Cheap Food Versus Expensive Oil

You can’t have cheap food and expensive oil. It just doesn’t work. For hundreds of millions of people who earn only a dollar or two a day, increasing prices for staple foods like grains, pulses, rice and cooking oil is a big deal. Canadians spend only about 11 per cent of their disposable income on

Economic Uncertainty Sends Speculators Packing

Canola futures on the ICE Futures Canada trading platform suffered a major price setback during the week ended March 11, with much of the downward price slide associated with the unloading of positions by speculative accounts. None of the liquidation orders were based on fundamentals; rather, individuals were unnerved by ongoing tensions in the Middle


CWB Predicts Small Rise In Wheat Output

Canada’s monopoly wheat exporter maintained its forecast for a small rise in production from the world’s No. 3 seller this year, but offered a slightly more upbeat forecast for global output. The outlook from the Canadian Wheat Board, one of the world’s biggest grain marketers, offers modest relief for millers who have been hurt this

As Land Runs Out, U.S. Corn Yield Growth Must Quicken

For decades, U.S. farmers have helped feed the world by sowing some of the most versatile cropland, adjusting each year to grow a bit more of this and less of that, to replenish those crops in greatest shortage. This year, however, even with farmers planting nearly every acre of arable land, it will not be


Japanese Quake Could Cut Imports

Japanese demand for U.S. corn may drop three to seven per cent and demand for soybeans could dip eight per cent after last week’s earthquake and tsunami damaged or destroyed ports, feed mills and meat-processing facilities, a top U.S. commodities analyst said March 14. Corn imports by the top U.S. corn buyer could drop by

Bunge Sees Record Canada Canola Area

Canadian farmers look to plant a record canola area of 19.5 million acres (7.9 million hectares) or more this spring, driven by expanding crush capacity and strong global demand, an official with Bunge Ltd. said on Feb. 28. The biggest wild card is high potential for serious spring flooding that could take much land out


GMO Crops Planted In 29 Countries In 2010

Global plantings of biotech crops increased 10 per cent last year, continuing steady growth over the past decade that has been spurred by concerns about feeding a growing world population, according to an industry analysis. While the United States remains the largest user of genetically modified seeds, Brazil posted the biggest growth, with plantings rising

Indonesia Links Good Data To Food Security

Indonesia’s Agriculture Ministry and statistics agency have signed an agreement aimed at releasing more agriculture data, to help food-security planning in the world’s fourth-most-populous nation. Like many emerging markets, Indonesia is battling booming global food prices, and has been forced to import various foods as it grapples with inflation. Analysts also say a lack of


FAO Warns On Oil As World Food Prices Hit Record

Global food prices hit a record high in February, the United Nations said March 3, warning that fresh oil price spikes and stockpiling by importers keen to head off popular unrest would hit already volatile cereal markets. Rising food prices are a growing global concern, partly fuelling the protests which toppled the rulers of Tunisia

China Has A Stockpile

China is holding 100 million tonnes of wheat stocks, around the same amount as its annual output, a top economic planning official said March 6, reiterating Beijing’s resolve to keep grain prices in check. In a rare statement of the country’s grain stocks, Zhang Ping, head of the National Development &Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s