Motherland Monument, Kiev. (CIA.gov)

Packers approved to move beef, pork to Ukraine

Inspectors have approved 15 Canadian beef and pork processing plants to export to Ukraine, more than doubling the number of Canadian meat plants able to ship to the country. Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday announced Ukraine has, essentially, approved beef and pork exports from any Canadian federally-registered establishment […] Read more


Drought to shrivel Ukrainian wheat harvest in 2016

Kiev — Severe drought across half of Ukraine has hit winter sowing and could sharply reduce the country’s 2016 wheat harvest, a senior state weather forecaster said on Monday. The drought, in which the central Dnipropetrovsk region suffered its driest autumn in 50 years, could lead to a 20 per cent year-on-year fall in the wheat […] Read more

Russian harvesting technology has advanced beyond that illustrated in this Soviet-era poster.

Black Sea in it for the long haul

The Former Soviet Union, once Canada's largest wheat customer, is now its largest competitor

Black Sea wheat exports are projected at an all-time high this year, and there is good reason to have confidence in this forecast. During the 2015/16 marketing year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the states of the former Soviet Union excluding Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia (FSU-12) will export a record 45 million […] Read more


Eating shashlik in Ukraine

Eating shashlik in Ukraine

Imagine if you had to solve a word puzzle before you could eat. But the puzzle is in a different language and a strange alphabet. That was the challenge of ordering dinner in Izmail, Ukraine, a small historic city on the Danube River near the border of Moldova. My husband and I had just arrived […] Read more



(Dave Bedard photo)

Cargill posts Q4 loss on one-time charges, revenue down

Reuters — Cargill Inc. on Thursday became the latest large agribusiness to report disappointing quarterly results as one-time charges and slowing economies in key emerging markets stung the privately held global commodities trader. Minnesota-based Cargill said it lost a net $51 million in the fiscal fourth quarter ended May 31, compared with a profit of […] Read more



Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper meet at Meech Lake’s Willson House at Chelsea, Que. on Tuesday. (Deb Ransom photo courtesy PMO)

Talks wrap on Canada/Ukraine free trade pact

Canada’s crop and livestock producers expect to benefit soon from a free trade agreement with Ukraine, on which the two countries’ governments have now formally completed talks. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Tuesday, during a visit from Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, that trade negotiations between the two countries wrapped up in Kiev on July 9, and […] Read more

Russia, Ukraine may cut grain crop forecasts as temperatures rise

Moscow/Kiev | Reuters — Major Black Sea wheat exporters Russia and Ukraine may cut their official 2015 grain crop forecasts as recent hot weather has raised the risks to plants and rains elsewhere have delayed the harvest and dented quality, farmers and officials said. Russia and Ukraine’s agriculture ministries have said if hot weather persists […] Read more