Trade

Reuters writer Joe Cash reported yesterday that, “China’s new Premier Li Qiang said that the country’s food security is guaranteed and that state policies to support food production will increase, at a news conference to mark the close of the annual sitting of parliament on Monday.”

Reuters writer Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber reported yesterday that, “Russia on Monday suggested renewing a deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports but only for half the term of the previous renewal while the United Nations pledged to do everything possible to ensure the agreement’s integrity remained intact.”

Michael Schwirtz and Stanislav Kozliuk reported in Sunday’s New York Times that, “Oleksandr Hordienko stepped gingerly into a wheat field that had recently served as a Russian tank position, following closely behind an assistant with a metal detector.”

Bloomberg writers Olesia Safronova and Megan Durisin reported yesterday that, “United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the importance of renewing the key Black Sea grain deal during a visit to Kyiv, with the current accord soon set to expire.”

Late last week, Bloomberg writers Aine Quinn and Megan Durisin reported that, “After a slow start to the season, Russia’s grain exports are booming as buyers load up on its attractive bumper supplies.”

Earlier this week, Reuters writer Dominique Patton reported that, “China, the world’s top oilseed buyer, imported a record volume of soybeans for the first two months of the year, as buyers stocked up in anticipation of healthy demand and over worries of a delayed harvest in Brazil.”

Ana Swanson and Linda Qiu reported on the front page of the Business section in today’s New York Times that, “The Biden administration said on Monday that it would take initial steps toward challenging a ban that Mexico has placed on shipments of genetically modified corn from the United States, restrictions that have rankled farmers and threatened a profitable export.”

Reuters writer Roberto Samora reported late last week that, “Brazil’s agriculture ministry said on Friday that 90 local firms have been cleared to export corn to China in the first two months of the year, taking the total to 446.”

Reuters writers Rod Nickel and Pavel Polityuk reported yesterday that, “Ukraine sees no need to limit wheat exports for the upcoming 2023/24 July-June season, as the winter harvest looks to be larger than expected, albeit smaller than in peacetime, a top agriculture ministry official said on Thursday.”

Reuters writer Andrea Shalal reported yesterday that, “The United States will consider ‘all options,’ including a formal trade dispute panel, unless Mexico addresses Washington’s concerns over Mexico’s plan to limit imports of genetically modified corn, a senior U.S. trade official said on Wednesday.”

In its March Market Monitor report, the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) indicated that, “With no end in sight to the war in Ukraine and threats of further escalation, uncertainty continues to hang over agricultural markets.”

Reuters writer Pavel Polityuk reported late last week that, “Negotiations will start in a week on extending a U.N.-backed initiative that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia after its invasion, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday.”

In its monthly Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook report this week, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) indicated that, “Although fourth-quarter pork exports had a solid finish—shipments of almost 1.7 billion pounds were about 1.6 percent higher than a year earlier, mostly on the strength of year-over-year larger shipments to Mexico and China—total U.S. exports ended 2022 at 6.3 billion pounds, about 10 percent below volumes in 2021.”

Reuters writers Cassandra Garrison and Adriana Barrera reported this week that, “Mexico on Monday scrapped a deadline to ban genetically modified corn for animal feed and industrial use amid trade tensions with the United States, but retained plans to prohibit use of the grain for human consumption as well as the herbicide glyphosate.”

Dow Jones writer Yusuf Khan reported yesterday that, “Ukraine remains key this week for grain and oilseed markets, after Russia launched more missile attacks on the country’s infrastructure.”

Writing on the front page of the Business Section in Friday’s New York Times, Daisuke Wakabayashi and Claire Fu reported that, “The first sows arrived in late September at the hulking, 26-story high-rise towering above a rural village in central China.”

A news release Friday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture stated that, “The American agricultural sector posted its best export year ever in 2022 with international sales of U.S. farm and food products reaching $196 billion, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today.”

In its monthly Grain: World Markets and Trade report yesterday, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) indicated that, “Brazil 2022/23 corn exports (Oct-Sep) are forecast to equal those of the United States at 51 million tons on expanding production and strong exports in the second half of its 2021/22 marketing year (Mar 2022-Feb 2023).”

Bloomberg writers Kateryna Choursina and Aine Quinn reported on Monday that, “From his post at the mouth of the Black Sea, Ukrainian ship inspector Ruslan Sakhautdinov has seen his Russian counterparts repeatedly slow the flow of his country’s grain abroad — from scrutinizing fuel gauges to crews’ personal belongings.”

In prepared remarks at  a Senate Farm Bill hearing last week, Alexis Taylor, USDA’s Under Secretary of Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, explained that, “With a population of 1.4 billion and a middle class the size of the entire United States, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is the largest market for U.S. agricultural exports.”