News

With the COVID-19 pandemic finally starting to ebb, speakers at this year’s International Grains Council (IGC) Conference, held virtually June 8-9 as a precautionary measure, said the global grains and oilseeds supply chain has handled COVID-19 well, despite wrestling with labor supply problems, closed borders, high shipping costs and wild swings in demand, notably away from biodiesel as vehicle use shrank dramatically with people around the world staying home.

The feed sector had problems keeping its workforce safe and got a ...

NEW DELHI, INDIA — India is expected to produce a record 305.4 million tonnes of grain in 2020-21, an increase of 8 million tonnes from last year’s record harvest, according to a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Higher production is being driven by record production of rice, wheat, corn and pulses.

For 2021-22, rice production at 121 million tonnes is not expected to change, despite concerns about the prolonged lull in the monsoon’s rains.

Rice ...

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, US — US President Joseph Biden recently encouraged increased competition in the US economy with an executive order, which the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) hopes will urge the US Surface Transportation Board (STB) to allow agricultural shippers to request bids from nearby rail carriers.

According to a letter sent by the NGFA and members of the Agricultural Transportation Working Group (ATWG), President Biden’s July 9 executive order encourages the STB to resume its consideration of a proposed ...

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, US — As the winter wheat harvest advanced rapidly northward through the central Plains and Central states toward a timely conclusion, producers in the drought-plagued northern Plains and grain markets braced for what increasingly was expected to be a small, quality-challenged 2021 US spring wheat crop.

The US winter wheat harvest was 73% completed by July 18 in the 18 principal production states, the US Department of Agriculture said. That mirrored exactly the progress a year earlier and ...

WASHINGTON, DC, US — Mexico remained the largest market for US wheat in 2020-21, according to export data compiled by the US Department of Agriculture. Other importers rounding out the top five markets for US wheat in 2020-21 included, in order of import volume, China, the Philippines, Japan and the Republic of Korea. Mexico has been the leading importer of US wheat in most recent years, but China leapt into the No. 2 slot last year after an 11th place ...

OTTAWA, CANADA — Less-than-average precipitation, strong winds and increasing heatwaves has challenged Canada’s wheat production for the 2021-22 marketing year, according to a Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Canadian wheat production is expected to slip to 32 million tonnes in the 2021-22 marketing year compared to 35.1 million tonnes in the previous year. The USDA noted a possible future reduction in its estimate depending on how the full impact of recent weather events ...

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has decided not to exempt Viterra’s Port Lincoln and Thevenard facilities from parts of the Port Terminal Access (Bulk Wheat) Code due to lack of competition.

The decision means that Viterra will continue to be subject to the non-discrimination requirements of the code at its Port Lincoln and Thevenard facilities and must also provide access-related dispute resolution processes for exporters. Viterra also will continue to require ACCC approval for any changes ...

Is the US-China trade war dead? It certainly is for US agricultural exporters, although renewed demand is bringing with it the specter of soaring bulk shipping costs. Indeed, ship owners are enjoying something of a commodities supercycle that is driving up both the prices of raw materials and ship owner profits.

Overall demand for bulk shipping in the first four months of 2021 reached a record 1.69 billion tonnes, up 6.1% compared with the same period last year, according to shipping ...

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, US — Greater intake of whole grains was associated with smaller increases in waist size in a study appearing online July 13 in The Journal of Nutrition. Among middle- to older-age adults, waist size over a four-year period increased by an average of more than 1 inch in participants who ate less than one-half serving per day of whole grains. Among those who ate at least three servings of whole grains a day, waist size increased by about ...

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, US — Millers, merchandisers and grain traders last week continued to report improved railroad performance in the United States, especially in the Central Plains region as the winter wheat harvest moved steadily north and west. All welcomed the improvement and hoped more regular car placement at origins would continue into the crucial harvest period for spring and durum wheat as well as row crops.

In the first two weeks of July, rail cars of hard red winter wheat ...