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

InVivo in talks to acquire French agribusiness Soufflet
Firms see limited overlap outside grain trading

ADM beats profit estimates but revenue disappoints
Reuters — Global grains trader Archer Daniels Midland beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profits on Thursday, helped by strength in its grain milling and nutrition businesses. Still, revenue missed analysts’ expectations and net earnings attributable to the company were 44 per cent lower than a year earlier. Shares were down nearly three per cent […] Read more
Saudi Arabia completes first phase of flour mill privatization
Dubai/London | Reuters — Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it had completed the first batch of its flour milling sector privatization, according to a statement by the state grain buyer and privatization centre. The long-awaited flour mills sale was one of the first privatizations the kingdom planned as part of a wide-reaching overhaul of its […] Read more

Burnett on Markets: Home flour use soars during pandemic
That's led to increased demand for milling wheat -- at least temporarily
It is hard to miss the lack of flour in the grocery aisles lately as consumers stock up on the “essentials.” A number of stores are just rolling out the pallets of flour into the store and they are picked clean by the end of the day. The increased domestic use of flour does not […] Read more

U.S. grains: Corn rebounds after multi-year lows
Soybeans firm, wheat sags
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures rose on Tuesday, clawing back from last week’s multi-year lows as traders covered short positions and farmer sales stalled, analysts said. Wheat futures declined, pressured by profit-taking after recent rallies, while soybeans closed modestly higher. Chicago Board of Trade May corn settled up 3-3/4 cents at $3.47-1/4 per […] Read more

U.S. grains: Wheat jumps to one-month top
Soy climbs, corn little changed
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures surged nearly four per cent on Monday and hit a one-month high, buoyed by strong buying by domestic flour millers as consumers stockpile bread, and signs of a pick-up in global export business, traders said. Soybeans rose on expectations of rising demand for soymeal, a feed ingredient. Corn […] Read more

Panic buying, lockdowns may drive world food inflation
World has ample grain and oilseed supplies, FAO and analysts say
Singapore | Reuters — Lockdowns and panic food buying due to the coronavirus pandemic could ignite world food inflation even though there are ample supplies of staple grains and oilseeds in key exporting nations, a senior economist at FAO and agricultural analysts said. The world’s richest nations poured unprecedented aid into the global economy as […] Read more

Late North American durum faces quality downgrades
MarketsFarm — Cool and wet conditions delaying harvest operations across North America’s durum-growing regions are cutting into the quality of the crop in both the U.S. and Canada, with widening price spreads likely going forward. “It’s been a challenging harvest,” said Erica Olson, marketing specialist with the North Dakota Wheat Commission. “We did have some […] Read more

Paterson stakes Manitoba site for oat processing plant
Up to a quarter million tonnes of oats per year could find a new end use as a Winnipeg agrifood company sets up a new oat processing plant near its home base. Privately-held Paterson GlobalFoods (PGF) announced Thursday it will start construction “immediately” on the new plant, on part of its 600-acre site next to […] Read more

Glyphosate raises milling questions
There’s more to the controversy surrounding glyphosate than whether the herbicide is safe to use or not: one miller has said it found oats and other grains treated with pre-harvest glyphosate don’t mill as well as untreated grains. Since 2015, Grain Millers Inc. has had a glyphosate-free policy on oats, said Eric Deblieck, a crop […] Read more