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Showing posts from March, 2024

Two years with war in Ukraine - What's the status in the wheat market?

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Russia is the world's fourth largest wheat producer and produces over 90 million tons of wheat annually. Ukraine, on the other hand, is the ninth largest with a production of more than 25 million tons. Combined is the two countries accountable for 15% of the world's wheat production. (IGC, 2024). Russia had what we call a bumper wheat crop in the marketing year of 2022/2023 and in 2023/2024. A bumper wheat crop is an unusually good wheat harvest. Ukraine is affected by the war, but they are actually doing very well production wise. Some areas are not possible to grow, but the yield was 4,6 tons per hectare in 2023/2024 which is 1,4 tons more than Russia is able to in their area. (USDA, 2024). Ukraine´s production and exports has not been influenced as much as first believed and the combination above has led to a surplus coming out of the Black Sea Region which presses the future prices down to a low that we haven't seen in a long time. The ending stocks are also quite high ...

U.S. and Mexico dispute: Genetically modified corn

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In the end of 2024 it is expected that the U.S. dispute with Mexico over genetically modified corn is going to be resolved, says the U.S. chief Agricultural negotiator McKalip. In 2020 Mexico published a presidential decree that said that the country would ban the genetically modified corn from human diets, arguing that it is posing a threat against the native corn varieties and could pose a threat to human health. McKalip Argues that; “This case is about a lot more than biotech corn. It’s about making sure that nations adhere to the provisions of the trade agreements they’ve already signed and making sure we stick to science as the underpinning of trade”. Mexico buys about $5 billion of U.S. GMO corn each year, most for livestock feed. The background for the dispute is stemming from the Mexican president Lopez Obrador´s 2020 and 2023 Corn Decrees. Mexico has been standing firm on its ban of genetically modified corn, the reasons for their ban and legislative change was because of h...