Ottawa | Reuters — Canada is looking at ways to boost the effectiveness of its retaliatory tariffs against the United States, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday, but did not address remarks by a senior official who revealed what Ottawa might do. Canada imposed tariffs on $16.6 billion worth of U.S. exports in May […] Read more
Canada looks at fresh tariffs on U.S. goods
Zimbabwe to start paying white farmers compensation after April
Harare | Reuters — Zimbabwe is to start paying compensation this year to thousands of white farmers who lost land under former president Robert Mugabe’s land reform nearly two decades ago, the government said, as it seeks to bring closure to a highly divisive issue. Two decades ago Mugabe’s government carried out at times violent […] Read more
French rapeseed farmers destroy 18,000 hectares over GMO risk
Paris | Reuters — French farmers destroyed a total of 18,000 hectares of rapeseed, more than double the area initially expected, following the discovery of a non-authorized genetically modified organism (GMO) in seeds, German group Bayer said on Friday. Bayer had announced in February that farmers in France and Germany were turning over thousands of […] Read more
China has not escalated canola seed dispute with Canada, Ottawa says
Ottawa | Reuters — China has not escalated a dispute with Canada over the export of canola seeds and comments by the Canadian farm minister on the matter have been misunderstood, an agriculture ministry official said on Wednesday. China — embroiled in a major diplomatic dispute with Ottawa — has blocked imports from two major […] Read more
DowDuPont completes spinoff of materials science unit
Reuters — DowDuPont said Monday it had completed the spinoff of its materials science division as part of a plan to split the chemical producer into three separate units. Shares of the new division, Dow, will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. Dow and Dupont completed a US$130 billion merger in […] Read more
ICE: Canola weakens on fresh China concerns
Chicago | Reuters — ICE Canada canola futures dropped on Tuesday after China, the top buyer, expanded its ban on Canadian canola seed imports. China’s ban now includes shipments from Viterra, the latest development in a wider trade dispute between the two countries. May canola futures ended $5 lower at $451.70 per tonne. The contract […] Read more
Grain trade regional tie-ups seen more likely over mega-deals
Paris | Reuters — The agricultural trading industry can expect more consolidation at a regional level in an effort to improve margins, but big deals between global merchants are becoming more difficult, Louis Dreyfus’ CEO said. Merchants have been grappling with lower profits from sourcing and shipping commodities such as grain and oilseeds, prompting cutbacks […] Read more
ADM says U.S. floods to cut into Q1 operating profit
Chicago | Reuters — Flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest will reduce Archer Daniels Midland’s first-quarter operating profit by US$50 million to $60 million, the U.S. grains trader said on Monday. Record floods have devastated a wide swath of the farm belt across Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and several other states. The […] Read more
U.S. seizes pork from China on swine fever concerns
Washington | Reuters — U.S. border agents have seized around one million pounds of pork from China, a spokesman for the agency said on Friday, over suspicions that it might contain African swine flu disease which has hit Chinese pork output. Federal agents have seized the supplies over the past week in New York. “The […] Read more
Colombian president defends use of glyphosate on coca crops
Bogota | Reuters — A judicial ban on aerial spraying of glyphosate herbicide to eliminate coca crops should be modified, Colombia’s President Ivan Duque said on Thursday, because expansion of the crop since the ban threatens peace efforts. The Andean country suspended aerial fumigation of coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine, with the Monsanto herbicide […] Read more
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