FNA announces MarketPower Assurance program

Farmers selling to the feedlot down the road or to a noodle maker in Japan can now insure their sale against default through the new MarketPower Assurance program offered by the Farmers of North America (FNA) and its partners Atradius Credit Insurance, Export Development Canada, and Pangaea Global Risk Management. “It is literally the first

Viterra shareholders back Glencore

Reuters / Shareholders of Canada’s largest grain handler, Viterra Inc., voted overwhelmingly May 29 in favour of a friendly takeover bid by Swiss commodities trader Glencore International Plc., pushing the biggest deal in years for the global agricultural sector closer to reality. The deal was supported by 99.8 per cent of shareholders, far more than


ICE set to introduce five new U.S. grain and oilseed contracts

Reuters / ICE Futures US intends to begin offering five new U.S. grain and oilseed contracts, pending review by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The contracts include U.S. corn, wheat, soybeans, soybean meal and soybean oil, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) announced. Futures contracts are slated to be available on May 14, with options available May 15. “These contracts

Letters, April 12, 2012

Government should help fund transition Regarding the article, “Time to start thinking about group housing” (March 22, 2012), Bernie Peet is right to alert pork producers to the reality that gestation crates are on the way out. While transitioning to new housing systems, this is an opportune time for producers to improve housing conditions for


Foreign traders vying for piece of North American grain-handling sector

The urgency to operate in the United States or Canada has grown because of increasing global demand for crops

For decades, the world’s leading grain traders like Cargill and Bunge enjoyed an unparalleled advantage: their smaller North American competitors lacked the flexibility and diversity of a global operation, and their foreign rivals lacked access to the biggest and most stable exporters in the world. That’s about to change. Large U.S. and Canadian grain companies

Who is Glencore International?

Who is Glencore International? A lot of people are asking as the giant, Swiss-based, publicly traded multinational firm prepares to buy Viterra and become a dominant player in Canada’s grain industry. Glencore describes itself as the world’s largest commodity trader — mostly in metals and minerals, but also crops. It employs more than 2,800 people


U.S. food sales to Cuba fall

U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba declined six per cent last year on top of a 31 per cent decline in 2010 as the Communist-led island’s financial woes continued and it turned elsewhere to buy food, a trade group said Feb. 22. Cuba, which imports most of its food, gets chicken, corn, soy, wheat, pork and

Cuba reports food output up 8.7 per cent in 2011

Cuba’s non-sugar agricultural production increased 8.7 per cent in 2011, the government said this week, an indication reforms aimed at reversing a farm crisis and cutting food imports may be kicking in. Produce output was up 11.5 per cent and livestock and related products six per cent, according to the report issued by the National


China Tops Canada As Top U.S. Farm Export Market

brief washington /reuters China, the world s largest importer of cotton and soybeans, has topped Canada to become the No. 1 market for U.S. farm exports for the first time, the Agriculture Department said Nov. 10. U.S. exporters sold $20 billion in agricultural products to China during the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30,

More Transparency Needed From China

geneva/reuters China must make its farm sector more transparent and fairer to foreign competition, the United States told the World Trade Organization s agriculture committee Sept. 29, as it reviewed China s first decade in the world trade body. Despite years of U.S. complaints, China still charged 13 per cent value-added tax on imported wheat,