.

Mustard biofumigation: coming to a field near you?

Its anti-pest properties are confirmed in potato, but researchers are looking at whether it has prospects for other crops

Reading Time: 5 minutes There may be more than one reason to plant mustard in 2022.  Some producers will hope to springboard off 2021’s shortages and grow food-grade mustard for domestic and international markets. But others might choose mustard for a less conventional reason: as a biofumigant cover crop to help quash soil-borne pests and diseases. Mustard contains glucosinolates […] Read more

Chickpeas. (CalypsoArt/iStock/Getty Images)

Pulse sector hails renewed trade talks with India

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Canada and India have formerly relaunched trade negotiations that could lead to increased Canadian pulse exports to the country. Canada’s Trade Minister Mary Ng met with her Indian counterpart Shri Piyush Goyal in New Delhi on Friday to discuss economic relationships between the two countries. While highlighting existing trade relationships, the ministers also […] Read more


SGS’s cereals lab in Guelph at its official opening in 2016. (SGS.com)

Inspections group SGS to slim workforce

Reading Time: < 1 minute Geneva | Reuters — Swiss inspections group SGS plans to trim its workforce by 2,000 across about 120 countries in a process of natural attrition rather than sudden cuts or corporate restructuring, company spokesman Daniel Rufenacht said on Thursday. CEO Frankie Ng was earlier quoted by Swiss newspapers Handelszeitung and Tribune de Geneve as saying […] Read more

Plants on a coca plantation in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada. (James Wagstaff/iStock/Getty Images)

Colombian president defends use of glyphosate on coca crops

Reading Time: 2 minutes Bogota | Reuters — A judicial ban on aerial spraying of glyphosate herbicide to eliminate coca crops should be modified, Colombia’s President Ivan Duque said on Thursday, because expansion of the crop since the ban threatens peace efforts. The Andean country suspended aerial fumigation of coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine, with the Monsanto herbicide […] Read more


Drawing of an adult Khapra beetle. (GrainsCanada.gc.ca)

Beetles halt U.S. DDGs exports to Thailand

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Exports of U.S. distillers’ dried grains to Thailand have stopped due to new fumigation requirements installed after beetles were discovered in a shipment last year, U.S. traders said on Friday. Thai government officials said U.S. shipments required certificates showing they had been “properly fumigated.” Traders said sales had effectively been halted […] Read more

(iStock photo)

India extends crop fumigation exemption until year-end

Reading Time: < 1 minute Paris/Mumbai | Reuters — India has extended by six months to the end of 2018 an exemption to its policy for crop cargoes to be fumigated with methyl bromide, a move that should facilitate continued imports of pulses and wheat. The Indian government has issued a letter announcing the exemption would be extended to Dec. […] Read more



(File photo)

India hikes chickpea duty again

Reading Time: < 1 minute CNS Canada — The Indian government has raised its import tariff for chickpeas for a second time, this time from 40 per cent to 60 per cent. The government said Thursday in the Gazette of India its tariff is to be imposed immediately, due to circumstances which make it necessary to take immediate action. Reuters […] Read more