The United Sates Department of Agriculture surprised the market last week with yield forecasts for corn and soybeans that posted new records and were larger than expected. Corn futures fell particularly hard on the monthly report but soybean prices hung on, based on reports that the U.S. had reached out to China to resume talks […] Read more
Author Archives
Canadian pork is collateral damage in trade battles
Canadian hog producers suffered this summer through no fault of their own and are asking the federal government for financial assistance. Hog futures and cash prices fell much more than the normal seasonal retracement following the usual spring rally. The main reason for the decline was the trade war the United States is fighting against […] Read more
Emerging market currency woes will affect grain trade
You’ve likely already heard about Turkey’s plunging currency problem and how that has the potential to hurt its ability to buy lentils from Canada. The wider worry is that Turkey’s problems could get international investors looking at other currencies around the world and start to sell them off, too. And while it is not a […] Read more
Electric vehicle revolution poses threat to biofuel
Several times on a recent vacation in Vancouver, sleek vehicles with an unfamiliar model badge would catch my eye. They turned out to be Teslas, electric cars made by the new company created by high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. You tend to see a lot more high-end vehicles in Vancouver than you do in Saskatchewan and […] Read more
Swine fever outbreak in China complicates soybean trade with U.S.
Tensions in the oilseed market over the United States-China trade war eased a little last week on word that a Chinese trade negotiating delegation would visit the U.S. this month and reports that cargoes of soybeans delayed off China’s shore were finally being unloaded in port. But important questions remain: Will China and the Trump […] Read more
Global wheat crop shrinks for first time in five years
The hot, dry weather slashing production prospects in much of northern Europe has helped the Minneapolis hard red wheat price to recover back to levels it traded at for much of the last crop year. However, to climb much higher would require help from a rally in other grains, and at least for now, that […] Read more
Railways must perform if Canada is to capture exports
With crops in Europe, the Black Sea region and Australia suffering from moisture stress this summer, there could be an enhanced export opportunity for North American crops this crop year. And with America’s export outlook darkened by the Trump administration’s bellicose attitude toward most of its trading partners, Canada has the potential to be a […] Read more
U.S. tariff war could spark dangerous consequences
The much-threatened tariff lists are being implemented and I fear we don’t know how wide the impacts will be. American President Donald Trump’s hard, unreasonable line on trade has sparked retaliatory actions from Canada, China, Mexico and the European Union. A study by Adam Slater, an Oxford University economist, says that if all the tariff […] Read more
New technology will force rethink on GM regulations
The case of the unapproved genetically modified wheat plants showing up alongside an oil well access road in Alberta is baffling on many levels, but the reality of Japan halting Canadian wheat imports could not be more clear. It is also clear that the rapid advance of genetic science will make obsolete the legal frameworks […] Read more
Oilseed price decline stabilizes but uncertainty reigns
While the United States-China tariff war has cast a pall over the oilseed market, it looks like we are not facing a bottomless pit in the soybean market. And the canola market last week was doing better than holding its own, with the November contract showing a modest rally, supported by the falling Canadian dollar. […] Read more
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