The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports 251.5 million pounds of pecan production for 2023, a 9.4% drop from 2022. In its monthly crop report of December 8, 2023, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) cites a 1.4% increase over previous estimates. This year’s production marks a slight fall by 9.4% from the 2022 season, which bagged...
The outbreak of salmonella from eating tainted cantaloupe continues in the U.S. and Canada. There have been 8 fatalities as of December 8, even as food safety lawyers initiate an anti-trust lawsuit. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported 230 infections in the U.S. by December 8, 96 of whom in hospital. Canada also imported the tainted cantaloupe from...
The Department of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock of Panjshir in Afghanistan has reported a bumper harvest of walnuts totalling 241 metric tonnes. The 2023 season beat 2022’s output of 217 metric tonnes, but came shy of the record production of 2021. The Department of Agriculture’s head, Qari Fazlullah Dewobandi attributed the output to good weather including a...
Three days since China bought record tonnage of U.S. wheat and prompted the price per bushel to hit $6.491/2, price parity has returned. Though the March wheat contract in Chicago lowered to $6.33 1/2 per bushel on December 7, it has stayed put. Comparatively, it is worlds apart from the late November low of $5.43 1/2 a bushel. Since August, consistent wheat...
Long-term drought in Spain and Italy has sent olive oil prices to 9 Euros ($9.71) a litre in the most affordable stores. At the same time, police in Greece, Spain and Italy have cornered counterfeiters selling ordinary oil as extra-virgin. The root for the skyrocketing price and counterfeiting lies in Spain’s dominance of the product. Producing 70%...
The city of Paris in France is growing the first urban forest of its kind in the circular Place de Catalogne roundabout. This is a part of a multi-year bid to transform the city of lights into a ‘garden city.’ In a greening project that began in 2021, the Paris City Hall targets to plant 170,000 trees by 2026....
China has unveiled an AI-run lettuce-growing farm, the world’s tallest vertical farm. The facility is situated in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in southwest China. A design by scientists, with supervision from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the 20-storey structure is wholly unmanned. One of the breakthroughs of this AI-controlled facility is the capability to produce lettuce...
A record potato crop in North America has dealt a price blow on American producers while Canada grapples with rot from surplus. In the U.S., there has been a 9% climb in production. Farmers in Idaho have seen their first major potato crop in two years and are selling at aggressive prices despite the surplus. In Canada, 89,000 acres countrywide...
By end November, 2023, Russia had threshed 99 million tons of wheat and was forecasting 65 million tonnes in exports. Some of this glut is on the way to six African nations that will receive free grain. A Reuters report from an Interfax feed showed that 98% of the grain harvest was already complete by November 29. ...
Zimbabwe’s blueberry production doubled to 7000 tons in November 2023 in line with the Horticulture Development Council (HDC)’s forecast. HDC now predicts that horticultural production in the country will treble in 5 years. Paving the way for that prediction, wheat production has already shot up to 468,000 metric tonnes. The tobacco harvest has garnered 300 million...