Reading Time: < 1 minute Moscow | Reuters — Russia is facing a lack of grain storage as it remains on track to produce the largest cereals crop in post-Soviet history, the head of Russia’s Grain Union, a non-government farmers’ lobby group, said Tuesday. Arkady Zlochevsky, the head of the union, told a briefing in Moscow he expected a grain […] Read more
Lack of grain storage seen as record Russian crop looms
Russia not planning expanded ban on Western foods
Reading Time: < 1 minute Moscow | Reuters — Russia does not plan to expand the list of banned Western food products, Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev told reporters. Earlier on Friday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered his ministers to draft proposals to extend Moscow’s food import ban until the end of 2017. The Agriculture Ministry has already started preparing […] Read more
Russia seen extending wheat export tax for 2016-17
Reading Time: 2 minutes Moscow | Reuters — Russia is likely to extend its wheat export tax for the 2016-17 marketing year, which starts on July 1, because the levy is at a minimum level under current market conditions, traders and analysts said. The government has also indicated it is unlikely to change the tax ahead of the next […] Read more
Russian farming firm to test investor appetite
Reading Time: 2 minutes Moscow | Reuters — Russian farming conglomerate Rusagro launched a secondary share offering on Thursday which will test foreign appetite for Russian assets. Share sales by Russian companies have been rare since Western sanctions imposed in 2014 over Ukraine cut access to foreign capital markets and after a sharp drop in global oil prices, the […] Read more
EU deal yet to bear fruit for Ukrainian exporters
Reading Time: 5 minutes Gorodok | Reuters — Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the European Union was meant to lure the bread basket of the former Soviet Union away from its longstanding ties with Russia by offering better access to the EU market. But debate about it was the spark that lit the Maidan street protests in 2013 and a […] Read more
Russian cheese lovers find way around import ban
Reading Time: 3 minutes Moscow | Reuters — An entrepreneur has found a way to supply Italian parmesan, Dutch Gouda and British Cheddar to cheese connoisseurs in Russia, sidestepping a ban on importing European food that the Kremlin imposed in the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine. Russia’s government banned wholesale imports of fresh food products from the European […] Read more
EU promises protesting farmers more help, no new money
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — The European Commission announced more help for the agriculture sector on Monday, following protests by farmers who say they have been hit hard by a Russian ban on Western food imports. The focus of the support package is on the dairy, pigmeat, fruit and vegetable sectors. It includes measures such as […] Read more
Cargill to stop selling seed, inputs in Black Sea region
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters –– Cargill will stop selling seeds, fertilizer and crop chemicals to farmers in the Black Sea region, as the global trader continues to cut back operations in the face of sliding commodity prices. The 150-year old company, one of the world’s largest privately held corporations, is in the middle of a restructuring […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat rises on bargain buying
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures firmed Wednesday, edging higher on a round of bargain buying and short-covering a day after prices hit their lowest in nearly six years, traders said. Corn and soybean futures were close to unchanged for most of the day but closed in negative territory. A bearish […] Read more
U.S. grains: Fund short-covering lifts grain/soy complex
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean and corn futures climbed to six-week highs on Tuesday on fund-driven buying as the grain complex shrugged off weakness in global equity markets and crude oil, traders said. But wheat futures settled flat as all three commodities pared gains by the close. At the Chicago Board of Trade, the […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
