A luckily evaded Colombia-U.S. 25% tariff tiff highlights possible trade impact on food in colombia. On January 27, 2025, U.S.’ President Donald Trump dangled 25% tariffs over Colombia after President Gustavo Petro refused entry to deportees. After a few hours, Petro eventually backed down despite having also slapped 25% tariffs on U.S.’ imports. If the tariffs had actualized, American products...

A domestic surplus and a syrup import ban by China face Asia’s sugar export champ, the Thai sugar industry. To control oversupply, prices and pollution, the Office of the Cane and Sugar Board (OCSB) has restricted sugarcane burning during harvesting. The board will be screening cane cargo for burning traits to help control the emission of PM2.5 dust particles. These combustion particles are bigger...

American live cattle markets have overseen cash prices cross the significant ¢200-a-pound mark in the week ending January 24, 2025.    According to brokers, by Friday, cash prices had breached $200 a hundredweight, equivalent to 200 cents to the pound.  Meanwhile, cattle futures were edging past the cash record, at ¢203.03 a pound for the main live cattle contract at CME. This...

Times may be changing, with mānuka honey production slumping but health interest on New Zealand’s famous bee product is increasing. The honey comes from bees whose main diet is the herbal Mānuka shrub or Leptospermum scoparium, hence the name. All has not been so rosy in the flowering shrub of late however, with the New Zealand Herald highlighting flailing market performance.  But despite falling home demand,...

Over 200,000 northeast India tea growers are pressuring the Union government on mounting imports that put them at market risk. The North East Confederation Small Tea Growers’ Association contacted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 24, 2025 voicing its dilemma.  One of the perplexing questions is an injunction by the Tea Board of India to stop tea plucking from December...

A fortnightly food price list in Uruguay by the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries is out for January 21- February 3, 2025. These listings are usually recommendations of a few choice staples across all food classes that locals can sample. In partnership with the Metropolitan Agri-Food Unit (UAM), the current fortnight’s choice listings indicate quality and affordability. Debate Uruguay reports...

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has praised her country for ranking first in value added agricultural growth in the European Union (EU) in 2024. This was in a press statement on the government website on January 22, 2025. The Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) put yearly growth at 3.5% vis-á-vis EU’s collective 0.2% growth.  Agricultural production improved by 1.4% year-on-year (y-o-y),...

Farmtok, an ecosystem of farming influencers on TikTok, has made agriculture cool. It has been sharing anything from aerial tours of farms to a few thrilling seconds of grain harvests. There have been many influencers, some of them like Zoe Kent demonstrating through clever pesticide connections how “farming is for the girls.” According to an AP News story on January...

Aussie lychees are thirsting after China with producers rushing to harvest and ship the fruits as the Lunar New Year demand mounts.  Shipments from the domestic lychee capitals of North Queensland in northeast Australia and the island of Tasmania are closely following the October-March harvest.  Mid-January through early February marks the second busiest time of the year after Christmas for...

Czech agricultural producer prices steered upward by 8.1% year-on-year in December 2024, driving food prices up.  According to a January 17, 2025 release by the Czech Statistical Office, most costs emanate from related industries such as energy. The outlook points to hefty price tags ahead for basic foodstuff, a trend already apparent in commercial food. A monthly rise in industrial food production...