(Michael Thompson photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. grains: Wheat up on talk of Russia curbing exports

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures climbed to a one-week high on Monday on short-covering and concerns about the possibility that Russia might limit exports, traders said. Soybeans rose, led by soymeal, while corn ended nearly unchanged. At the Chicago Board of Trade, March wheat settled up six cents at $4.81-1/2 per bushel (all […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Agrium)

Russia considering export duties on fertilizers

Stavropol | Reuters –– Russia’s government is looking into introducing duties on exports of mineral fertilizers to make them more affordable for the country’s farmers, President Vladimir Putin said Monday. Meeting his loyalists from the pro-Kremlin public movement, the All-Russia People’s Front, Putin heard compalints from a farmer saying that massive exports of mineral fertilizers […] Read more

Moscow at Christmastime. (Cia.gov)

Russian ministry proposes reducing wheat export tax

Moscow | Reuters — Russia’s agriculture ministry has proposed that the government reduce or cancel its wheat export tax due to rouble volatility and a decline in global wheat benchmarks, the Interfax news agency reported, citing first deputy minister Evgenii Gromyko. The rouble has lost about six per cent against the U.S. dollar since the […] Read more


Moscow at Christmastime. (Cia.gov)

Russia aiming for steady grain crop in 2016

Moscow | Reuters –– Russia, one of the world’s largest wheat exporters, is aiming for an unchanged grain harvest in 2016 compared with the current year, the agriculture ministry said Tuesday. If the weather remains favourable during the winter and spring, Russia, a major wheat supplier to Turkey, Egypt and Iran, will harvest a large […] Read more


(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Russia-Turkey tensions stymie new wheat deals

Reuters — Political tension between Russia and Turkey has put a brake on new wheat deals between the two countries and created uncertainty about existing agreements, traders said Thursday. Relations between Russia, one of the world’s largest wheat exporters, and Turkey, the largest buyer of Russian wheat, have quickly deteriorated after Turkey shot down a […] Read more

Russian harvesting technology has advanced beyond that illustrated in this Soviet-era poster.

Black Sea in it for the long haul

The Former Soviet Union, once Canada's largest wheat customer, is now its largest competitor

Black Sea wheat exports are projected at an all-time high this year, and there is good reason to have confidence in this forecast. During the 2015/16 marketing year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the states of the former Soviet Union excluding Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia (FSU-12) will export a record 45 million […] Read more

(Allan Dawson photo)

U.S. grains: Wheat falls on profit-taking

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures sank on Friday on a round of end-of-week profit taking after prices hit an 8-1/2 week high on Thursday, traders said. Soybeans also fell, pressured by the expanding harvest of what is expected to be a bumper crop in the U.S., while corn was close to unchanged. Wheat […] Read more


Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich (l) and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. (Government.ru)

Russian government proposes cutting wheat export tax

Semikarakorsk, Russia | Reuters — The Russian government has proposed cutting its floating wheat export tax from Oct. 1 and to exempt durum wheat from the levy, a senior official said on Thursday. Russian wheat exports have been constrained by the tax, which has prevented exporters from fully benefitting from the weaker rouble and a […] Read more

Russia defends crop data reliability

Moscow | Reuters –– Russia’s agriculture ministry defended the reliability of its crop data on Thursday, after a farmers’ lobby said regional officials were pressuring farmers to report bigger grain crops to the ministry than they actually harvested this year. The ministry said its numbers, compiled by its regional departments which send “operational information” to […] Read more