A freighter is loaded with grain from a terminal at Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet. (Maxvis/iStock/Getty Images)

Wheat, canola exports ahead of year-ago pace

MarketsFarm — Canadian grain and oilseed exports are running well ahead of the year-ago level eight weeks into the 2020-21 marketing year, according to the latest data from the Canadian Grain Commission. Total bulk exports of the major grains and oilseeds, as of Sunday, of 7.17 million tonnes compare with the six million exported during […] Read more

Canadian ginseng, whose shipments to Hong Kong have plummeted since COVID-19 infections peaked in Canada this spring and travel restrictions took effect, is seen in southwestern Ontario’s Norfolk County in this undated photograph. (Handout photo courtesy Helen Mels via Reuters)

Ginseng piling up in Canada despite Chinese demand

Travel restrictions depress new-crop sales

Winnipeg/Hong Kong | Reuters — The pandemic’s crushing effect on international travel has grounded Canadian exports of ginseng, a root widely used in Asia to treat everything from the common cold to impotency, at a time when health is top of consumers’ minds. Canada is the world’s second-largest ginseng exporter after China, with most of […] Read more


Roquette’s plant-based protein products include Nutralys T70S, billed as a plant-based, texturized protein that “guarantees a unique fibrous texture and great use adaptable to several types of meat substitute” such as burger patties, chicken-type filets and sausage. (Roquette.com)

Plant-based protein maker Roquette sees short-term COVID-19 impact

Demand could accelerate second Canadian plant

Paris | Reuters — The plant-based protein market has seen a slowdown in new product launches and lower sales in restaurants and cafeterias due to COVID-19 but benefited from more people cooking at home and trying new products, French manufacturer Roquette said. The market for plant-based protein such as meat-free burgers has surged in the […] Read more

Wheat being loaded onto a cargo ship in Vancouver in 2011. (File photo: Reuters/Ben Nelms)

AAFC lowers wheat carryout estimate, raises canola

MarketsFarm — Updated supply and demand estimates from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada call for tighter wheat carryout for the 2020-21 crop year than previous forecast — and more canola. Tursday’s report provides the first adjusted balance sheet estimates from the government agency that account for the latest production numbers from Statistics Canada released earlier in […] Read more


File photo of Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau speaking to media in Winnipeg in March 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)

Canada not benefiting from CETA, Bibeau says

Ex-premiers write to Ottawa with critique of EU's continued trade barriers

Canada is not benefiting from the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union (EU), federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau grants. Expected to spur $1.5 billion in new agri-food exports, the free trade deal has fallen short of those targets since its implementation in 2017. In a letter Monday to Prime Minister Justin […] Read more

(Lentils.ca)

India restores reduced tariff on lentil imports

All but U.S. lentil imports to get better break on duty, again

India has reinstated a reduced-rate tariff on imports of lentils from Canada as well as from all lentil-exporting nations other than the United States. Saskatchewan Pulse Growers on Friday reported receiving a Sept. 17 notification of amendment from India’s finance ministry regarding customs tariffs on lentils, which in Canada’s case had snapped back to 33 […] Read more


Charles Baron and partners brought FBN to Canada in 2017, buying Saskatchewan-based Yorkton Distributors. (FBN video screengrab via YouTube)

FBN cuts yearly membership fee to zero

Ag e-commerce firm offers free accounts to farmers

E-marketplace Farmers Business Network (FBN) has disposed of the annual membership fee that allowed members access to its various buying groups and services. California-based FBN, which has operated in the U.S. since 2014 and expanded to Canada in 2017, announced Tuesday (Sept. 15) its farmer members may now have “access to a select range of […] Read more

Kraft’s Canadian grated cheese lines are among the businesses going to Lactalis for US$3.2 billion. (KraftWhatsCooking.ca)

Kraft Heinz to sell several cheese businesses to Lactalis

Canadian grated cheese lines among assets going for US$3.2 billion

Chicago | Reuters — Kraft Heinz said on Tuesday that it will sell several of its cheese businesses to a U.S. affiliate of France’s Groupe Lactalis for US$3.2 billion. After weak sales results and several billion-dollar writedowns over the past two years, there has been market speculation about which categories Kraft Heinz will offload from […] Read more


(DWalker44/iStock/Getty Images)

U.S. to remove tariffs on Canadian aluminum

Ottawa drops threat of retaliation on stock trailers, fencing, other aluminum goods

Washington/Ottawa | Reuters — The Trump administration said on Tuesday it will remove 10 per cent U.S. tariffs on raw Canadian aluminum as long as imports of the metal stay below levels that are expected to “normalize” over the next four months. In response, Canada dropped a threat to impose billions of dollars of retaliatory […] Read more

(DWalker44/iStock/Getty Images)

Canada may unveil retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods Tuesday

Stock trailers could be among affected aluminum wares

Ottawa | Reuters — Canada will announce on Tuesday that it is going ahead with a threat to slap retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods after Washington said it would impose punitive measures on Canadian aluminum imports, CTV said on Monday. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said last month that Ottawa would impose sanctions on $3.6 […] Read more