Chablis, France | Reuters – French winemakers have lit candles and burned bales of straw to try to protect their vineyards from sharp spring frosts, with the forecast of more cold nights this week raising fears of serious damage and lost production. Temperatures plunged as low as -5 C overnight in wine regions including Chablis,
French winemakers set candles, straw ablaze to ward off frost
Spring cold snaps are coming earlier, therefore colder
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
France to help farmers to abandon glyphosate weedkiller
Paris | Reuters – France will give financial aid to farmers who agree to halt use of glyphosate, the farm ministry said on Monday after President Macron said he had failed with efforts to ban use of the weedkiller by 2021. Glyphosate, first developed by Bayer’s Monsanto under the Roundup brand, has generated intense global
Fast-spreading bird flu puts EU poultry industry on edge
Reuters – A highly contagious and deadly form of avian influenza is spreading rapidly in Europe, putting the poultry industry on alert with previous outbreaks in mind that saw tens of millions of birds culled and significant economic losses. The disease, commonly called bird flu, has been found in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Belgium,
Plant-based protein maker Roquette sees short-term COVID-19 impact
Demand could accelerate second Canadian plant
Paris | Reuters — The plant-based protein market has seen a slowdown in new product launches and lower sales in restaurants and cafeterias due to COVID-19 but benefited from more people cooking at home and trying new products, French manufacturer Roquette said. The market for plant-based protein such as meat-free burgers has surged in the
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
EU wheat crop shows mixed results as harvest progresses
Reuters – This year’s soft wheat harvest in the European Union is expected to be sharply lower than last year due to adverse weather. “Wheat crops in large exporting countries at the two extremes of the bloc, northwest and southeast, have suffered a lot due to bad weather conditions this year,” Vincent Braak, analyst with
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
China’s pork output to fall by at least 20 percent in 2019: FAO
Paris | Reuters – African swine fever (ASF) will cut pork output in China, the world’s largest producer, by at least 20 percent in 2019, the United Nations’ food agency said on Thursday, doubling the decline it had expected six months ago. The disease has slashed China’s hog herd since August 2018, pushing Chinese pork
No country immune to risk of African swine fever spreading: OIE
Paris | Reuters – African swine fever will spread further across Asia where it has devastated herds, and no country is immune from being hit by the deadly animal virus, the head of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Wednesday. The disease, which has hit the world’s top pork producer China hard,
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