Deforestation in Colombia rose 1.5 per cent in 2021 to 174,103 hectares (430,218 acres), of which 112,899 were in the country’s Amazon.

Preservation of the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is considered vital to curbing catastrophic climate change because of the vast amount of greenhouse gas it absorbs.

“The first challenge is to stop deforestation,” Muhamad said, adding full implementation of a peace deal between the government and the now-demobilized FARC guerrillas will be key.

Deforestation soared after guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia demobilized in 2016 as swathes of forest were suddenly opened to agriculture and criminal gangs who moved into the former rebels’ territory.

The post Colombia to focus on fighting deforestation, tracing cattle: minister appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Major producers such as Colombia’s Clever Leaves and Canada’s Canopy Growth are developing and selling medicinal cannabis products to a Brazilian consumer segment estimated at 10 million to 13 million people. This results from a 2019 regulatory change allowing the import, sale and manufacturing of such products.

But permission for cultivation of hemp and cannabis in Brazil would be a bigger prize. If granted, the industry could blossom in four to five years, based on the experience of other countries such as Colombia.

“By 2025, I would like to be planting hemp in the interior of Pernambuco,” said Jose Bacellar, founder of Canada’s VerdeMed, referring to a northeastern state known for illegal marijuana growing.

A proposal that would legalize cultivation was approved in June by a congressional committee. Lawmakers are weighing if it could be fast-tracked to the Senate for approval. If passed there, President Jair Bolsonaro would have to sign it into law.

While Bolsonaro’s far-right positions may seem an unlikely match for the bill, the proposal has support from some members of the powerful farm sector, a key constituency that helped him win the 2018 election.

‘Silicon Valley of cannabis’

In the quiet town of Viçosa in southeastern Brazil — which some call the Silicon Valley of cannabis — researchers are developing a hemp variety better suited to the tropics.

If the law is changed and research is successful, Brazil could become a top grower of cannabis and hemp, experts said.

Sergio Rocha, director of ag-tech startup Adwa which is developing the hemp strain for Brazil, said about three million square km of land would potentially be suitable for cultivating the new variety.

Brazil could overtake China, the world’s largest hemp producer, which has about 670 square km planted.

“Using a part of Brazil’s agricultural land would be enough to give the country the title of world’s largest producer and exporter of hemp fibers, seeds and flowers for medicinal and industrial purposes,” said Dennys Zsolt, an agronomist specializing in the plant.

Brazil bans growing of Cannabis sativa L, the plant that produces hemp and marijuana. Hemp, which has less than 0.3 per cent of the psychoactive compound THC, contains CBD or cannabidiol. This non-intoxicating ingredient has been touted as beneficial for many health conditions including childhood epilepsy.

Growing the plants in Brazil would lay the foundation for a vertically integrated industry. A stable source of the raw material would support manufacturing of medicinal cannabis products, growth of a retail market and exports. Recreational cannabis would remain illegal.

Gabriela Cezar, chief executive of New York-based Panarea Partners investment banking firm, sees Brazil playing a leading role in hemp in Latin America, a region she calls the “epicentre of world hemp production.”

Panarea plans to form a Brazilian cannabis company focused on pharmaceutical products for pets while seeking to broker more cannabis deals in Brazil.

Tropical advantage

Among Brazil’s advantages are lower growing costs because its warm climate allows plants to grow outdoors compared to greenhouses in some countries. Stable hours of sunlight due to Brazil’s proximity to the equator are another plus.

Canopy Growth is “actively monitoring the advancement of hemp regulations in Brazil,” David Culver, the company’s vice president of global government relations, said.

But nothing is certain without the change to Brazil’s law, though some signs suggest the prospects are favorable. When Rocha spoke to a congressional committee about hemp in 2019, he was surprised that conservative lawmakers were not hostile.

“After I finished presenting the maps and hemp’s potential, I was applauded,” he said.

Although the farm caucus has not taken a formal position, members of the group said a majority in both houses of Congress back the proposal. The farm caucus controls slightly fewer than half the seats in the two chambers, and the law requires approval by a simple majority.

Centre-right lawmaker Fausto Pinato, a member of the farm caucus, said he supports the bill.

“If you are authorizing the sale, why not cultivation?” he said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ana Mano in Sao Paulo, Jimin Kang in Seul and Maximilian Heath in Buenos Aires.

The post Cannabis firms catch whiff of opportunity in Brazil appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Smiths Falls, Ont.-based Canopy Growth, whose cannabis brands include Tweed, Tokyo Smoke, Van der Pop and Spectrum Therapeutics, announced Thursday it will shut down its Tweed Grasslands production facility at Yorkton to “further align production in Canada with market conditions.”

The Yorkton site, a 90,000-square-foot former dairy plant, came to Canopy Growth as part of the Ontario company’s takeover of medical marijuana firm rTrees Producers Ltd. in 2017.

Canopy Growth said in 2017 it planned to expand the plant on the 11-acre Yorkton property to over 300,000 square feet and ultimately create between 40 and 50 new permanent jobs.

However, the Yorkton plant’s closure — and other moves announced Thursday — are expected to lead to “a headcount reduction of approximately 85 full-time positions,” the company said in a release.

Among those other moves, Canopy Growth said Thursday it will “cease its farming operations” at Springfield, N.Y., citing ” current market demand for hemp.”

It also said it will cease operations at its cultivation facility in Colombia and will shift to an “asset-light” model to maintain its Latin America production hub in that country, sourcing raw product from local suppliers and continuing formulation and encapsulation work through its previous agreement with Procaps, a pharma processor based in Barranquilla.

Canopy Growth said Thursday it has also now exited its operations in South Africa and Lesotho and is “transferring ownership” of all of its African operations.

Canopy CEO David Klein, in Thursday’s release, said the moves stem from a strategic review carried out “to optimize our cost structure and reduce our cash burn.”

The company announced last month it would close two B.C. greenhouses, at Aldergrove and Delta, cutting about 500 positions, and also scrapped previous plans to open a third greenhouse at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Canopy Growth to close Saskatchewan pot plant appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Foot-and-mouth is a highly contagious viral disease found in animals and is one of the most serious to affect livestock, including cattle, sheep and pigs.

The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), which suspended the Andean country’s FMD-free status in August 2018, said on its website that Colombia had fulfilled the requirements to be re-declared free of the disease.

“We have waited months for this news,” Duque told reporters. “Now we want to open markets for Colombian meat… our goal is to double our meat exports in the coming years.”

Colombia, which has had a free trade agreement with Canada since 2011, is now classed by the OIE as a country where vaccination for FMD is practiced.

— Reporting for Reuters by Oliver Griffin.

The post Colombia cleared of foot-and-mouth appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Andean country suspended aerial fumigation of coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine, with the Monsanto herbicide in 2015 after the World Health Organization linked glyphosate to cancer. The decision was later backed by the Constitutional Court.

But at a hearing Thursday, Duque said greater production of coca in the wake of the decision was threatening to derail efforts to end more than five decades of conflict.

“My respectful request is to modify the ruling, a modification that takes into consideration these serious effects,” Duque told the court, which is considering the case but has not set a date to rule on possible changes.

“This expansion of crops really has done tremendous damage to constitutional order, to legal order, to the environment, to territorial security and to the protection of fundamental rights.”

Colombia has long been ranked as the world’s top producer of cocaine, and figures compiled by the United Nations for 2017 showed the largest potential output since the organization’s record-keeping began, with production of the drug at 1,379 tonnes.

Manual eradication is expensive and less effective than aerial fumigation, Duque said, and the government needs all tools at its disposal.

Manual eradication puts military personnel at risk of landmines and sniper shootings, and can only eliminate between two to three hectares of coca per day, Duque said.

Aerial fumigation can destroy 120 to 150 hectares per day and costs 2.6 times less, he said.

“We cannot reject any tools,” Duque said. “The exponential expansion of illicit crops threatens the construction of peace in our country.”

Duque added his government has eradicated more than 80,000 hectares since he took office in August, but those hectares were at constant risk of being replanted.

“I’m not coming to ask for a blank cheque, I’m not coming to minimize any risk, I’m coming to say that this government has the responsibility, the conviction and the desire to integrate all the tools,” he said.

Chemicals and gasoline are being leeched into the Amazon in southern Colombia because of coca cultivation, Duque said.

The United States, Colombia’s top ally, has repeatedly expressed concern about the rise in coca output.

A 2016 peace deal between Colombia and one group of leftist rebels includes funding meant to encourage farmers to replace coca.

— Reporting for Reuters by Julia Symmes Cobb.

The post Colombian president defends use of glyphosate on coca crops appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Data released by the Canadian Grain Commission show China more than tripled its wheat imports, taking in 979,100 tonnes as of May, up from 295,300 tonnes in the same period of 2016-17 and an increase of 231.6 per cent.

Cam Dahl, president of Cereals Canada, said it’s probably not a coincidence that the information from the U.S. is that China has not been buying wheat from there since March.

Tariffs don’t necessarily have to be in place for governments to act, he said, and it’s possible that importers in China have received direction to look outside the U.S. for purchases this year, given the trade skirmishes between the two countries.

Dahl credited some of the increase in wheat exports to the high-quality crop, but some is due to politics, he said.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh imported 1.028 million tonnes of wheat, an increase of 49.8 per cent from the 685,800 tonnes it took in 2016-17.

Top buyer Japan imported 1.328 million tonnes of wheat so far this crop year, compared to 1.307 million in the same period in 2016-17.

Wheat exports to all destinations are up 14.6 per cent overall year over year, at 13.616 million tonnes, compared to 11.881 million tonnes at the end of May in the 2016-17 crop year.

“At this point, I wouldn’t want to make long-term trend predictions just based on this year and given the political uncertainty that is without question influencing trade flows,” Dahl said.

The exception to that rule is in Latin America. Colombia has upped its wheat imports, taking 1.009 million tonnes of wheat, compared to 881,100 tonnes the year previous, an increase of 14.5 per cent.

Dahl attributed that to strong marketing efforts being carried out throughout the region and he sees sustained export growth possible for all of Central and South America.

In barley, exports to all destinations are at 1.731 million tonnes as of the end of May for the 2017-18 crop year. That compares to 1.026 million tonnes for the same period a year ago, an increase of 69.26 per cent.

China and Japan are behind most of the increase, with China increasing its barley imports by 99 per cent year over year, taking 1.573 million tonnes, compared to 790,300 tonnes as of May in the 2016-17 crop year.

In same period, Japan imported 101,500 tonnes compared to 44,600 tonnes in the year previous, which marks an increase of 127.6 per cent.

Canola exports are down slightly overall at 8.754 million tonnes for 2017-18 compared to 9.369 million tonnes as of May 2016-17.

China is importing the largest share of that, with 3.634 million tonnes compared to 3.354 million tonnes in 2016-17. During the same period, Japan imported 1.845 million tonnes, compared to 1.861 million in the same period the previous year.

Soybeans are showing a slight decline in imports year over year, with 3.415 million tonnes as of May this crop year, down from 3.632 million tonnes in 2016-17. China’s imports have declined to 1.354 million tonnes from 1.852 million in 2016-17.

Pea exports are well down, which is expected because of Indian tariffs. Overall pea exports are down 45.6 per cent at 1.755 million tonnes as of May, compared to 3.227 million tonnes in the same period of 2016-17.

India’s pea imports have fallen 83.1 per cent, to 325,700 tonnes compared to 1.927 million the year previous.

— Terry Fries writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

The post Chinese demand boosting Canadian wheat, barley exports appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The alliance, which comprises Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru, will on Friday admit Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Canada as associate members in a first step to broadening the reach of its trade flows and investments.

“I want to express our willingness to move towards greater integration through the creation of the associated state figure of the Pacific Alliance,” Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said at the Pacific Alliance summit in the Colombian city of Cali.

“This category will be obtained by countries with which the Pacific Alliance as a bloc subscribe to ambitious and high-standard economic-trade agreements with the purpose of consolidating and expanding integration as an instrument of economic development,” she said, adding that the block would fight against protectionism.

Canada’s Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Thursday the country “welcomes” the alliance’s invitation to start negotiations for Canada’s associate membership.

“We recognize the importance and growing influence of the Pacific Alliance, and look forward to strengthening this key partnership that will, in turn, create more economic opportunities for our middle class,” he said in a release.

Alliance members are among the keenest proponents of free trade in the Americas and have backed Mexico after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement and tightened immigration controls.

“We are going to take important steps,” Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said, highlighting decisions made so far at the summit.

“We are going to register the creation of a common fund to finance infrastructure, we are going to open the alliance to associate members so that we can establish different relations with interested observers to affiliate in some way with the four countries that have the most dynamic economies in Latin America,” he said.

The alliance said Thursday it would explore whether to create a single passport for its four member nations in an effort to encourage tourism and trade across the world.

It also reached a tax agreement for pension funds operating in the bloc to stimulate investment in infrastructure projects. The maximum tax rate charged on pension fund investment returns will be 10 percent.

Also present at the summit are the presidents of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, and Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

The economies of the four member nations, if counted as a single country, would form the eighth-biggest economy in the world.

— Reporting for Reuters by Luis Jaime Acosta; writing by Helen Murphy. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

The post Pacific trade bloc adds ‘associate’ members, including Canada appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The TPP, which originally covered some 40 per cent of global gross domestic product, was effectively torpedoed in its current form when President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in January.

The 12 members met for the first time since then on Wednesday, assembled by Chile alongside China, South Korea and Colombia, to try to thrash out a way forward on Asia-Pacific trade.

With the retreat of the U.S., China appears to be the natural successor to lead those discussions, but an emphasis on getting a progressive deal that wins buy-in from skeptical citizens could see nations in the Americas forging a different path.

“We are talking about free trade of a very high quality, with protection for investors, the environment and labour rights,” Mexican foreign minister Luis Videgaray told reporters after the meeting.

“That is the primary criteria with which any negotiation that takes place will comply.”

Consensus was growing that trade deals need to consider issues like the environment and labour rights, Canada’s trade minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said on the sidelines.

“Around the table, the word ‘progressive’ appears more and more… it is becoming part of what people would consider as a base in order to progress,” he said.

Critics of the TPP have said it does not do enough to protect jobs, and U.S. presidential candidates across the political spectrum promised to scrap it if elected.

But the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), promoted by China, contains far less than the TPP in terms of provisions for protecting workers and the environment.

China reiterated its wish to promote regional economic integration, but did not comment on the differences between the pacts.

Another way forward may be via Latin America’s Pacific Alliance trade bloc. Its four nations said on Tuesday they would seek to expand by allowing associate membership as a precursor to trade talks.

New Zealand said in a statement on Wednesday that it expected to be one of the first to begin negotiations.

Trade officials from ex-TPP countries are now set to come up with a menu of options for ministers before they meet in May at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering in Vietnam.

Ministers wanted to continue with the “substance of the accord,” Chile’s foreign minister Heraldo Munoz said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Rosalba O’Brien and Antonio De la Jara.

The post Pacific trade pact countries seek ‘progressive’ way forward appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Colombia is one of the world’s biggest producers of cocaine, derived from the coca plant. Experts hope an end to hostilities can lead to a drop in production.

A joint statement said the United Nations-backed project would begin next month in the municipality of Briceno, Antioquia, where a joint effort to eliminate land mines began in 2015 as part of confidence building between the two sides.

Under the agreement, the government will provide security for FARC delegates to implement the agreement, as well as funding programmes to help farmers transition to alternative crops.

“This joint work on the ground with local leaders and their communities has opened up the possibility to incorporate alongside the humanitarian de-mining effort the voluntary substitution of illicit crops,” the statement said.

The agreement comes as the two sides are in the final stretch of peace negotiations begun in November 2012 in Havana, where all issues except for a final ceasefire, disarmament and the reincorporation of fighters into civil society have been settled.

“We made the decision to begin the transcendental and unique project before signing the final peace agreement in consultation with the farmers and with support of the United Nations,” FARC lead negotiator Ivan Marquez said in Havana.

The FARC agreed in 2014 to break ties with drug traffickers, help eradicate illegal crops like coca and help fight the production of narcotics.

But authorities have accused the rebels of instead stoking resistance to the eradication of illicit coca crops and keeping up their ties to drug trafficking.

The latest U.N. figures showed a 44 per cent increase in coca cultivations in 2014 to 69,000 hectares (170,503 acres) in the South American nation, a jump the U.N. linked to the peace talks, suspension of aerial spraying and rising market prices for coca.

Colombia’s war has dragged on for more than half a century, leaving 220,000 dead and millions displaced.

— Reporting for Reuters by Nelson Acosta in Havana. Additional reporting for Reuters by Helen Murphy.

The post Colombia, rebels plan joint drug crop eradication appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Spraying coca leaves, which are used to make cocaine, has been a key part of Colombia’s efforts to curb production of some 300 tonnes of cocaine a year that make it one of the world’s biggest producers of the drug.

For two decades, the Andean country has used the herbicide glyphosate to fumigate coca, with financial and technical help from the U.S. The strategy also included spraying of poppies, used to make heroin.

“We’ve taken the decision by a majority of seven to one, to suspend the spraying of areas with glyphosate,” health minister Alejandro Gaviria said, referring to a vote taken by the National Narcotics Council late on Thursday.

Various scientific reports, including one by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in March, have suggested the weed killer is likely carcinogenic to humans, Gaviria said.

Spraying will be halted after administrative formalities are completed, which could take several weeks, he added. More than 3.9 million acres of land in Colombia have been sprayed using the chemical.

Glyphosate is a key ingredient in the world’s most widely used herbicide, Roundup, produced by Monsanto.

Monsanto officials have said the chemical has been proven safe for decades and the company has demanded a retraction from the WHO over its report linking the herbicide to cancer.

President Juan Manuel Santos called for an end to the fumigations last week, adding law enforcement should intensify its efforts against other parts of the drug trafficking supply chain, which include clandestine laboratories and smuggling networks.

The U.S. will continue to co-ordinate with Colombian authorities on other drug eradication efforts if aerial fumigation is no longer possible, Kevin Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia, has said.

Local communities have expressed concerns that exposure to glyphosate has caused illnesses, among them cancers and birth defects. Colombia was the only South American country still using the chemical, Colombian authorities said.

The defense ministry and other entities which fight narcotics trafficking will be tasked with recommending other ways to eradicate illegal plants, Gaviria added.

Opposition politicians have expressed concern that a halt to spraying may increase cocaine production. Leftist rebel groups, the FARC and ELN, as well as criminal gangs, make huge sums from their involvement in cocaine production and trafficking.

— Reporting for Reuters by Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota; writing by Julia Symmes Cobb.

The post Colombia calls off aerial coca spraying appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.