Stories by Sybille de La Hamaide

(Groupe Soufflet video screengrab via YouTube)

InVivo in talks to acquire French agribusiness Soufflet

Firms see limited overlap outside grain trading

By Sybille de La Hamaide, Gus Trompiz, GFM Network News January 14, 2021

Paris | Reuters — Co-operative group InVivo has entered exclusive talks to acquire family-controlled Soufflet in a deal that would create one of Europe’s biggest agricultural businesses with 10 billion euros (C$15.5 billion) in sales, the French firms said on Wednesday. The potential consolidation comes as France, the European Union’s largest agricultural producer, is trying […] Read more

Reuters

France to help farmers to abandon glyphosate weedkiller

By Sybille de La Hamaide, GFM Network News December 7, 2020

Paris | Reuters – France will give financial aid to farmers who agree to halt use of glyphosate, the farm ministry said on Monday after President Macron said he had failed with efforts to ban use of the weedkiller by 2021. Glyphosate, first developed by Bayer’s Monsanto under the Roundup brand, has generated intense global […] Read more

Roquette’s plant-based protein products include Nutralys T70S, billed as a plant-based, texturized protein that “guarantees a unique fibrous texture and great use adaptable to several types of meat substitute” such as burger patties, chicken-type filets and sausage. (Roquette.com)

Crops, Markets, Peas, Reuters

Plant-based protein maker Roquette sees short-term COVID-19 impact

Demand could accelerate second Canadian plant

By Sybille de La Hamaide, GFM Network News September 30, 2020

Paris | Reuters — The plant-based protein market has seen a slowdown in new product launches and lower sales in restaurants and cafeterias due to COVID-19 but benefited from more people cooking at home and trying new products, French manufacturer Roquette said. The market for plant-based protein such as meat-free burgers has surged in the […] Read more

Workers sort cuts of fresh pork in a processing plant of pork producer WH Group in Zhengzhou in China’s Henan province in this file photo, taken through glass, from Nov. 24, 2017. (File photo: Reuters/Dominique Patton)

Hogs, Reuters

China’s pork output to fall by at least 20 percent in 2019: FAO

By Sybille de La Hamaide November 7, 2019

Paris | Reuters – African swine fever (ASF) will cut pork output in China, the world’s largest producer, by at least 20 percent in 2019, the United Nations’ food agency said on Thursday, doubling the decline it had expected six months ago. The disease has slashed China’s hog herd since August 2018, pushing Chinese pork […] Read more

Workers in protective suits at a checkpoint near a farm where African swine fever was detected, in Fangshan district of Beijing, China Nov. 23, 2018. The disease has spread rapidly to several countries in Southeast Asia with more countries likely to be hit in the coming months.
Photo: Reuters/File

Hogs, Livestock, Reuters

No country immune to risk of African swine fever spreading: OIE

By Sybille de La Hamaide October 31, 2019

Paris | Reuters – African swine fever will spread further across Asia where it has devastated herds, and no country is immune from being hit by the deadly animal virus, the head of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Wednesday. The disease, which has hit the world’s top pork producer China hard, […] Read more

A macrophage (immune response) cell in early stages of infection with African swine fever virus, magnified about 1,000x. (Keith Weller photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Hogs, Livestock, Reuters

China faces long struggle to tackle African swine fever, OIE says

By Sybille de La Hamaide May 30, 2019

Paris | Reuters — It will take years for China to contain the deadly African swine fever virus that has spread throughout the country, which is the world’s biggest pork producer, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said on Tuesday. China has been struggling to control the epidemic, which some analysts predict could see […] Read more

Aerial view of a rapeseed field in Germany. (Cinoby/E+/Getty Images)

Canola, Crops, Reuters

French, German farmers destroy crops after GMOs found in Bayer seeds

By Sybille de La Hamaide February 6, 2019

Paris | Reuters — Bayer said on Wednesday that farmers in France and Germany were digging up thousands of hectares of rapeseed fields after traces of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) banned for cultivation were found in seeds sold by the company. GMO crops are widely grown across the world, but they remain controversial in Europe, […] Read more

Protesters wearing yellow vests, the symbol of a French drivers’ protest against higher diesel prices, occupy a roundabout in Cissac-Medoc, France on Wednesday. The slogan in pink reads “Urgent, purchase power, dignity for all.” (Photo: Reuters/Regis Duvignau)

General, Machinery, Markets, Reuters

France delays food price rise for farmers after protests

By Jean-Baptiste Vey, Sybille de La Hamaide December 5, 2018

Paris | Reuters — France, reeling from violent protests over the cost of living, said Wednesday it will delay a planned rise in minimum food prices, incurring the wrath of the main farmers group which urged street action next week. A powerful constituency in French politics, farmers have long complained of being hit by a […] Read more

Crops, Reuters

Heatwave ravages European fields, sending wheat prices soaring

By Michael Hogan, Polina Devitt, Sybille de La Hamaide August 2, 2018

Paris | Moscow | Hamburg | Reuters – Searing heat has devastated wheat fields across northern Europe while a combination of dry conditions and extreme rain in the Black Sea have hit output estimates, with prices soaring on fears of further crop damage. Evidence of serious harm to crops is growing as harvesting heads north in […] Read more

Livestock, Reuters

ADM to buy French animal feed business Neovia

By Sybille de La Hamaide, Tom Polansek July 2, 2018

Paris/Chicago | Reuters — Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is in exclusive talks to take over French animal feed business Neovia for 1.5 billion euros (C$2.3 billion) as part of the U.S. farm giant’s strategy to expand in the fast-growing animal nutrition sector. Neovia is majority owned by French cooperative group InVivo. Investment group Eurazeo […] Read more

Klassen: Feeder market heating up

AGI to buy into soil microbe breeding firm

U.S. livestock: Cattle futures climb as corn prices cool

GFM Network News