Ukraine Scraps Formal Cap on Wheat Exports in Favor of Monthly Monitoring
Reuters – 10/03/2019
Ukraine has scrapped its formal cap on wheat exports in the July 2019 to June 2020 season, with the agriculture ministry instead monitoring market conditions on a monthly basis to ensure domestic supply is adequate. The ministry signed on Thursday its annual memorandum with grains traders, setting terms for wheat exports for the current season. The document, which includes a government commitment to keep current export rules unchanged, did not have the export figure which has been included in previous years. “This year, we have agreed not to fix a specific volume of grains,” the ministry quoted deputy minister of economy, trade and agriculture Taras Vysotsky as saying. “However, every last Monday of the month we will hold a joint meeting with market representatives and evaluate the indicators.”
Canada Takes U.S.- Japan Trade Deal in Stride
The Western Producer – 10/03/2019
Canadian agriculture officials do not feel threatened by a new tariff agreement signed between the United States and Japan. The new pact mirrors the agricultural tariff reduction commitments contained in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), of which Canada is a member, implemented on Dec. 30, 2018. Canadian and Australian wheat farmers were hoping the CPTPP would give them a leg up on their American counterparts because they would be facing lower tariffs into the world’s most lucrative wheat market. U.S. wheat sales to Japan are 1.26 million tonnes between June 1 and Sept. 19, compared to 1.33 million tonnes the same period a year ago.
Winter Wheat: Harvest Runs Late, Yields Well
AgUpdate – 10/03/2019
This year’s winter wheat harvest in Nebraska ran long. In a few cases, it finished up just weeks before the planting season for next year’s crop was due to begin. However, in spite of a challenging growing season, some of the harvest results turned out better than expected. The challenging year began last fall during planting. “Last fall was wet when it was time to plant the winter wheat and harvest corn and soybeans,” said Royce Schaneman, executive director of the Nebraska Wheat Board. “We didn’t get as much wheat planted as we would have liked, especially where farmers were having trouble getting soybeans harvested. “There was some wheat that got into the ground early. It had a lot of moisture to work with, and looked really good when it came up,” he recalled. “There just wasn’t much of it. Later-planted wheat didn’t get off to the kind of start we hoped for.”
Boutique Flour Mill Hits its Stride
Capital Press – 10/03/2019
The new Hillside Grain flour mill ran well initially, and even better after an air-flow fix. “It has been a lot of starts and stops,” owner Brett Stevenson said. “We’ve definitely had some glitches to work out. Over the summer, it was a rollercoaster.” She opened the flour mill last spring on part of Hillside Ranch, a farm her father, John Stevenson, owns south of Bellevue, Idaho. Grain industry representatives said at the time that expanding local processing capacity, and thus market opportunities, benefits growers. “Now we have a good understanding of the system and we are in consistent production,” Brett Stevenson said. The mill has been running smoothly since late August, after air flow was increased in the pneumatic system that moves the grain and flour. “We had a lack of air flow, so we didn’t get the product moving through the way we should — we were getting plugs or clogs,” Stevenson said. “We increased air flow on both the grain-cleaning and milling sides.”
Source: U.S. Wheat Associates