(Country Guide file photo)

Lower loonie helps farmers, but only so much

CNS Canada — The slumping price of oil continues to weigh on the Canadian dollar, while at the same time providing a boost to Canadian grain prices. Out-of-country buyers tend to more attracted to Canadian grain and wheat when the loonie is low, as they can get more product for their money. However, one market

Moscow at Christmastime. (Cia.gov)

Russian ministry proposes reducing wheat export tax

Moscow | Reuters — Russia’s agriculture ministry has proposed that the government reduce or cancel its wheat export tax due to rouble volatility and a decline in global wheat benchmarks, the Interfax news agency reported, citing first deputy minister Evgenii Gromyko. The rouble has lost about six per cent against the U.S. dollar since the


Moscow at Christmastime. (Cia.gov)

Russia aiming for steady grain crop in 2016

Moscow | Reuters –– Russia, one of the world’s largest wheat exporters, is aiming for an unchanged grain harvest in 2016 compared with the current year, the agriculture ministry said Tuesday. If the weather remains favourable during the winter and spring, Russia, a major wheat supplier to Turkey, Egypt and Iran, will harvest a large


Canada’s trade relationship with China built on wheat

Canada offered to sell China food when no one else would do business with a Communist regime

Canada played a major role in helping overcome the famines that stalked the Chinese people through the late 1950s and early 1960s. It sold wheat to the People’s Republic of China at a time when other countries refused to deal with the Communist regime of Mao Zedong, which had seized control in 1949 after a


Port of Quequen, Argentina. (AntaresShipping.com)

Argentina ag minister says grain export taxes on way out

Buenos Aires | Reuters –– Argentina’s incoming government will abolish export taxes on corn and wheat the day after it assumes office and reduce the export tax on soy by five per cent, designated Agriculture Minister Ricardo Buryaile confirmed to the daily Clarin. President-elect Mauricio Macri won the election last Sunday on a platform of

(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Russia-Turkey tensions stymie new wheat deals

Reuters — Political tension between Russia and Turkey has put a brake on new wheat deals between the two countries and created uncertainty about existing agreements, traders said Thursday. Relations between Russia, one of the world’s largest wheat exporters, and Turkey, the largest buyer of Russian wheat, have quickly deteriorated after Turkey shot down a