Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA’s logo on a tower in Jundiai, northwest of Sao Paulo in southeastern Brazil, on June 1, 2017. (File photo: Reuters/Paulo Whitaker)

Beef consumption to rise in China, JBS predicts

China seen as more competitive in domestic chicken, pork markets

Sao Paulo | Reuters — Demand for beef in China is expected to rise as the country still has relatively low per capita consumption, Gilberto Tomazoni, chief executive of JBS SA, said on Wednesday during a business conference. He said Brazil and the U.S., where JBS has meat facilities, are well positioned to meet China’s

Editor’s Take: Coming together

Editor’s Take: Coming together

It’s been an interesting few years. Since March of 2020, it seems in some ways like decades have passed. Perhaps that’s the way it goes when you’re forced to spend too much time alone at home, in your own company. But every now and then a milestone passes, and I realize the whole experience of


NYMEX March 2023 West Texas Intermediate crude oil (candlesticks) with 100-day moving average (black line) and ICE March 2023 Brent crude oil (blue open/high/low/close). (Barchart)

China driving crude oil price increases

Bulls on crude oil expect a 'very shallow' recession

MarketsFarm — China has largely been behind the current upticks in global crude oil prices, according to Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for Oil Price Information Services in Lakewood, NJ. He suggested that China’s economy will begin to pick up steam in 2023 after the government loosened its super-tight COVID-19 restrictions. “You can

Piglets at a hog operation in China. (KuLouKu/iStock/Getty Images)

China’s 2022 pork output highest in eight years

Average hog weights remain relatively high

Reuters — China’s pork output increased 4.6 per cent in 2022 from 2021 to reach its highest level since 2014, official data showed on Tuesday, confounding some expectations for a smaller rise. Pork output in the world’s top producer of the meat reached 55.41 million tonnes, the highest since 56.71 million tonnes recorded eight years



Undated image of a participant at the fall ag fair at Rocklyn, Ont., about 40 km southeast of Owen Sound. (Ontario Visited video screengrab via YouTube)

Ontario trims minimum memberships for ag, hort societies

Eligibility thresholds for provincial operating grants lowered

Rules taking effect with the new year are expected to make it easier for Ontario agricultural and horticultural societies to qualify for provincial grants in the face of a membership crunch. The province on Friday confirmed amendments to regulation 16, attached to its Agricultural and Horticultural Organizations Act, kick in effective Sunday (Jan. 1, 2023).



Tyson Foods ends COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees

Tyson Foods ends COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees

Reuters – Tyson Foods has confirmed it eliminated a requirement that employees receive COVID-19 vaccinations, a step the company said improved meatpacking operations after plants closed in 2020 due to outbreaks among workers. The biggest U.S. meat company by sales lifted the mandate on Oct. 31, one year after imposing it, according to a report


(Canyonos/iStock/Getty Images)

Olymel to exit lard business, shut plant

Packer's St. Hyacinthe facility to permanently close

Pork and poultry packer Olymel is set to close the further processing plant it operates in its home town in Quebec as it exits the lard production business. The company, an arm of ag co-operative Sollio, announced Thursday it will close its St. Jacques Street plant at St. Hyacinthe, Que. effective Feb. 10, affecting 107

Andre Fortin, shown here at right in September at a community fair at Shawville, Que., about 75 km northwest of Ottawa, is the Quebec Liberals’ new critic for agriculture and health. (Andre Fortin via Facebook)

Quebec Liberals’ new ag critic to also handle health file

Fortin to also handle regional development, forestry

A quick re-shuffling of shadow cabinet responsibilities will see the agriculture critic for Quebec’s provincial opposition Liberals now also handle the health file. The Liberals’ interim leader Marc Tanguay — who took over after the Nov. 7 resignation of Dominique Anglade following the Oct. 3 general election — announced Tuesday that Andre Fortin, the party’s