News

“AX-1”: An ultra‑high‑precision herbicide spraying robot operating in the field Photo by Kubota
Kubota Leads Investment for €6.5M Funding in AI-powered Weeding
Herbicide options are shrinking for growers, and the savings behind Kubota's weeding-robot bet rest on Kilter's own telemetry.   Read more...
Hormuz and Black Sea Risks Push World Food Index to 136
Hormuz and Black Sea Risks Push World Food Index to 136
The index sits 15.1% below its March 2022 peak, but FAO's chief economist expects the pressure to reach consumer food prices in import-dependent countries if it holds. Read more...
India's Zero Duties Could Boost Sunflower Oil Imports by 30%
India's Zero Duties Could Boost Sunflower Oil Imports by 30%
Soyoil is expected to pay for it, while a top Russian producer sees war-damaged Black Sea ports cutting shipments to India.   Read more...
Heat May Cut 3.1 MT From Four EU Potato Crops
Heat May Cut 3.1 MT From Four EU Potato Crops
Growers contracted much of the crop at prices 15% to 25% below last year's, and now face yields 7% to 21% under the five-year average.   Read more...
China to Lower Tariffs on US Produce Except Soybeans
China to Lower Tariffs on US Produce Except Soybeans
Chinese state buyers are buying more US soybeans, but traders warn a 10% extra tariff is more than private crushers can bear. Read more...
US Cheese Gains Ground in Australia
US Cheese Gains Ground in Australia
Australian cheese production is falling behind record domestic demand, and USDA's own figures show the import gap that creates is increasingly going to US suppliers. Read more...
China's Brazil Soybean Purchases Sink on Losses
China's Brazil Soybean Purchases Sink on Losses
Private crushers are largely out of the market while state buyers alone carry China's US soybean pledge, and Brazil's next harvest isn't due until early 2027. Read more...
Kiwis Now Eat More Avocado at Lunch
Kiwis Now Eat More Avocado at Lunch
NZ Avocado says the shift could help narrow a consumption gap with Australia worth more than $30 million a year to the domestic market. Read more...
US Wine Imports Sink 25.2% in Value in H1
US Wine Imports Sink 25.2% in Value in H1
France and Italy absorbed nearly three-quarters of the year's import decline, even as bag-in-box was the only category to grow. Read more...
Hottest UK Summer Since 1884 Grows Cantaloupes
Hottest UK Summer Since 1884 Grows Cantaloupes
The UK's hottest summer since 1884 helped a Devon farm grow cantaloupes outdoors for the first time, and now it's seeking wholesale buyers. Read more...
Grow Indigo Pays 2,550 Farmers for Carbon Credits
Grow Indigo Pays 2,550 Farmers for Carbon Credits
The Punjab and Haryana payout is one of the first times an Indian company has converted farm carbon credits into cash for the farmers who earned them. Read more...
Corn and Feed Lift US Farm Export Prices to 5.8%
Corn and Feed Lift US Farm Export Prices to 5.8%
The increase is the largest annual gain in nearly four years, but it's still trailing the 8.6% price gain across all US exports in August. Read more...
Ivory Coast Cocoa Sector Struggles With New Rules
Ivory Coast Cocoa Sector Struggles With New Rules
Traders and cooperatives say Ivory Coast's new mandatory producer card could slow cocoa purchases through October and November, just as the 2026/27 season ramps up. Read more...
Canada Taxes US Lumber 25%, Plywood 50%
Canada Taxes US Lumber 25%, Plywood 50%
Even as Ottawa matches Washington's tariffs dollar for dollar, the new 25% rate on US lumber still falls well short of the roughly 45% combined tariff Canadian softwood pays entering... Read more...
U.S. Tariffs Push Canadian Wool Overseas
U.S. Tariffs Push Canadian Wool Overseas
Canada's small wool industry, dependent on U.S. mills it can no longer afford to use, is betting on overseas buyers and its own processing capacity instead. Read more...
US Corn Exports Up 25.1% in 2026
US Corn Exports Up 25.1% in 2026
With just days left in the 2025/26 marketing year, corn shipments are on pace to hit USDA's record forecast while soybean sales keep losing ground to reduced Chinese demand. Read more...
Brazil Overtakes US in Cotton Exports, Hits $5.3B Record
Brazil Overtakes US in Cotton Exports, Hits $5.3B Record
Brazil shipped 718,000 more tonnes than the US in 2025/26, but Abrapa already expects a smaller harvest to shrink next season's exports. Read more...
Two Countries Buy More Than 60% of Ukraine Cheese
Two Countries Buy More Than 60% of Ukraine Cheese
Cheese imports grew roughly 20 times faster than exports over the same seven months, and now outweigh exports more than three to one by volume. Read more...
India Drives Indonesia Palm Oil Export to $3.92B
India Drives Indonesia Palm Oil Export to $3.92B
The rebound followed a monthly price correction, and lands as GAPKI's own leadership flags El Nino-linked risk to 2027 production. Read more...
EU Pesticide Rule Could Cut Imports by 41%
EU Pesticide Rule Could Cut Imports by 41%
The EU's own research service puts $16 billion in US exports at risk, with citrus and soybean imports facing the sharpest hit under a worst-case scenario.   Read more...
India Exported Sugar, Now Must Import It Back
India Exported Sugar, Now Must Import It Back
Retail prices jumped nearly 40% in two months, and traders now expect mills to use only half the government's new import quota as domestic prices have already reversed.   Read more...
EU Seed Imports Fall 27% as Oil Imports Jump 70%
EU Seed Imports Fall 27% as Oil Imports Jump 70%
EU rapeseed oil consumption outgrew the bloc's own oil production this season, pulling in far more imported oil even as a bumper domestic harvest shrank the need for outside seed. Read more...
UK Cheese Hits Export Record as Dairy Sinks to 25%
UK Cheese Hits Export Record as Dairy Sinks to 25%
UK cheese exports hit an all-time high in Q2 2026, even as total dairy export volume fell 25% to 277,800 tonnes, per AHDB.   Read more...
Ukraine Sunflower Oil Exports Cut in Half by Sea Pause
Ukraine Sunflower Oil Exports Cut in Half by Sea Pause
Processors can't move finished stock, and purchase prices for raw sunflower have already started falling as a result. Read more...
Japan Peach Exports To Jump 34%
Japan Peach Exports To Jump 34%
A bigger, better-sized 2026 crop is set to reverse last year's export slide, leaving more Japanese peaches and nectarines for buyers in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Read more...
FDA Upgrades Blueberry Recall to Class I
FDA Upgrades Blueberry Recall to Class I
The FDA classified a Publix blueberry recall as Class I after finding a second contaminated lot from its Chilean supplier, now facing import detention. Read more...
New 50% US Tariff Hits Canadian Dairy, Ag Exports
New 50% US Tariff Hits Canadian Dairy, Ag Exports
Talks between Ottawa and Washington collapsed hours before the deadline, and Carney says Canada will match the tariffs dollar for dollar.   Read more...
US Peach Imports to Mexico Set to Grow 7%
US Peach Imports to Mexico Set to Grow 7%
Frost and hail losses are forecast to shrink Mexico's own peach crop 5% this year, widening the opening U.S. growers already hold under a zero-tariff trade deal. Read more...
Japan Cherry Production Set to Jump 25%
Japan Cherry Production Set to Jump 25%
Yamagata's rebound lands the same year a smaller U.S. sweet cherry crop tightens the supply of imports Japan still leans on. Read more...
Cotton Climbs to 89 Cents, 4th Straight Week Up
Cotton Climbs to 89 Cents, 4th Straight Week Up
USDA's latest crop report showed U.S. cotton conditions falling further behind both last year and the five-year average, and traders are already flagging risk of a pullback after the four-week... Read more...
China Tire Exports Drop; EU Duties Now Active
China Tire Exports Drop; EU Duties Now Active
The decline is in the same month new EU anti-dumping duties on Chinese tires took effect, a shift some Chinese manufacturers were already routing around by shipping from factories in... Read more...
Philippine Rice Imports Jump 20.1% in H1
Philippine Rice Imports Jump 20.1% in H1
The first-half total already covers 57% of the government's full-year import target, as El Niño concerns push the Department of Agriculture to restrict a key import grade ahead of the... Read more...
China Sets New Seed Rules to 10 Crops
China Sets New Seed Rules to 10 Crops
Genetic similarity thresholds now decide who has to prove what when a new variety looks too close to a protected one, and the U.S. government's own trade report flags concern... Read more...
El Niño Fears Lift Prices of Veg Oils, Sugar and Cocoa
El Niño Fears Lift Prices of Veg Oils, Sugar and Cocoa
The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index rose 2.0% in July, to 195.7 points, reaching its highest level since June 2022, according to data released by the Food and Agriculture Organization... Read more...
Saudi Arabia Starts Exporting Potatoes
Saudi Arabia Starts Exporting Potatoes
Desert irrigation and a fast-growing food service sector turned a decades-old self-sufficiency push into a regional export business. Read more...
Black Sea War Pushes India to Record Soyoil Imports
Black Sea War Pushes India to Record Soyoil Imports
Refiners have already booked nearly 1.4 million tons of soyoil for shipment through December, pulling in supply from China, Egypt, Thailand and Turkey alongside traditional sellers Argentina and Brazil. Read more...
Chicago Wheat Jumps 22¢ as Russia Rejects Truce
Chicago Wheat Jumps 22¢ as Russia Rejects Truce
Traders are pricing Black Sea war risk over U.S. crop conditions this week, with Ukraine's own export capacity already cut by more than half this season. Read more...
US Dairy Bets $13B as Farm Count Keeps Falling
US Dairy Bets $13B as Farm Count Keeps Falling
U.S. dairy processors are investing $13 billion across 19 states as USDA projects milk production growing 15 billion pounds by 2030 on fewer farms.   Read more...
China Sets 54.3% Anti-Dumping Rate on US Pecans
China Sets 54.3% Anti-Dumping Rate on US Pecans
China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) ruled preliminarily on August 10 that pecans imported from the United States and Mexico were being dumped in the Chinese market. Importers had to start... Read more...
Colombia Coffee Exports Resume After Earthquake, Backlog Remains
Colombia Coffee Exports Resume After Earthquake, Backlog Remains
Buenaventura, which handles 60% of Colombia's coffee exports, reopened two days after the earthquake. A truck shortage and an unfinished damage assessment mean exporters are not out of the disruption... Read more...
China Buys 88% of Australia's Wool Exports
China Buys 88% of Australia's Wool Exports
China buys 88% of Australia's wool exports, and the industry's record price rally rides almost entirely on demand from a single buyer. Read more...
South African Blueberries Exports 80% of Supply to Europe
South African Blueberries Exports 80% of Supply to Europe
South Africa exported 25,584 MT of blueberries in MY2025/26, with Europe and the UK buying 80%. Read more...
Avocado Packers in Mexico Still Await US Approval
Avocado Packers in Mexico Still Await US Approval
The State of Mexico has met its own export requirements. USDA authorization to sell avocados in the US remains pending. Read more...
US Exports of Fresh Fruits to Singapore Increased to $36.4M in 2025
US Exports of Fresh Fruits to Singapore Increased to $36.4M in 2025
US fresh fruit exports to Singapore rose 6% in 2025 to $36.4M, still trailing China, Malaysia, and Australia as suppliers. Read more...
Monsoon Ventures Launches to Fund SE Asia Agtech
Monsoon Ventures Launches to Fund SE Asia Agtech
Beanstalk AgTech launched Monsoon Ventures, a studio based in Singapore funding agtech startups for smallholder farmers across six Southeast Asian markets. Read more...
Cameroon Cocoa Prices Fall as Supply Drops 20%
Cameroon Cocoa Prices Fall as Supply Drops 20%
Cameroon's marketed cocoa production fell 19.9% to a five-year low of 247,914 tons in 2025/26, even as global oversupply pushed prices down too. Read more...
El Niño Set to Cut Global Rice Output by 9M Tonnes
El Niño Set to Cut Global Rice Output by 9M Tonnes
Global rice production is projected to fall by 9 million tonnes to 536.4 million tonnes in 2026-27 amid El Niño risk and rising costs. Read more...
US Supplies $1.66 Billion of Thailand's $23.5 Billion Agricultural Imports
US Supplies $1.66 Billion of Thailand's $23.5 Billion Agricultural Imports
The US supplied $1.66B of Thailand's $23.5B in agricultural imports in 2025, per USDA. Cherries and apples gained ground while oranges and grapes fell. Read more...
US Dairy Exports Fall 5% as Cheese Volume Peaks
US Dairy Exports Fall 5% as Cheese Volume Peaks
U.S. dairy exports fell 5% in June on a milk solids equivalent basis, even as cheese exports set a new monthly volume record of 64,604 metric tons. Read more...
Australia Demands Certificates on US Meat and Produce
Australia Demands Certificates on US Meat and Produce
  Australia requires U.S. exporters to carry product-specific certificates for meat, produce, and dairy before shipments can clear its border. The requirement is detailed in a FAIRS Export Certificate Report... Read more...