Reading Time: 2 minutes Cuba said on Wednesday it had leased farmland to a Vietnamese company to grow rice, a first since the 1959 revolution which kicked all foreign landowners out.
In first, Cuba leases farmland to foreign firm
Marcos vows to boost Philippines’ grains output
New president/ag min aims to avert food crisis
Reading Time: < 1 minute Manila | Reuters — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed Monday to do what it takes to boost his country’s rice and corn production, seeking to reduce reliance on imports and avoid being hit hard by a food crisis now looming across the world. Marcos, who was sworn in as president last week and has […] Read more
‘Containergeddon’ drives sugar, rice shippers back to bulk vessels
Reading Time: 2 minutes New York | Reuters — Food traders are switching from containers back to dry bulk vessels to transport refined sugar and rice, hoping to avoid shipping delays caused by container shortages and port congestion the industry is calling “containergeddon,” according to traders. Container-based transportation has been hit by sky-high costs and delays amid booming shipping […] Read more
Son of India government minister arrested, accused of killing farmers
Junior home minister's son was 'not co-operating' in probe
Reading Time: 2 minutes Lucknow | Reuters — Ashish Mishra, son of junior home minister Ajay Mishra Teni, has been arrested on accusations he ran over and killed four protesting farmers last week, a senior police official said. The farmers, killed on Oct. 3 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, were part of India’s longest-running agricultural protest, opposing […] Read more
India unveils new rice variety to reduce water use, labour
Reading Time: < 1 minute New Delhi | Reuters — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched an array of new high-yielding crop varieties, including herbicide-tolerant rice that can be directly sown into the soil, cutting expenditure on water and farm workers. In India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, the conventional method of rice cultivation requires farmers to sow […] Read more
Beyond Meat lines up Canadian patty co-packer
U.S. company launches 'latest iteration' of burger line
Reading Time: 2 minutes One of the names tied closest to the plant protein-based meat substitute sector has enlisted an unnamed Quebec operation to make its beef-similar patties for the Canadian retail market. Los Angeles-based Beyond Meat on Wednesday launched the “latest iteration” of its flagship Beyond Burger, billed as “produced locally at a co-manufacturing facility in Canada” and […] Read more
Burnett on Markets: Global grain stocks offer false sense of food security
In event of production shortfall, 60 per cent of available stocks would never be available to market
Reading Time: 2 minutes The economic parallels from the COVID-19 epidemic are quickly changing from comparisons to the recent financial crisis in 2008-09 to the Great Depression. My parents and grandparents lived through the Depression and it did have many impacts on their everyday lives. The main symbol of the Depression-era mentality was the two enormous chest freezers in […] Read more
Iraq replaces state grain agency’s chief
Reading Time: < 1 minute Baghdad/Dubai | Reuters — Iraq, a major Middle East wheat and rice importer, has replaced the head of its state grain buying agency, government sources and a document showed on Tuesday. Naeem al-Maksousi was replaced by Hassanein Mahdi Elwan, a document reviewed by Reuters showed. The reason for the replacement, which comes after a week […] Read more
Trump and Modi’s lavish farm payouts prompt questions at WTO
Reading Time: 2 minutes Geneva | Reuters — Massive farm-support plans in the United States and India are being scrutinized by other World Trade Organization members, questions submitted to the WTO’s quarterly agriculture committee meeting showed on Monday. The WTO has strict rules about the size and nature of payments, and member governments keep a close watch for any […] Read more
WTO finds for U.S. on crop tariff dispute with China
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled largely in favour of the United States in a trade dispute regarding China’s application of tariff rate quotas (TRQs) for wheat, corn and rice. The ruling, issued by the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), stated China did not apply the TRQs on imports of wheat, rice […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
