South Korea’s agricultural export value for farm produce and food products has risen by 3.4% in 12 months ending Q1, 2024, to $2.27 billion. Data by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs links the improvement to high export growth to Western destinations. Shipments to the U.S. grew by 14.2%, to $352 million while those...
The common potato may soon reclassify as a grain if the U.S. Senate fails to defend its waning vegetable status. It may be the number one food for the average American, who consumes 49.4 pounds of potatoes per year, but classifiers call it starchy. Hence, it may soon earn an infamous inclusion in the grain section of the oncoming...
Seven months after lifting Aussie barley tariffs, China on March 28, 2024 ended a longstanding punitive tariff on Australia’s wine imports. This follows an understanding that Australia has enforced anti-dumping measures that will prevent unchecked flow of wine to China. Dumping overshadowed a 0% wine import duty provision of 2015, which had given Australia a 14% tariff advantage...
The Philippines has partnered with the Czech Republic for agricultural exchanges, ushering a new dawn in bilateral trade especially in dairy production. Talks began during a March tour to Prague by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., with his Department of Agriculture (DA)’s delegation. A followup visit to Manila by the Czech Republic’s Agriculture Minister Marek Vyborny confirmed three key...
As the durian season starts this April, Chanthaburi province in eastern Thailand is bracing to be the number 1 supplier to China. With its capacity to produce 500,000 tonnes of durian per year, Chanthaburi’s export potential has drawn the government’s notice. On March 26, Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce started a campaign to market the province’s number one...
Exports of U.S.’ beef, pork and green vegetables to the Far-east may become expensive amid the weakening of Japan’s yen. The currency of the world’s number 3 economy lapsed to 151.30 against the dollar on March 28, the lowest since 2022. Central Bank of Japan puts the blame on its own reduction of interest rates to bolster the economy. The...
Two seafood territories on different sides of the world are in for off-season lobster Easter brunches amid rising prices. New South Wales in Australia may not see its lobster season until July, same with Louisiana in the U.S, but they are both well-supplied. Louisiana’s Lobster Price to Rise by $1 Just a month before the lobster...
12 days after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, borderline agriculture logistics have been running on alternatives. The March 16 accident occurred when a container ship from Singapore lost power and bumped onto the bridge’s pillars. Since then, shipping lines have been diverting to other east coast ports. Backlogging and...
Global cocoa prices have crossed the $10,000-per-tonne mark, a 138% rise year-on-year adrift a supply gap. Cocoa showings on March 26 on the Intercontinental Exchange read $10,080 per tonne, a trading history first. This confirms predictions by cocoa processor Guang Chong of a price crossover from the March 25 value of $9,000 a tonne. Likewise, cocoa futures had risen by 11.5% in...
The national government has promised avocado farmers in Kenya that it will review a controversial e-tax clause to exempt them from double taxation. Briefing the press in Nairobi on March 26, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said he has formed a committee to review avocado taxes. At the heart of the matter is Section 23A of the Finance Act...