Australia's production of winter crops is set to fall from record highs, with wheat output seen declining more than 30%, the country's agricultural department said, as forecasters predict dryness due to the El Nino weather pattern.
Australia is the world's second largest wheat exporter, supplying mainly to buyers in Asia, including China, Indonesia and Japan.
Global grain trader Viterra is in talks to merge with U.S. rival Bunge Ltd, a person familiar with the matter said, in a potential mega deal that would reshape the top tier of global grains merchants.
The number of people experiencing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent food, nutrition and livelihood assistance increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2022, with over a quarter of a billion facing acute hunger and people in seven countries on the brink of starvation, according to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC).
The annual report, produced by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), was launched by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) - an international alliance of the United Nations, the European Union, governmental and non-governmental agencies, working to tackle food crises together.
The harvest of the new Brazilian soybean crop had another week of good progress and is now entering the final stretch.
With a little moist climate, farm machines were able to advance well in most of the growing states, mainly in Rio Grande do Sul, where there was a good recovery of the accumulated delays.
Argentina's government announced the approval of a $394 million loan for irrigation projects, officials said in a statement on Friday, following steep farm losses from a historic drought that has deepened an already severe economic crisis in the country.
The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 126.9 points in March 2023, down 2.8 points (2.1 percent) from February, marking the twelfth consecutive monthly decline since reaching its peak one year ago. During the past twelve months since March 2022, the index has fallen by as much as 32.8 points (20.5 percent).
The French agricultural trading giant Louis Dreyfus will stop exporting Russian grain from July 1, the company said in a statement on Monday.
The negative impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the ensuing high input costs and food inflation, continue to weigh on agricultural markets and consumers’ purchasing decisions. In addition, large parts of the EU experienced winter droughts after the hot and dry summer of last year, further worsening water availability in regions with already record low water reservoirs. This might lead impacted farmers to substitute away from more water-intensive crop cultures. The current EU macroeconomic forecast is relatively more positive than in autumn 2022, despite uncertainties about energy supply for next winter and recent financial market tensions. High commodity prices last year helped countering high input costs and farm income increased on average, with significant sectorial and regional disparities.
Nearly half of the honey imported into the European Union is suspected of being fake, according to an EU probe.
The research, spearheaded by the European Commission’s Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), revealed the massive fraud and that many may be buying counterfeit honey labelled as authentic.
Romania and Poland are in talks with the European Commission over export tracing mechanisms for Ukrainian grains to ensure local farmers are not hurt by a flood of cheap imports, the Polish and Romanian prime ministers said on Tuesday.
Ukraine, one of the world's largest grain exporters, has seen its Black Sea ports blocked since Russia invaded more than a year ago and has been forced to find alternative shipping routes through European Union states Poland and Romania.