Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat futures firmed on Monday, hitting almost six-year highs, on concerns about dry conditions across key global growing areas, traders said. But gains were limited as investors stood by after prices have rallied 8.6 per cent so far this month. “The market is just […] Read more

U.S. grains: Dry soils push Chicago wheat higher
CBOT corn, soy futures also rise

U.S. grains: CBOT wheat hits 2014 high on global crop concerns
Soybean futures retreat from gains
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures surged to their highest prices in nearly six years on Friday as dry weather in key growing regions around the world fueled supply concerns. Corn futures ended lower, after touching a 14-month high on prospects for hefty sales to China, and soybeans also slumped. Traders are keeping a […] Read more

U.S. grains: Soybeans rebound from prior day’s plunge
Wheat flat as stronger dollar offsets dryness concerns; corn up on exports to Mexico
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean futures rose on Tuesday, a day after the market’s largest drop in six months slowed a rash of farmer selling, traders said. Chicago wheat futures rose slightly but were capped by a strong U.S. dollar, while CBOT corn gained on fresh export sales to Mexico. CBOT November soybeans closed […] Read more

Mexico to phase out use of glyphosate
Farmers to have until 2024 to phase out herbicide
Mexico City | Reuters — Mexico will gradually phase out use of the herbicide glyphosate by the time the current administration ends in late 2024, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday, following a ministerial spat over the product. Acknowledging differences between his agriculture and environment ministries over the herbicide, which is used in […] Read more

Non-essential travel limits extended at U.S. borders with Canada, Mexico
Washington/Ottawa | Reuters — Restrictions on non-essential travel at U.S. land borders with Canada and Mexico will be extended through Aug. 21, Canada and the United States announced Thursday. “Canada and the United States have agreed to extend the current border measures by one month until Aug. 21, and we’re going to keep working closely […] Read more

Mexico to resume sending farmworkers to Canada after safety agreement
Mexico City | Reuters — Mexico will resume sending temporary farmworkers to Canada after the two countries reached an agreement on improved safety protections for labourers on Canadian farms during the coronavirus pandemic, the Mexican government said Sunday. Mexico said last Tuesday it would pause sending workers to farms with coronavirus infections after at least […] Read more

TFW program to be overhauled after COVID-19 outbreaks on farms
"The piece that's missing is enforcement"
Winnipeg | Reuters — Canada is overhauling its temporary foreign worker program, a government spokeswoman said on Friday, after coronavirus outbreaks on Ontario farms sickened hundreds and led Mexico to demand assurances of proper safeguards. As part of the review, surprise inspections of working and living conditions on farms will immediately increase, Ashley Michnowski, communications […] Read more

Mexico to stop sending workers to Canadian farms hit by COVID-19
Assurances of worker safety sought, FARMS says
Mexico City | Reuters — Mexico will stop sending temporary workers to Canadian farms that have registered a coronavirus outbreak and that do not have proper worker protections, Mexico’s labour ministry said on Tuesday, although it will not completely suspend the program. The decision came after a coronavirus outbreak in Ontario hit at least 17 […] Read more

COVID-19 cases, deaths lead Ontario to test migrant farm workers
Toronto/Ottawa | Reuters — Ontario has started testing about 8,000 migrant farm workers for COVID-19 in a hard-hit rural region of the province after two young workers died and the coronavirus was found on at least 17 farms, according to the local public health authority. The Ontario outbreak has centred on farms in the Windsor-Essex […] Read more

Farm workers cram daily into U.S.-Mexico border tunnel
Labourers line up hundreds deep for hours despite contagion risk
Mexicali | Reuters — Every night, hundreds of farm workers in Mexico crowd for hours in a cramped tunnel to a border station to reach day jobs in Imperial Valley, California, with no social distancing enforced despite coronavirus cases saturating hospitals in the region. By 2 a.m. on Tuesday, tense men and women with cloth […] Read more