A year after a warm 2022-23 winter and a lengthy freeze decimated peaches in Georgia, which is also known as “the Peach State,” farmers now predict a bountiful crop in 2024. Georgia’s peach farmers stake this hope on a currently normal spring without an unexpected ice freeze like in 2023. In 2023, late freezing conditions...
The average weights of U.S. beef cattle have improved but prices in April 2024 have increased by 5%, year-on-year. An April 17, 2024 report by the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows a month-on-month gain of 1.09% in farm gate prices. The fed cattle price reached $185 per hundredweight ($45.4...
Increasing consumption of olive oil, low global supplies and reigning high prices may spark growth in South Africa’s olive oil industry. This is according to Gilberto Biacuana, research fellow at Land Bank in an April 22, 2024 report on Press Reader. Biacuna notes that the local industry has been growing by 20% per year, the fastest for any agricultural sub-sector...
While renewing its exclusive access to south Pacific tuna fisheries, the US Congress was from April 8, 2024 considering $600 million in assistance to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty. If the finances come through, they will nearly triple United States’ yearly contribution to the treaty, to $60 million. The funds will be utilized between 2024 and 2034...
The prices of Norwegian salmon have appreciated by 41% in Q1 2024 in comparison to those of Q1 2023. The three-month appreciation has been driven by week by week marginal price increases. By week 2, April 2024, for instance, the average price had increased to NOK 137.41 ($12.41) per kg, up from NOK 135.28 ($12.22). Waning farmed salmon quantities...
Virginia’s peeler crab season which officially kick-started on April 15, 2024 is registering high prices because crab numbers remain unknown. The season occurs at the close of the main US crab season, which runs from October to January. According to the President of Virginia Waterman’s Association, J.C. Hudgins, soft shell peeler crabs are currently quite expensive. They start at $100...
As the U.S. lobster season in Maine gears up to its June start, customers are paying highly for lobster rolls. Hailed as the expensive side of lobster dishes, lobster rolls were costing $30 per 4-ounce piece in mid-April 2024. A lobster roll is a sandwich the size of a hot dog made of toasted wheat bun stuffed with lobster meat. ...
As global cocoa shortage continues, Ivory Coast has reported a 30% drop in cocoa shipments, year-on-year, between October 1, 2023 and April 14, 2024. This is even as Ghana is negotiating delivery postponements to counter lack of supplies. Government data on April 15, 2024 showed that Ivory Coast exported only 1.31 million metric tonnes in the just-concluded main cocoa...
Following a week’s delay, the snow crab season in Newfoundland and Labrador province in Canada is finally underway after a landing price increment. On April 14, 2024, the Fish, Food & Allied Workers (FFAW) announced a settlement with the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) of CA$3 (US$2.18) a pound. Besides, the union will back its workers to find buyers...
Connecticut’s Attorney General William Tong has launched an inquiry into “food price gouging” among Connecticut grocers after a federal report exposé. This comes two months after President Joe Biden pressured American groceries to lower prices amid falling production costs. In its part, the Connecticut AG’s office announced on April 11, 2024 that families “are getting squeezed” by...