Saudi Arabia completes first phase of flour mill privatization

Reading Time: 2 minutes Dubai/London | Reuters — Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it had completed the first batch of its flour milling sector privatization, according to a statement by the state grain buyer and privatization centre. The long-awaited flour mills sale was one of the first privatizations the kingdom planned as part of a wide-reaching overhaul of its […] Read more

(AHPhotoswpg/iStock/Getty Images)

Burnett on Markets: Home flour use soars during pandemic

That's led to increased demand for milling wheat -- at least temporarily

Reading Time: 2 minutes It is hard to miss the lack of flour in the grocery aisles lately as consumers stock up on the “essentials.” A number of stores are just rolling out the pallets of flour into the store and they are picked clean by the end of the day. The increased domestic use of flour does not […] Read more


CBOT May 2020 corn with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Corn rebounds after multi-year lows

Soybeans firm, wheat sags

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures rose on Tuesday, clawing back from last week’s multi-year lows as traders covered short positions and farmer sales stalled, analysts said. Wheat futures declined, pressured by profit-taking after recent rallies, while soybeans closed modestly higher. Chicago Board of Trade May corn settled up 3-3/4 cents at $3.47-1/4 per […] Read more

CBOT May 2020 wheat with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Wheat jumps to one-month top

Soy climbs, corn little changed

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures surged nearly four per cent on Monday and hit a one-month high, buoyed by strong buying by domestic flour millers as consumers stockpile bread, and signs of a pick-up in global export business, traders said. Soybeans rose on expectations of rising demand for soymeal, a feed ingredient. Corn […] Read more


Reginald Conyers, a traveling busker, plays the trumpet outside a Safeway while people observing social distancing wait in line to enter the store  in Oakland on March 20, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Kate Munsch)

Panic buying, lockdowns may drive world food inflation

World has ample grain and oilseed supplies, FAO and analysts say

Reading Time: 3 minutes Singapore | Reuters — Lockdowns and panic food buying due to the coronavirus pandemic could ignite world food inflation even though there are ample supplies of staple grains and oilseeds in key exporting nations, a senior economist at FAO and agricultural analysts said. The world’s richest nations poured unprecedented aid into the global economy as […] Read more

File photo of a durum wheat field in Idaho. (Craig Morris photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Late North American durum faces quality downgrades

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Cool and wet conditions delaying harvest operations across North America’s durum-growing regions are cutting into the quality of the crop in both the U.S. and Canada, with widening price spreads likely going forward. “It’s been a challenging harvest,” said Erica Olson, marketing specialist with the North Dakota Wheat Commission. “We did have some […] Read more


Paterson Grain’s current elevator at Rosser, Man., is the largest in its Prairie primary grain handling network at 121,000 tonnes capacity. (Dave Bedard file photo)

Paterson stakes Manitoba site for oat processing plant

Reading Time: 2 minutes Up to a quarter million tonnes of oats per year could find a new end use as a Winnipeg agrifood company sets up a new oat processing plant near its home base. Privately-held Paterson GlobalFoods (PGF) announced Thursday it will start construction “immediately” on the new plant, on part of its 600-acre site next to […] Read more

Grain Millers’ Saskatchewan milling plant at Yorkton. (GrainMillers.com)

Glyphosate raises milling questions

Reading Time: 3 minutes There’s more to the controversy surrounding glyphosate than whether the herbicide is safe to use or not: one miller has said it found oats and other grains treated with pre-harvest glyphosate don’t mill as well as untreated grains. Since 2015, Grain Millers Inc. has had a glyphosate-free policy on oats, said Eric Deblieck, a crop […] Read more


(Screengrab from RobinHood.ca)

Flour recall widened to products from 11 loads of wheat

Reading Time: 2 minutes The maker of Robin Hood and other brands of flour is further widening a major product recall to cover products made from 11 loads of Canadian wheat. Ardent Mills and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on Saturday announced an expanded nationwide recall to include more varieties and sizes of Robin Hood, Golden Temple, Purity, […] Read more

Yields and returns from Brasetto are expected to be higher, with the potential for driving more market opportunities for growers.

New hybrid rye for Ontario

Brasetto marks a big new opportunity for a sector that’s hungry for good news

Reading Time: 4 minutes Cereal production in Ontario has taken a definite hit in the past couple of years. Winter wheat acres have dropped off, mostly because of poor planting conditions in the fall of 2013 and 2014, and other cereals, including oats and barley, have lost momentum and are now grown mainly by farmers who like them either […] Read more