News

The International Grains Council Thursday revised world grain production for 2009-10 to 1.76 billion metric tons, up slightly from the September estimate of 1.75 billion tons, mainly due to the larger-than-expected U.S. corn crop.

European competition watchdogs Wednesday gave French President Nicolas Sarkozy a ticking-off for announcing a flood of money for its farmers without first informing Brussels.

As of October 23 of the current year, Ukraine sowed winter grains throughout 7.6 mln ha (97% from the forecasted areas), which nearly corresponds to the previous year level, declared the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine.

When Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev’sOAO National Reserve Bank seized collateral offered against a loan from a cash-strapped borrower, a health quarantine was slapped on the security: 40,450 pigs. “We had a court decision to take away the collateral, which is the pigs,” Lebedev, 49, said in an interview in Moscow. The borrower, a farm near Samara on the Volga river, agreed “with the local authorities to establish a quarantine” against African swine fever. The former KGB officer is still waiting to collect the pigs offered against a loan of 100 million rubles ($3.5 million). A kilogram of live pig costs an average of 78.4 rubles, the National Meat Association says.