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
Brazil says key soy road won’t be paved until 2016
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
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
China arrests over 110 people for selling contaminated pork
Shanghai | Reuters — China has arrested more than 110 people suspected of selling pork from pigs that died from disease, and confiscated more than 1,000 tonnes of contaminated pork in its latest crackdown on food safety violations. The ministry of public security said Sunday the people were part of a network made up of […] Read more
China bans U.S. poultry, eggs imports amid avian flu fears
Chicago | Reuters — China has banned all imports of U.S. poultry, poultry products and eggs amid recent reports of highly pathogenic strains of avian influenza found in the Pacific Northwest, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday. All such products currently en route to the country will either be destroyed or returned, according to […] Read more
Cargill to shutter U.S. turkey plant
Reuters — Agricultural conglomerate Cargill said Friday it will shutter its turkey and cooked meats processing plant in Springfield, Mo., and move the operations to Nebraska City, Nebraska, and Waco, Texas. Cargill said it will close its Springfield plant, which employs 118 people, on March 11. The decision came about after Cargill assessed its turkey […] Read more
Egypt says wheat stocks enough to last until early May
Cairo | Reuters — Egypt’s stock of wheat for its subsidized bread program will last until the first week of May, well into the start of the local harvest, after it bought 180,000 tonnes this week, Supplies Minister Khaled Hanafi said Friday. Hanafi said in a statement he expected new silos to come into use […] Read more
Brazil exported 3.3 per cent more beef in 2014, industry says
Sao Paulo | Reuters –– Brazil, the world’s top beef exporter, shipped 1.56 million tonnes of meat abroad in 2014, 3.3 per cent more than it did in 2013, industry association Abiec said on Thursday. Volumes exported were near the 2007 record of 1.62 million tonnes. Beef exports by value were a record US$7.2 billion […] Read more
Korea says cattle found infected with foot-and-mouth
Seoul | Reuters –– South Korea said Tuesday that foot-and-mouth had spread to a cattle farm in the country for the first time in more than three years, a blow to authorities battling to contain an outbreak of the disease. The outbreak was discovered around half a year ago on hog farms, intensifying fears about […] Read more
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