The head of Cargill’s World Trading Group has said that soybean prices could hit all-time highs. Cargill estimates US carryout stocks are “significantly lower” than USDA’s figures and feels that 27 to 28 million mt of S. American soybean production have been lost.
Dry weather and little hope of significant rains in Argentina’s soy belt are igniting fears of a repeat of 2018 when drought drove the harvest to below 38 million mt. The current forecast is for 40.5 million mt.
Chinese importers have washed out about ten cargoes of Brazilian beans in the past week as several soybean crushing plants in China have suspended operations due to poor/negative margins.
After a fire broke out, Louis Dreyfus briefly suspended operations at its Claypool, Indiana, soybean processing and biodiesel plant. No employees were injured, and the fire was quickly extinguished.
The first two months of 2022 are the driest January and February in Californian history, prompting state officials to warn of dire water shortages. The drought in the western US is the worst in at least 1,200 years
California is looking to reduce methane emissions by cutting food waste. It accounts for 20 per cent of the state’s methane emissions, third behind dairy manure and cow burbs. Meanwhile, European farmers are increasingly looking at opportunities to use their soils as carbon sinks as various startups enter the sector.
The USDA has restarted its avocado inspection program in Mexico, and avocado exports to the US have resumed. The USDA had earlier suspended imports after a US plant safety inspector received a threat. Activists claim that Mexico’s avocado producers must pay protection money to drug cartels.
India will extend a reduction in customs duty on edible oils to the end of September. India has also cut its tax on crude palm oil imports to 5 per cent from 7.5 per cent. The FT has a nice article on the Nigerian government’s plans to boost domestic agriculture and palm oil production.
HMM, a South Korean shipping company, has reported a $4.4 billion net profit for 2021, compared with just $100 million in 2020, as sales more than doubled to $11.5 billion. The carrier returned to the black in Q3 2020 after being on the brink of bankruptcy.
The European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services (CLECAT) has sent a letter to the EU Commission, asking for an investigation into the container shipping sector, alleging unfair and discriminatory practices.
A new study estimates that the world spends at least $1.8 trillion a year on subsidies that contribute to ecosystem destruction and species extinction. Of that amount, $520 billion goes to agriculture and $155 billion to forestry. The Guardian asks why the world is still funding the destruction of nature through misdirected and unthought out farm subsidies.
Another new study argues that ethanol is 24 per cent more carbon-intensive than gasoline due to emissions from land-use changes, along with processing and combustion. The US RFA said the study was “completely fictional and erroneous” and the authors used “worst-case assumptions [and] cherry-picked data.”
US biofuel producers have asked Congress for tax credits under the Build Back Better program to help boost the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
After surging 53 per cent in 2020, sales of plant-based meats increased only 1 per cent in 2021. Bloomberg looks at how the sector is reacting by collaborating with processed food producers.
Bayer has declared force majeure on sales of glyphosate to industrial customers after a critical supplier ran into manufacturing problems. Repairs at the supplier could take about three months.
Bloomberg Green has an interesting article on Chinese gene-edited seawater rice. It’s more resistant to saline and alkali than standard rice varieties – and has a slightly higher yield. Meanwhile, researchers have developed gene-edited wheat resistant to powdery mildew, one of the most damaging pathogens for wheat farmers.
Nestlé has reported its strongest growth in developed markets in a decade. Sales rose 7.5 per cent, with a 2-percentage point rise coming from price increases. Coffee was the most significant contributor to growth. The company said profitability might decline in 2022, warning that raw material and shipping costs will probably increase. The CEO said the company would be “open to do a big deal” after selling $10 billion of shares in L’Oréal.
The Daily Beast has a long read on how organic food could doom the future of farming – something that I have been pondering for a while.
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