Livestock
Brussels | Reuters –– Belgian politicians failed to break their deadlock over a planned EU-Canada free trade agreement on Wednesday, but agreed to resume talks on Thursday in a sign they may be nearing a consensus that would keep the deal alive. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), seven years in the making, is backed […] Read more
Belgians struggle to agree on text to save CETA
JBS scraps reorganization after Brazil veto
Sao Paulo | Reuters — JBS SA has scrapped a program to move some operations outside Brazil after a government agency vetoed the move, sending shares of the world’s biggest beef exporter tumbling and dealing a blow to a plan to become a global food processing powerhouse. In a Wednesday securities filing, Sao Paulo-based JBS […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Hogs extend rally, cattle snap winning streak
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures on Tuesday gained for a third straight session, fueled by recently improved prices for slaughter-ready, or cash, hogs and wholesale pork values despite plentiful supplies, said traders. Fund buying developed after December and February futures opened above their respective 20-day moving averages of 42.51 and […] Read more
Where’s the beef? Increasingly, it’s in the premium product section
Leave the lower-end market to other meats and ‘come to terms’ with the global push to reduce meat consumption, says ‘Dr. Food’
Reading Time: 3 minutes The beef sector needs to position its meat as a premium product and forget about trying to duke it out with farmed fish and commercial chicken production, says one of the world’s best-known food-marketing experts. Fish and chicken are “the two big meats” because they have the best feed conversion ratios, David Hughes said at […] Read more
ALMA reaches the end of the road
The agency’s eight-year legacy was celebrated, and future plans outlined at its last FutureFare conference
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency held a final meeting cum celebration before its dissolution at the end of October. “It’s been a heck of a ride. This is emotional,” ALMA board chair Dave Chalack said to an audience of about 260 industry partners, board directors, and staff at the agency’s last FutureFare conference. The […] Read more
Court may help EU sidestep lone-wolf resistance to trade deals
Brussels | Reuters — A court ruling early next year may help the European Union out of the kind of embarrassing situation it has just landed in, where a regional assembly in Belgium is blocking a major trade agreement between Canada and the 28 sovereign states of the EU. Belgian negotiators failed on Tuesday to […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Live cattle rally to three-week high
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures rose for a third consecutive session to their highest level in three weeks, fueled by Friday’s strong cash prices and the U.S. government’s bullish monthly Cattle on Feed report, traders said. Friday’s U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed two per cent fewer cattle entered feedlots […] Read more
Klassen: Feeder market lacks buying interest
In a market profile, trader Peter Steidlmayer clarified that markets go up because there is no selling and markets go down because there is no buying. Western Canadian feeder markets were a perfect example of this market theory, as prices experienced a week-over-week decline of $10-$15. Feedlot operators once again sat on their hands with […] Read more
Slowing sales at Burger King push parent’s shares down
Reuters — Restaurant Brands International, owner of Burger King and Tim Hortons, reported a second straight quarter of decline in comparable sales at Burger King in the U.S. and Canada. The company’s U.S.-listed shares, which had risen about 26 per cent this year up to Friday’s close, fell as much as three per cent despite […] Read more
Ukrlandfarming owner in talks to sell stake
Kiev | Reuters — Ukrainian businessman Oleh Bakhmatyuk, the major shareholder in agricultural group Ukrlandfarming, is in talks with Chinese and Middle East investors about possibly selling a stake in the company, Interfax news agency said on Monday. Ukrlandfarming’s main businesses are grain and sugar production, livestock farming, the distribution of agricultural products and the […] Read more