CHICAGO (Reuters) — U.S. farmers should closely consider the markets they serve when choosing to plant a new genetically modified Syngenta AG corn variety as it is not approved by all major importers, including China, the U.S. Grains Council said on Thursday. Grain exporters also need to be keenly aware of the varieties they handle […] Read more
Stories by Reuters News Service
Canola rises but wheat falls on export concern
Canola closed higher Thursday but off its daily highs, propelled by an early rally in soybeans and a weak loonie. Solid weekly U.S. export sales and no indication of cancelled orders ignited soybeans in the early going and canola tagged along. But late in the session soybean gave back ground on profit taking and on […] Read more
Hogs jump almost 3 percent on Russia resuming imports; Live cattle down on profit taking
By Theopolis Waters CHICAGO, Feb 27 (Reuters) – The lead Chicago Mercantile Exchange hogs contract surged nearly three percent on Thursday, sparked by news of the pending return of U.S. pork exports to Russia, traders said. Russia plans to resume pork imports from the United States around March 10, Russia’s veterinary and phytosanitary service said […] Read more
Russia to resume U.S. pork imports
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia plans to resume pork imports from the United States around March 10, Russia’s veterinary and phytosanitary service said on Thursday. Russia banned most meat imports from the United States early last year due to concerns over the use of the feed additive ractopamine. “It’s an approximate date,” VPSS spokesman Alexei Alekseenko […] Read more
Global wheat, corn crops may fall in 2014-15: IGC
LONDON (Reuters) — Global wheat and corn crops may decline slightly in 2014-15 as yields fall to more normal levels, the International Grains Council said on Thursday. “Output (of wheat) could decline by two percent year-on-year as yields are unlikely to be as high as the exceptional levels the previous year,” the IGC said in […] Read more
China to focus on family farms in drive to commercialise
BEIJING, Feb 27 (Reuters) – China aims to set up more large-scale family farms as it tries to commercialise a vast agriculture sector battling inefficiency and a dwindling workforce, the government said on Thursday. China’s last big rural reform in the early 1980s gave households the right to lease collectively-owned land, but the minimal returns […] Read more
Soy oil bulls should rein in price expectations: Column
By Gavin Maguire: The author is a Reuters market analyst. The opinions expressed are his own. CHICAGO Feb 27 – Recent strength in palm oil prices due to production and export concerns in Malaysia and Indonesia have lent other edible oils support lately, and sparked widespread chatter that the entire edible oil arena may now […] Read more
DuPont Pioneer launches “Encirca” farm data services platform
Feb 27 (Reuters) – DuPont Pioneer, the agricultural seed unit of DuPont, said on Thursday it was launching a suite of “whole-farm decision” services aimed at boosting crop productivity, a line of business many in the agricultural sector are racing to offer. The platform of data and technology services, to be called “Encirca,” will have […] Read more
New threat to Brazil’s breadbasket: a pesky caterpillar
SAO DESIDERIO, Brazil, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Brazilian farmers are battling a voracious caterpillar that likely arrived from Asia, challenging the agricultural superpower’s widely touted mastery of tropical farming just as it is on the verge of becoming the world’s top soybean producer. The caterpillar, a variety known as helicoverpa armigera that thrives in dry […] Read more
Maple Leaf Foods posts loss on production revamp costs
(Reuters) — Canadian food processor Maple Leaf Foods Inc., which has been replacing production facilities and setting up a new distribution system, reported a quarterly loss that it blamed on the “tremendous” costs of the restructuring. Maple Leaf’s multi-year program to revamp meat operations to boost profits and better compete with U.S. rivals such as […] Read more
