Market analyst expects La Nina will cut Argentina’s corn crop, while weather expert downplays the system
A well-know weather expert disagrees with analysts who are reducing South America’s production prospects due to a looming La Nina event. Reuters reports that one of its own analysts has decreased his estimate for Argentina’s potential corn harvest by more than eight million tonnes. That is because forecasters at the United States National Oceanic and […] Read more
Sean Pratt
Stories by Sean Pratt
Dannon switches to non-GM
A food manufacturer’s pledge to make yogurt with non-genetically modified ingredients has raised the ire of U.S. farm groups and the eyebrows of a Canadian grain industry executive. Dannon is transforming its Danimals, Oikos and Dannon brands of yogurt to contain no GM ingredients. Those three brands account for half of the company’s sales. Cows […] Read more
Beware the ‘mini-blob’ and brace for the cold
Winter will come in like a lamb and go out like a lion, according to AccuWeather. December is expected to be warmer and windier than normal because of several Pacific systems from British Columbia sweeping across the region with strong jet streams. “As we get into January and February, we think the pattern is going […] Read more
Prairie pulse processor wins entrepreuneurial award
A Saskatchewan grain company executive has won Ernst & Young’s Prairie Entrepreneur of the Year award. Murad Al-Katib, president of AGT Food and Ingredients, will now compete against the winners in the Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic and Pacific regions for the national title in Toronto Nov. 22. The national winner will then compete against more than […] Read more
Farmers wrestle with carbon tax fallout
Farm groups say they need more breaks than just farm fuel exemptions in looming carbon tax legislation. In Western Canada, British Columbia and Alberta already have carbon tax laws in place. B.C. has had a tax since 2008. It amounts to $30 per tonne. In 2014, the province exempted farm gas and diesel from the […] Read more
Flax rescued from the field will dictate market prices
Price direction in the flax market will depend on how many more acres farmers can combine this fall, says a market analyst. Half of Saskatchewan’s flax crop was still standing in the field as of Oct. 10, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture. The 10-year average is to have 73 percent of the crop in the bin […] Read more
Pea processing facility planned for Moose Jaw
A German company plans to build a $100 million green pea processing plant in Moose Jaw, Sask. Canadian Protein Innovation has a conditional offer to buy 100 acres of land in the southeastern corner of the city and intends to begin construction in the summer of 2017. “It’s a facility that will process green peas […] Read more
Commission’s lentil reports irk processor
A major lentil processor is fed up with what it says are misleading lentil quality reports produced by the Canadian Grain Commission. “They are nowhere near representative of what is actually going on in the countryside,” said Greg Simpson, president of Simpson Seeds, a processor headquartered in Moose Jaw, Sask. The commission published a report […] Read more
Fabas may not be worth hill of beans
Fababean growers should not expect to sell much of their crop into export markets this year, say analysts. Egypt is by far the largest importer of the crop. Buyers in that country are having a difficult time getting letters of credit due to Egypt’s economic woes, said Marlene Boersch, managing partner with Mercantile Consulting Venture. […] Read more
Biofuel mandates don’t make sense: economists
The industry calls the Ecofiscal Commission’s report on the cost of biofuel support ‘skewed, flawed and unacceptable’
Canada’s biofuel industry is outraged by a report calling for an end to government subsidies and mandates for the sector. Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, a group of independent economists promoting fiscal policy reform, said the country is on the verge of a significant shift in climate policy and it is time to examine older policies to […] Read more
