The agricultural index in Scotiabank’s Commodity Price Index jumped 6.7 per cent month-over-month during September, helping pull the commodity index out of a three-month decline. Patricia Mohr, the company’s vice-president of economics and commodity market specialist, wrote in a research report Wednesday that agriculture and energy helped the overall index — which gauges commodities’ performance […] Read more
Grains boost Scotiabank commodity index
Breeders send biggest post-BSE export boatload
A boatload of 2,217 Canadian purebred Angus, Holstein and Hereford cattle left for Russia Tuesday as part of Canada’s biggest export of breeding stock since the discovery of BSE in Alberta in 2003. The cattle were shipped from Quebec’s Port de Becancour en route to Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, where they will be fanned […] Read more
Input sought on Jordan FTA
With eyes on a possible free trade deal, the federal government wants to hear from Canadians on their views and experiences dealing with the kingdom of Jordan. A call for consultations, issued Monday, stems from talks in July between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, where the two countries agreed to study […] Read more
Ont. chicken farmers name new GM
Bill Laidlaw has been named the new general manager for the Chicken Farmers of Ontario. Laidlaw has worked in not-for-profit and association management since 2000, most recently as executive director of The Biotechnology Initiative and the Canadian Biotechnology Education Resource Centre. He also previously worked as the CEO for St. John Ambulance in Ontario and […] Read more
Grain researchers owe CPR $871K: CTA ruling
The Western Grains Research Foundation is being asked to hand over $870,783 in funding it collected from Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) for the 2005-06 crop year. The foundation said in a release Monday that CPR has successfully appealed the Canadian Transportation Agency’s decision on how much the railway owed to the foundation in excess grain […] Read more
Grain helps hold up CN’s Q3 ledger
Rising revenue from grain and fertilizer, among other sectors, helped offset Canadian National’s (CN) substantial drop in forest products revenue in its third fiscal quarter, the company reported Monday. CN posted net income of $485 million, down two per cent from the year-earlier quarter ending Sept. 30, on “essentially flat” Q3 revenue of $2.02 billion, […] Read more
Atlantic Beef may get bailout: CBC
The cash-losing Atlantic Beef Products plant on Prince Edward Island may get up to $11 million in federal and provincial funds to keep running, according to a CBC News report Friday. The report said an actual deal may be two weeks away but quoted unnamed sources as saying the federal government’s Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency […] Read more
Toepfer manager named Viterra VP
A senior manager from international ag commodities trader Toepfer International is Viterra’s new senior vice-president for international grain. Donald Chapman, who since 1996 had managed Toepfer’s commercial activity and risk management at its Asian regional head office in Singapore, will work out of Viterra’s Calgary office. Chapman has been in the grain industry since 1986, […] Read more
Broken hoist idles Sask. potash mine
A broken hoist at Mosaic Co.’s K2 potash mine at Esterhazy in eastern Saskatchewan will idle the active mine for about two weeks, the company said Monday. “This temporary shutdown may result in a loss of production of approximately 100,000 tonnes of potash,” the Minneapolis company said in a release. However, Mosaic expects to offset […] Read more
Alta. backs biogas project
A project to generate power and heat from livestock waste and improve water remediation in Alberta’s Peace River country will get over $904,000 in provincial government funding. The province announced Friday that Smoky Pork Development Ltd. will get funding through its Bio-refining Commercialization and Market Development program and its Bio-energy Infrastructure Development program, as one […] Read more
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