World briefs, Feb. 2

Chinese premier favours modernization over grain imports beijing / reuters / China must push forward with modernizing agricultural technology as it faces increasing difficulty in meeting local food demand, Premier Wen Jiabao said in a recent essay. “The fundamental way out is to enhance the construction of modern agriculture to boost the complex agricultural productivity

Edible bean acres set to double

Edible beans are shaping up to be a popular crop to plant in southern Manitoba this spring, with bean area set to rebound off of 2011’s very small acreage. Market analyst Darren Frank, of FarmLink Marketing Solutions, said that of all the new-crop options in southern Manitoba, edible beans might be seeing the most interest.


EU wheat prices up on cold

European milling wheat futures rose on Monday to their highest in nearly eight months as buying linked to options reinforced support from nervousness about the risk to crops from freezing conditions across Europe. March milling wheat on the Paris-based futures market was up 5.00 euros or 2.3 per cent at 222.25 euros a tonne, a




Buckwheat snack food impresses at food show

A new made-in-Manitoba snack food has been named one of the top 12 natural foods at an international gourmet food show in San Francisco. Buckshots, a roasted buckwheat snack, may have vaulted the crop from obscurity to significant new interest, too. Many of the Canadian, American, and global buyers attending the 2012 Winter Fancy Food


India grain stocks sharply higher

New Delhi / Reuters India’s Jan. 1 wheat stocks at government warehouses were 25.7 million tonnes, more than three times the official target for the quarter ending Mar. 31 government sources said Jan. 9. Rice inventory for the same period was 29.8 million tonnes against a target of 11.8 million tonnes. The wheat target was

Canada Well Positioned To Capitalize On Growing Food Demand

When, in 1965, Bob Dylan wailed, I ain t gonna work on Maggie s farm no more, he was echoing the mental picture almost all of us have about conditions on the farm. The dirty thirties largely spawned the identification of farming with grinding poverty, primitive technologies and capricious commodity prices, and the image has


Egypt Searching For Alternatives To The “Black Cloud”

Each autumn, Egyptians take a deep breath and brace for the black cloud, a thick layer of smog from burning rice straw that spreads across Cairo and the Nile valley for several weeks. Burning agricultural waste, mostly rice straw, turns the capital s already noxious air into an even more toxic mix. Farmers produce about

Floods May Damage Quarter Of Thai Rice Crop

Thailand may lose a quarter of its main rice crop in the nation s worst flooding in decades, the government estimates, which could boost prices of the staple and further squeeze shipments from the world s top exporter. The flood damage to rice comes at a time when Thailand, which accounts for about 30 per