Paris | Reuters — China’s buying spree of French and Canadian barley is spilling into the 2021-22 crop with large forward purchases, due to its major feed grain needs and a prohibitive tariff on Australian barley, traders and analysts said. China has been sweeping up huge volumes of foreign crops to help feed a pig […] Read more
China’s appetite for feed barley sucks in new crop from Canada, France
Tariff on Australian barley favours other suppliers
France backs non-GMO regulation for crop gene-editing in EU
Paris | Reuters — France sees crops developed using gene-editing techniques as different to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and opposes a European Union court decision to put them under strict GMO regulations, the country’s agriculture minister said. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in 2018 that mutagenesis, among so-called new breeding techniques (NBT) based […] Read more
InVivo in talks to acquire French agribusiness Soufflet
Firms see limited overlap outside grain trading
Paris | Reuters — Co-operative group InVivo has entered exclusive talks to acquire family-controlled Soufflet in a deal that would create one of Europe’s biggest agricultural businesses with 10 billion euros (C$15.5 billion) in sales, the French firms said on Wednesday. The potential consolidation comes as France, the European Union’s largest agricultural producer, is trying […] Read more
France to help farmers to abandon glyphosate weedkiller
Paris | Reuters – France will give financial aid to farmers who agree to halt use of glyphosate, the farm ministry said on Monday after President Macron said he had failed with efforts to ban use of the weedkiller by 2021. Glyphosate, first developed by Bayer’s Monsanto under the Roundup brand, has generated intense global […] Read more
Barley trade routes redrawn as China tariff hits Australian farmers
China's barley purchases from Canada more than double last year's
Sydney/Paris | Reuters — Out in Australia’s grain fields, farmers have started harvesting one of their biggest-ever barley crops, after drought-relieving rains convinced many to plant to the edges of their paddocks. Yet the tractors are working under the cloud of a new tariff imposed by China — seen widely as retaliation for Australia’s push […] Read more
Monsanto loses final appeal over French farmer’s herbicide accident
Paris | Reuters — Bayer’s Monsanto division on Wednesday lost a final appeal in a long-running French legal battle in which the crop chemical maker has been held liable for a farmer’s accidental inhalation of a herbicide. Monsanto had been trying to overturn a decision by an appeals court in 2019 that had found the […] Read more
Britain’s wheat imports climb, Canada top supplier
London | Reuters — British wheat imports were sharply above year earlier levels in July, with Canada and France the main suppliers, customs data showed on Friday. Wheat imports for the month totalled 149,337 tonnes, up from 91,965 tonnes in July 2019, the figures show. July is the first month of the marketing year. Imports […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat futures top two-month high on global harvest worries
Corn, soybeans firm as U.S. weather looks hotter, drier
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures on Thursday leapt to their highest prices in more than two months as the latest crop estimates in major exporting countries like Argentina, France and Russia raised questions about global supply. Corn and soybean futures also strengthened, as weather forecasts predicted more heat and dryness […] Read more
U.S. grains: CBOT wheat hits one-month high
Global wheat production estimates shrink; U.S. crop report due out Friday
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures jumped on Wednesday on concerns about shrinking crop production estimates in countries from France and Russia to Argentina, traders said. Prices approached a one-month high at the Chicago Board of Trade as adverse weather and lower-than-expected plantings have reduced expectations for harvests in major exporters. The neighbouring corn […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn, soy slip on less-threatening weather
CBOT wheat futures rise
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn and soybean futures eased on Tuesday as weather forecasts looked less threatening to America’s crops than they had a day earlier, analysts said. Traders took profits after soybean futures reached a four-month high on Monday on concerns that hot, dry conditions could threaten crop yields in the U.S. Midwest. […] Read more
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