Bucharest | Reuters — Romania will work with Ukraine over the next 30 days on a grain export control plan that will help protect Romanian farmers, Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu said on Wednesday. Romania is among five eastern European Union countries along with Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia that saw a surge of Ukrainian grain […] Read more

Romania, Ukraine to work on grain import-export licensing system
Three other EU countries have bans in place

U.S. FTC votes to make ‘right to repair’ a priority
Commission also drops 1995 merger policy
Washington | Reuters — The U.S Federal Trade Commission voted Wednesday to make it a priority to address the issue of manufacturers pushing consumers to use licensed dealers to repair items ranging from smartphones to farm equipment, a practice that critics call anti-competitive. The five commissioners, three Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously to approve […] Read more

CGC suspends W.A. Grain’s licences to month-end
The firm, with facilities in Saskatchewan and Alberta, can't buy or sell grain in the interim
Licences for Prairie grain and pulse handler W.A. Grain and Pulse Solutions and its primary elevators in Alberta and Saskatchewan have been suspended by the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC). The suspensions took effect at 12:01 p.m. Tuesday, a CGC official said in an interview. “This means for a limited period of time (until April 30) […] Read more

Canada weighs tighter rules for grow-your-own pot producers
Spending on illicit pot still ahead of legal purchases
Reuters — Canada on Monday launched a public consultation seeking to tighten rules for individuals who are allowed to grow their own medical cannabis, in an effort to clamp down on pot seeping into black markets. In a draft guidance issued for the consultation, Health Canada highlighted recent police raids and arrests at production sites […] Read more

Ryding-Regency’s federal beef packing licenses cancelled
Citing “false or misleading information” given them during an E. coli probe, food safety officials have now permanently pulled the federal slaughter, processing and export licenses for Toronto’s Ryding-Regency Meat Packers and related companies. The cancellation, announced Monday, indefinitely prolongs what was already described as “critical processing capacity shortage” for the province’s cattle producers, leaving […] Read more