Namibia’s grapes are supplanting the gap left by a 10% fall in South African table grape supplies in UK supermarkets by January 23, 2024. Drastic weather in 2023 decreased the supply of grapes from South Africa, the traditional source for UK grocers.  Already, the red seedless variety that thrives in the mild weather of southern Namibia is proving a hit among...

Rising shipping costs have made shippers of agricultural goods from the West Mediterranean reconsider redelivery of shipments to Asia.  China and India are receiving most of these expensive redeliveries Houthi rebels based in Yemen started targeting commerce ships plying the Red Sea  in end 2023.  Hence, deliveries of commodities like wheat from Europe to Asia have been losing at least 9 days...

Peanuts, soybean oil, hides and pork were among U.S. produce whose export sales decreased in the week ending January 21, 2024. On an upper trajectory were corn, soybeans, cotton, rice and wheat, due to increasing demand in mainly Asia and Europe. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released these weekly summaries on January 19, 2024.   Peanuts down Farmers received farm gate...

Peru’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Juan Carlos Mathews estimated on January 8, 2024 that national exports in 2023 would equal 2022’s. One of these exports is avocados, of which the minister said Peru ranks second worldwide. Mathews’ projections echo a rise by 9% in total avocado exports from January to September 2023 in comparison to 2022. By September, Peru’s avocado...

China on January 18, 2024 allowed the domestic production of several GMO cultivars of corn and soybeans, including single corn and soy imports, apiece. These genetically modified crop approvals are the first steps in a race to fight domestic food security concerns. With an aim to realize 100% self-sufficiency in agricultural production, China’s GMO crop production targets mainly grains and textile. In this latest development, the...

On January 18, California’s fishermen hauled in their delayed first harvest of Dungeness crabs but they rued the price. Though the Dungeness crab season officially began on January 5, actual fishing took place only this week after a strike in Redwood, CA.  The strike by fishermen, which lasted till January 17, was in protest against the low landing prices by crab...

Cocoa ended January 18 on a higher note after a slump a day earlier occasioned by mixed demand. This is even as prospects of rain in West Africa bring hope of more supplies to curb present tight supplies..  On January 17, cocoa prices in London and New York had lowered amid unpredictable demand blamed on reigning record-high prices. The price...

A California court has dismissed a 2022 case against a West Coast aquarium for featuring American lobster on its “red list” of species not to eat. This is barely a week after New England’s lobster fishermen dropped the lawsuit to which they had pegged $75,000 in damages. The suit began in September 2022 when Seafood Watch of Monterey Bay Aquarium, California advised against eating lobster from North America. The...

Each winter from December to February, orange merchants from a Himalayan village in Paro district, Bhutan, relocate to Tsirang to export the commodity. This usually coincides with a time when oranges in Bhutan are simultaneously maturing in different districts. This season, some 40 exporters from Paro, the seat of Bhutan’s international airport, have come to Tsirang, the commercial trucking center. Gathering a hardworking...

Vancouver Island and the south-western province of British Columbia (B.C.) in Canada expect freezing rain and snowfall from January 17. The regions are the latest stopping points of a freezing winter storm that is moving from the west. For B.C., the weather change will temper a relatively dry winter, with strong winds bringing precipitation at temperatures below zero degrees Celsius. Already...