Reuters – World food prices eased for a second month in a row in July, reflecting declines for cereals, vegetable oils and dairy products, but remained up nearly a third over the past year, the United Nations food agency said Aug. 5. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) food price index, which tracks international prices
World food prices fall for second month in July
Prices still remain higher than last year, despite monthly declines
China’s appetite for feed barley sucks in new crop from Canada, France
Tariff on Australian barley favours other suppliers
Paris | Reuters — China’s buying spree of French and Canadian barley is spilling into the 2021-22 crop with large forward purchases, due to its major feed grain needs and a prohibitive tariff on Australian barley, traders and analysts said. China has been sweeping up huge volumes of foreign crops to help feed a pig
InVivo in talks to acquire French agribusiness Soufflet
Firms see limited overlap outside grain trading
Paris | Reuters — Co-operative group InVivo has entered exclusive talks to acquire family-controlled Soufflet in a deal that would create one of Europe’s biggest agricultural businesses with 10 billion euros (C$15.5 billion) in sales, the French firms said on Wednesday. The potential consolidation comes as France, the European Union’s largest agricultural producer, is trying
Barley trade routes redrawn as China tariff hits Australian farmers
China's barley purchases from Canada more than double last year's
Sydney/Paris | Reuters — Out in Australia’s grain fields, farmers have started harvesting one of their biggest-ever barley crops, after drought-relieving rains convinced many to plant to the edges of their paddocks. Yet the tractors are working under the cloud of a new tariff imposed by China — seen widely as retaliation for Australia’s push
Louis Dreyfus to gain first outside investor
Abu Dhabi's ADQ fund to acquire indirect 45 per cent stake
Paris | Reuters — Louis Dreyfus Co. (LDC) has agreed to sell a 45 per cent stake to Abu Dhabi’s ADQ, the companies said on Wednesday, the first outside investment in the family-owned commodity merchant’s 169-year-old history. The deal comes after a search by chairwoman Margarita Louis-Dreyfus for an investor to relieve debt built up
Algeria set to allow Russian wheat imports — French exporters
Algeria is planning to open up its market to imports of Russian wheat, a French exporters’ group said recently, a long-anticipated move that could shake up competition in one of the world’s largest consumers of the grain. The country is changing its import terms to allow the shipment of wheat of Black Sea origin, including
French grain industry in logistics scramble as shoppers bulk buy
Reuters – France’s grain industry is scrambling to find enough trucks and staff to keep factories and ports running as panic buying of pasta and flour because of the coronavirus pandemic coincides with a surge in wheat exports. The French government’s designation of the food sector as a strategic priority has helped pasta manufacturers, flour
Louis Dreyfus expects tough year on trade war, swine fever
Paris | Reuters — Agricultural commodity giant Louis Dreyfus warned on Monday that international trade tensions and a swine disease epidemic would continue to weigh on its activities in the rest of the year after pushing down first-half profit. The interim results reversed a rebound in group profits in the second half of last year
Shut out of China, Canada finds canola buyers in drought-damaged Europe
Winnipeg/Paris | Reuters — Crop-scorching drought in Europe is providing Canadian canola farmers a timely new opportunity to move supplies that have piled up since China stopped buying this year. Rising European sales are taking some of the sting out of losing the Chinese market for Canadian farmers, although ICE canola futures prices are down
Louis Dreyfus top shareholder gets finance to buy out minorities
Paris | Reuters – Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, top shareholder of commodity giant Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), said she had secured financing for a deal that requires her to buy out family minorities, a move that has created uncertainty over the firm’s funding. Minority family shareholders asked in 2015 to sell 16.6 percent of LDC’s holding company
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