Photo: Thinkstock

China accounting for bulk of Canadian canola exports so far

Chinese wheat imports roughly half of last years' at same time

China has done most of the heavy lifting when it comes to Canadian canola exports through the first three months of the 2023/24 marketing year (Aug/Jul), according to the latest international trade data released Dec. 6. Statistics Canada reported canola exports through October at 1.566 million tonnes, with China accounting for 64 per cent of the total (1.006 million tonnes). Japan and Mexico followed at 273,300 tonnes and 196,900 tonnes respectively.

(MiCanalDePanama.com)

Baltic Dry Index at 18-month high

Restrictions at the Panama Canal and congestion at Brazilian ports behind rate hike

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI), a major indicator of bulk shipping rates, has climbed sharply higher over the past few weeks to hit its highest level in 18 months.


(Photo: Dave Bedard/File)

Canada’s Indo-Pacific ag office takes step forward

The joint CFIA-AAFC venture is part of a plan to diversify exports to the Indo-Pacific region

The federal government took another step yesterday toward establishing its Indo-Pacific Agriculture and Agri-Food Office (IPAAO) in Manila, Philippines, with the appointment of its first executive director. Federal ag minister Lawrence MacAulay announced that Diedrah Kelly had been appointed to the post. Kelly is a long-time representative of Global Affairs Canada and recently was Canada’s […] Read more



Photo: Reuters/Ben Nelms/File

IGC raises world crop projections

If realized, the world wheat crop will the second largest on record

Projected worldwide wheat, corn and soybean production in 2023/24 was raised by the International Grains Council in its latest update, with better-than-expected corn yields in the United States and larger Black Sea wheat crops behind the adjustment.

(Omersukrugoksu/iStock/Getty Images)

Russia strikes Ukraine’s Danube port, sending global grain prices higher

Port hit on Danube opposite NATO-member Romania; Kyiv says aim is to intimidate shippers considering return

Kyiv | Reuters – Russia attacked Ukraine’s main inland port across the Danube River from Romania on Wednesday, sending global food prices higher as it ramps up its use of force to prevent Ukraine from exporting grain. The attacks destroyed buildings in the port of Izmail and halted ships in their tracks as they prepared […] Read more


Commercial vessels  –including vessels which are part of the Black Sea grain deal — wait to pass the Bosphorus strait off the shores of Yenikapi during a misty morning in Istanbul, Turkey on Oct. 31, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Umit Bektas)

Russia could be ready for Black Sea grain deal talks, but no evidence yet: US

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. said Russia has to return to Black Sea deal to market fertilizer, make agriculture transactions

United Nations | Reuters – The United States has been told that Russia is prepared to return to talks on a deal that had allowed the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, but “we haven’t seen any evidence of that yet,” the U.S. envoy to the United Nations said on Tuesday. Russia quit the […] Read more

Photo: File/Allan Dawson

EU looks to cover transport costs for Ukraine grain exports by land

About 60 per cent of Ukraine's exports were shipped via solidarity lanes when the Black Sea deal was in operation

Brussels | Reuters – The European Union is ready to export almost all of Ukraine’s farm produce via “solidarity lanes” and help cover costs after Russia withdrew from a U.N.-backed Black Sea grain deal,  EU agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said on Tuesday. Solidarity lanes are rail and road transport connections through EU member states that […] Read more