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Articles of Interest- Thursday, December 19, 2019

Articles of Interest- Thursday, December 19, 2019

Talking Trade

Wheat Life – 12/19/2019

What do you get when you add a dash of farm bill implementation and trade to a new global order, served with a side of national wheat issues and topped off with a long-term weather forecast? An informative, engaging 2019 convention agenda, of course. Agri-Pulse Executive Editor Philip Brasher is no stranger to national food and agricultural policy, having covered those issues for more than 15 years. He moderated a national organization panel featuring Darren Padget, vice chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates (USW)…Brasher than asked panel members to introduce themselves and their organizations. He then asked several questions, ending the discussion by asking each panel member what issue they are most optimistic about or worried about: “Trade” was Padget’s answer to the questions of what he was most concerned about and what he was most optimistic about, explaining that there are things getting done in trade, and that there are “some victories” out there, such as the bilateral with Japan, and recent news that Brazil has agreed to implement a duty-free tariff quota for U.S. wheat, which will give Midwest producers a boost.

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Russia to Invest $500 MLN in Syrian Port, Build Grain Hub

Reuters – 12/17/2019

Russia plans to invest $500 million in the Syrian port of Tartus and build a grain hub there to boost its presence on Middle East markets, Interfax news agency cited Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov as saying on Tuesday. Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, has stepped up grain supplies to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in recent years since Moscow’s 2015 military intervention on his behalf in Syria’s civil war. Construction of the necessary infrastructure at the port, which Russia rented out for 49 years from Syrian authorities in 2017, could begin next year, Borisov was quoted as saying.

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Egypt’s Wheat Inspector to Resume Cargo Checks at Origin Ports

Reuters – 12/18/2019

Egypt, the world’s largest wheat buyer, will allow travelling delegations of its agricultural inspectors to resume checks of wheat cargoes purchased during state tenders at the port of origin, traders said on Wednesday. Government quarantine inspectors had in the past travelled the world on fully-funded trips, at the expense of supply companies aiming to secure smooth passage for their wheat. But the arrangement started to unravel in late 2015, when a French wheat cargo was rejected in Egypt for containing traces of the common grain fungus ergot, despite being approved by government inspectors abroad.

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Podcast: Gut Check- How Bread Boosts the Microbiome

Washington Grain Commission – 12/03/2019

The gut microbiome may well be the last frontier of nutrition science and lucky for wheat farmers, bread and other wheat-based products are among the perfect foods to feed the fantastic community of micro organisms that exist there. In episode 154 of Wheat All About It! entitled: “Gut Check—How Bread Boosts the Microbiome”, listen in as Corrie Whisner, an assistant professor of nutrition at Arizona State University, describes the benefits that derive from having a healthy gut, the result of trillions of one cell organisms acting like little refineries that not only keep us healthy, but happy too. 

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Source: U.S. Wheat Associates