Onions are sold at a market at Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums, in Mumbai, India on April 7, 2020. (File photo: Reuters/Francis Mascarenhas)

High food prices hurting India’s poor

Inflation pain expected to persist for months yet

New Delhi | Reuters — India’s retail inflation may stay elevated for at least three more months after hitting a six-year high in October, as excess rain has damaged standing crops and seedlings, while edible oils that the country imports have become expensive. The high prices are a particular cause of concern for India’s hundreds […] Read more

Louis Dreyfus’ oilseed processing plant at Yorkton, Sask. (LDC.com)

Louis Dreyfus to gain first outside investor

Abu Dhabi's ADQ fund to acquire indirect 45 per cent stake

Paris | Reuters — Louis Dreyfus Co. (LDC) has agreed to sell a 45 per cent stake to Abu Dhabi’s ADQ, the companies said on Wednesday, the first outside investment in the family-owned commodity merchant’s 169-year-old history. The deal comes after a search by chairwoman Margarita Louis-Dreyfus for an investor to relieve debt built up […] Read more


Smoke rises from the site of burning railcars at a CP derailment near Guernsey, Sask., on Feb. 6, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Nayan Sthankiya)

New rail speed limits to be based on temperatures

Railways wanting to run under new limits must develop winter operation plans

Given the odds of weird temperature swings happening somewhere in Canada at any time of year, railways will now instead be required to slow their trains’ speeds based on how cold it is outside at the time, rather than a date range. Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau on Friday announced a new ministerial order meant […] Read more

(Serts/iStock/Getty Images)

Pulse weekly outlook: Export demand supports lentils

India set to extend current tariff reductions

MarketsFarm — Lentil prices in Western Canada saw a counter-seasonal rally at the end of harvest and are likely to sustain that rally into winter. “Prices are going to keep going higher,” Darcy Barie, a commodity buyer with Verdient Foods at Vanscoy, Sask., said. Ahead of the 2020 harvest, red lentils were around 24 cents/lb. […] Read more


The McDonald’s “P.L.T.” (CNW Group/McDonald’s Canada)

McDonald’s to make its own ‘McPlant’ items

Beyond Meat says co-created patty

Reuters — Burger chain McDonald’s on Monday decided to debut its own plant-based meat alternatives line called “McPlant” in 2021, including a patty that Beyond Meat subsequently said it helped co-create. “Beyond Meat and McDonald’s co-created the plant-based patty which will be available as part of their McPlant platform,” a Beyond Meat spokesperson said in […] Read more

(PortMetroVancouver.com)

Baltic Dry Index at four-month lows

Declining demand seen from China

MarketsFarm — Ocean freight rates have fallen off of their highs of the past year over the course of the past month, but remain well above the lows hit in the spring when global markets first started reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Baltic Dry Index (BDI), a major indicator of shipping rates, has moved […] Read more





Hapag-Lloyd containers at a shipping terminal in Hamburg in March 2017. (File photo: Reuters/Fabian Bimmer)

Pulse industry watching container supply closely

One major container firm is shipping them back to Asia empty to meet a surge in demand

Pulse Canada is keeping an eye on container supplies following the recent announcement by a major supplier it would be shipping them back empty to Asia from North America to meet a surge in demand. Why it matters: Canadian pulse crop exporters rely on shipping containers to get their products to international customers. A lack […] Read more

One Canada Square (tower at centre) houses the London head office of the International Grains Council. (Iliffd/iStock/Getty Images)

IGC cuts record-large world grain production outlook slightly

MarketsFarm — World grain production for 2020-21 was revised slightly lower by the International Grains Council in its latest report Thursday, but the group is still anticipating record large supplies overall. Wheat and coarse grains are forecast to total 2.226 million tonnes, which would be down by one million tonnes from the September forecast but […] Read more