People in the United States are renting chicken for eggs like there is no tomorrow over bird flu-related egg inflation. Although plant-based eggs abound, Americans are still adamant for the real thing whose prices now average $4.95 a dozen. Luckily, longterm rental firms have made leasing a backyard layer or two cool and even professional. One of these, Rent The...
Coffee demand brings Kenya’s estates record $6.60 per kg
Robust coffee demand drove late 2024 auction prices at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) to record 859.40 shillings ($6.60) per kg. Helpfully, dry weather effect on Brazil’s and Vietnam’s crops rallied international prices to a historic $3.3545 a pound (7.37 per kg). This strong international price was a windfall for Kenya’s coffee estates, just then beginning their October harvest. And since that time, NCE...
Rice in Japan grows dear as inflation surges 0.4%
With inflation up by 0.4% in January 2025 from December 2024, rice in Japan is at its steepest pricing on record. This turn of events has eclipsed the legendary deflation that Japan has toyed with for decades. The Bank of Japan put the core consumer price index (CPI) for January 2025 at 3.2%, year-on-year (y-o-y). Marking the second straight month that the...
A California strawberry freeze spikes market demand
Torrential rain and snow have lately hosed through the central California strawberry belt and created market shortage amid high demand. Some key producers in Santa Maria in central California such as Markon Cooperative sent advisories of harvest disruptions by rain. The cooperative cited over 2 inches of rain in northern Santa Barbara, which effectively postponed picking schedule until February 19. Neither have...
Agriculture Canada ups canola ending stock by 500k t
Agriculture Canada has in February added 0.5 million tonnes to its monthly estimate of the 2024-25 canola ending stock. The raise over the foregoing January estimate puts the ending reserve at 1.3 million tonnes or half 2023-24’s 2.75 million tonnes. This means that the 2024-25 stock might go down to the wire as the tightest in the past 12 years. ...
Humpback whale recreates Jonah moment in Chile: the bigger picture
A once-in-a-lifetime experience has recalled defunct whaling after a humpback whale spouted kayaker Adrian Simancas on the Strait of Magellan, Chile. Still garnering clicks on video weeks later, the mid-February 2025 experience took place at the southernmost expanse of South American waters. Even though the whale took Adrian into its open jaws, it spit him out unharmed moments later due to...
Fish prices in PH could reduce after fishing ban ends
The end of a 3-month ban in Zamboanga and Visayan Sea in mid-February 2025 could cool fish prices in PH, especially sardines. Since quarter 4, 2024, the Philippines has been implementing a fishing ban on the southern seas to protect the sardine stock. This lifting of the moratorium comes just a week after the Zamboanga del Sur fisheries got another ban on...
New Zealand again turns milk-bullish at $10/kgMS
For the second year, milkmen in New Zealand could again bag a NZ$10 ($5.72) per kilogram of milk solids (kgMS) farm gate average. As the last quarter of the 2024-25 season closes in May, milk could still lock at the forecast NZ$10+ ($5) per kgMS. Westpac’s forecasts have even got bold enough to bet that the product might hit NZ$10.30 ($5.90) a...
Farmers welfare, irrigation get lion’s share of India’s agriculture budget
Rural development is the focus of India’s 2025-26 agriculture budget after Agriculture and Farmers Welfare amassed 40% of the departmental budget. The total national budget of 50.65 trillion rupees ($582.5 billion) focused mainly on infrastructure development and agriculture. On February 17, 2025, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi noted that annual agriculture & allied budget has increased 12%. The allocation for agriculture & allied sectors...
The South Africa sugar sector hopeful of tax moratorium
The South Africa sugar industry expects the Finance Minister Enoch Gogongwana not to increase a biting health levy during the February 19, 2025 budget. While the minister may not terminate the controversial health promotion levy (HPL), he might offer a 60-month moratorium of not raising it. According to the executive director of South African Sugar Association (SASA) Sifiso Mhlaba in Durban, a moratorium would...