SINGAPORE, MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s ambition to grab a slice of Asia’s lucrative wheat business will likely take longer than the planned two or three years. Transport hurdles and consumer reluctance to adapt to new supplies are expected to slow Moscow’s campaign. Growing production and bulging stockpiles have sent Russia to the biggest wheat importers […] Read more
News
Soggy fields delay seeding in corn belt
More hog producers bow out
Another 93 pig producers have thrown in the towel, at least temporarily, on the Canadian pork industry. Preliminary results of the fourth and final tender in the Hog Farm Transition Program (HFTP) were released last week by the Canadian Pork Council. The results show that 93 hog producers are eligible to receive a total of […] Read more
EU feed shortage caused by GM rule
The European feed industry insists that trade disruptions will continue as long as the European Union maintains its strict zero-tolerance policy for imports of unapproved genetically modified crops. Klaus-Dieter Schumacher, head of economics with the Hamburg-based grain trading company Toepfer International, told Reuters News Service last week that a solution to European trade disruptions is […] Read more
No durum heading to Algeria
ALGIERS, Algeria (Reuters) – Algeria has stopped importing durum because it has enough stocks to satisfy domestic needs “for a good period,” says a senior agriculture ministry official. Algeria is often the leading importer of Canadian durum. Amar Assabah, head of the ministry’s production department, also said Algeria was on track for a good grain […] Read more
Survival, not yield main focus of new varieties
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Canola has just begun to see its most important yield gains. But don’t expect to see best-ever yields rise dramatically, canola agronomy experts said at the Canola Council of Canada convention in San Francisco last week. The gains will be for crops that would normally fail but can now yield adequately […] Read more
SARM names new directors
Cal Jorstad of the Rural Municipality of Moose Jaw was elected to the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities board last week. He is the new director for Division 2, replacing Ray Orb of Cupar, who is the new vice-president. The moves came about after vice-president Jim Hallick from the RM of Keys retired after 17 […] Read more
Agrium targets retail expansion, joint ventures
TORONTO/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Fertilizer maker Agrium Inc. may have failed to clinch a deal to acquire U.S. rival CF Industries, but it continues to look to expand its North American retail business, chief executive officer Michael Wilson said. “We have a mapping of North America and we just look at where we are not and […] Read more
Saskatchewan loses $11 million in Big Sky, Stomp Pork Farms
Saskatchewan residents who opposed a provincial government investment in the hog industry have another 11 million reasons to cry foul. According to court documents, Big Sky Farms Inc. and Stomp Pork Farms, the province’s two largest pork producers, owed the provincial government, government agencies and provincially owned utility companies $11 million when they sought creditor […] Read more
U.S. plan to ease wheat sales to Cuba could face opposition
A U.S. bill designed to free up agricultural trade to Cuba shouldn’t hurt Canadian wheat sales to that country. Legislation introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives in February would remove a number of regulatory restrictions on trade, financing and travel between the United States and its island neighbour. U.S. wheat groups say the bill […] Read more
Sask. farmers lend helping hand in Haiti
D’ARCY, Sask. – Ken and Denise Wallis couldn’t stay away when they heard about the earthquake that devastated Haiti earlier this year. The grain farmers from D’Arcy, Sask., arrived Jan. 24, almost two weeks after the earthquake killed more than 250,000 people and left hundreds of thousands more injured and homeless. They found collapsed buildings […] Read more
