Moscow | Reuters — Russia’s agriculture ministry has proposed that the government reduce or cancel its wheat export tax due to rouble volatility and a decline in global wheat benchmarks, the Interfax news agency reported, citing first deputy minister Evgenii Gromyko. The rouble has lost about six per cent against the U.S. dollar since the […] Read more
Russian ministry proposes reducing wheat export tax
Saskatchewan farmland off limits for pension plans next month
Reuters/Staff — New rules for buying farmland in Saskatchewan, Canada’s biggest wheat- and canola-growing province, will take effect Jan. 4, and toughen its ban on pension plans investing, the provincial government said Monday. The changes make more explicit an existing ban on pension plans and trusts from buying land and continue to limit purchases of […] Read more
Mexico halts bid for COOL retaliation
Mexico City | Reuters — Mexico has halted a bid to impose retaliatory trade measures on the U.S. over meat labeling rules after U.S. lawmakers repealed them this week, a Mexican government official said. Mexico had announced earlier this month it would start internal procedures to strip benefits from some U.S. agricultural and industrial imports, […] Read more
ChemChina to sweeten bid for Syngenta to $44B
Reuters — State-owned China National Chemical Corp. has raised its offer to buy Syngenta by about $2 billion, to US$44 billion, proposing a two-stage takeover of the agrochemical company, Bloomberg reported, citing sources. ChemChina has offered 470 Swiss francs (C$661) per share to buy 70 per cent of Syngenta with an option to acquire the […] Read more
Louis Dreyfus said seeking buyers for juice, fertilizer units
Reuters — Louis Dreyfus Commodities is seeking buyers for its orange juice and fertilizer units as the global merchant focuses on higher-margin activities, sources said, the latest firm to take steps to weather weak commodity markets. The company had been actively marketing the orange juice and fertilizer businesses for some months, having appointed banks to […] Read more
Canada not yet pulling trade trigger on COOL
Canada remains “cautiously optimistic” that the U.S. government will repeal its country-of-origin labelling (COOL) law before the Canadian and Mexican governments impose retaliatory tariffs. Federal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, speaking Wednesday from Nairobi on a conference call with reporters, said she was “not going to go into hypotheticals” about Canada’s next move if an omnibus […] Read more
Norfolk Southern rejects CP’s revised offer
Reuters — U.S. railroad operator Norfolk Southern has formally rejected a revised offer from Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), raising the prospect of a proxy battle. CP shareholder Bill Ackman said last week that CP CEO Hunter Harrison and he have both been sounded out by activists interested in a proxy fight with Norfolk Southern. Ackman […] Read more
French co-op InVivo plans U.S. wine deal, more food shops
Paris | Reuters –– French agricultural group InVivo is looking to acquire a wine distributor in the U.S. and could open up to 200 food shops in its home market as part of plans to double in size within a decade, InVivo’s CEO said on Tuesday. InVivo entered the wine sector this year through the […] Read more
Russia aiming for steady grain crop in 2016
Moscow | Reuters –– Russia, one of the world’s largest wheat exporters, is aiming for an unchanged grain harvest in 2016 compared with the current year, the agriculture ministry said Tuesday. If the weather remains favourable during the winter and spring, Russia, a major wheat supplier to Turkey, Egypt and Iran, will harvest a large […] Read more
USDA sees farmers boosting corn, cutting soy acreage
Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Agriculture Department on Friday forecast that U.S. farmers will raise corn plantings and cut back on soybean acreage in the 2016-17 marketing year. USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist estimated that farmers would seed 90.5 million acres of corn during the spring, 2.1 million more than they did in 2015-16. […] Read more
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