The first member of the benzoylacetonitrile group of crop insecticides (Group 25) to come to market in North America will be a mite control for fruit crops. BASF Canada announced Tuesday it has picked up registration for Nealta, a 200-gram-per-litre suspension concentrate of cyflumetofen, billed as a control for all life stages of tetranychid mites […] Read more
New chemistry launched as fruit mite control
Brazil says key soy road won’t be paved until 2016
Brasilia | Reuters –– An important road for soy and corn shipments linking to ports in northern Brazil will not be paved until 2016, the country’s transport minister said on Tuesday. President Dilma Rousseff said last year that the highway, known as BR-163, would be ready by mid-2015 as the government tries to relieve crowded […] Read more
Russia seen adding new informal grain export curbs in 2015
Moscow | Reuters — Russia has strengthened informal curbs on grain exports since the start of the year, further complicating trading before the introduction of an export tax, a Russian grain exporters’ lobby said Tuesday in a letter to officials. Russia, expected to be the world’s fourth-largest exporter this year, hopes export curbs will cool […] Read more
U.S. shippers say West Coast ports near gridlock on stalled contract talks
San Francisco | Reuters — Cargo traffic at several of the biggest U.S. West Coast ports has slowed to near gridlock, negotiators for shipping lines and terminal operators for 29 ports said on Monday as contract talks with the dockworkers’ union remain strained. Union officials however have denied staging slowdowns, saying some of decisions by […] Read more
Canola cash market lagging strength in ICE futures
CNS Canada — ICE Futures Canada canola futures have strengthened recently, but the western Canadian cash market for canola hasn’t followed along. Farmers “keep telling me that the futures go up, but the basis isn’t keeping pace,” said Keith Ferley of RBC Dominion Securities. Some locations, he added, have widened out basis levels so much […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn down most since June
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn tumbled the most since June and soybean futures extended declines to a one-month low on Tuesday as plentiful global stockpiles triggered massive liquidation of long positions by investment funds, traders and analysts said. Chicago Board of Trade March corn fell more than four per cent as commodity funds sold […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME live cattle tumble on more fund liquidation
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle posted heavy losses on Tuesday after funds kept selling February long contracts while simultaneously rolling them into back months, traders said. Funds involved in CME’s livestock markets that follow the Standard + Poor’s Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (S+P GSCI) shifted their February positions in a procedure […] Read more
Chance of full-blown El Nino seen fading
CNS Canada –– Despite frequent predictions that an El Nino weather event would unfold in early 2015, a well known weather expert says it’s growing more and more unlikely we will see one anytime soon. “The latest data suggests a weakening trend and even though we have some of the symptoms of El Nino we’re […] Read more
Food issues won’t block EU-U.S. trade deal, German minister says
Berlin | Reuters — Disagreements about food safety and farming are not likely to stand in the way of a free-trade agreement between the European Union and the U.S., Germany’s farm minister told Reuters on Monday. The two sides are grappling with how to integrate Europe’s food production and farm animal welfare standards into the […] Read more
St. Lawrence floated ‘blowout’ grain volumes in ’14
Having shut its locks for the season on New Year’s Day, the operators of Canada’s St. Lawrence Seaway system report moving a “blowout volume” of grain during the 280-day 2014 shipping year. The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. (SLSMC) on Monday reported having moved a total cargo volume of 40 million tonnes during the season, […] Read more