Canadian food processor Maple Leaf Foods reported a disappointing quarterly loss on Wednesday, hurt by weak returns on raising pigs. Shares fell 3.6 per cent or 55 cents to $14.95 in early trading in Toronto. North American hog farmers have been hard-pressed to survive losses in the past year, due to at-times soaring costs of […] Read more
Maple Leaf Foods posts zero earnings for second quarter
Potash Corp profit misses, outlook weakens as prices slide
Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, the world’s biggest fertilizer producer, reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday and cut its outlook as prices of its crop nutrients fell. Potash’s U.S.-listed shares dropped 4.5 per cent to $36.24 in trading before the market opened. Producers of crop nutrients potash and phosphate have struggled to stop a slide […] Read more
ICE Futures Canada weighs pre-arranged block trades
ICE Futures Canada, known mainly for its canola futures and options, is considering whether to allow pre-arranged trades of large blocks of contracts, a practice already common in some other commodity markets. Allowing such trades could add to liquidity, with the open interest in ICE’s canola futures currently at a three-year low, but some traders […] Read more
Monsanto to spend $100M on Prairie corn over 10 years
Seed developer Monsanto said on Monday it will spend $100 million over the next 10 years on breeding corn for Western Canada — a move it said might change the crop makeup in a fertile region that produces big harvests of spring wheat and canola. Monsanto said it would focus on producing corn that matures […] Read more
Agrium suspends nitrogen projects as rivals race to build
Canadian fertilizer company Agrium stepped back from two projects that would have expanded its capacity to make nitrogen-based fertilizer, partly because numerous competitors are pursuing similar plans. Agrium, the world’s third-largest nitrogen producer, said on Monday that it would suspend engineering work on a proposed $3 billion plant in the U.S. Midwest. Instead, it will […] Read more
Uralkali to delay potash boost if Billiton proceeds in Sask.
Russia’s Uralkali OAO would delay two of its potash mine expansion projects for as long as a decade if rival BHP Billiton builds the world’s biggest mine of the crop nutrient, Uralkali’s chief executive said in an interview. Uralkali is aiming to become the largest global producer of potash by 2021, leapfrogging Canada’s PotashCorp in […] Read more
Canada prepares to target U.S. goods in COOL spat
Canada will put forward a list of U.S. products it wants to target in retaliation for U.S. country-of-origin meat labels if last-minute changes to U.S. label regulations don’t prove satisfactory, Canadian officials said on Friday. The dispute stems from a 2009 U.S. requirement that retail outlets put the country of origin on labels on meat […] Read more
Agrium gives weaker-than-expected outlook, Q1 profit slips
Canadian fertilizer and ag retail firm Agrium reported lower quarterly profit on Thursday, as cold, wet spring weather delayed plantings in the U.S., and forecast weaker-than-expected earnings for its current quarter. U.S. plantings of corn, a fertilizer-intensive crop, were just 12 per cent complete as of Sunday, the slowest pace since 1984, the U.S. Department […] Read more
PotashCorp drops bid for ICL
PotashCorp, one of the world’s largest potash producers, said Thursday it was abandoning efforts to take over Israel Chemicals Ltd. because of strong opposition in Israel. PotashCorp, which currently holds a 14 per cent stake in ICL, revealed its decision the same day it reported a stronger-than-expected 13 per cent rise in profit after renewed […] Read more
Canada wins added canola access in China
China has softened its three-year-old import restrictions on Canadian canola, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said on Tuesday. China has approved one additional oilseed crushing plant, the 600,000-tonne CNOOC-Biolux plant in Nantong, Jiangsu province, to accept shipments of Canadian canola seed, a crop used to produce vegetable oil and animal feed. China continues to restrict […] Read more
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