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☆ World food prices fall to two-year low in May, UN food agency says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) - The United Nations food agency's world price index fell in May to its lowest in two years, as a slump in prices of vegetable oils, cereals and dairy outweighed increases for sugar and meat. The Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) price index, which tracks the most globally-traded food commodities, averaged 124.3 points in May against a revised 127.7 for the previous month, the agency said on Friday. But international rice prices continued to increase in May, partly due to tighter supplies in some exporting countries, said FAO. However, improving weather conditions in Brazil and lower crude oil prices have curbed sugar markets, it added. Wheat stocks were forecast to fall, however, as production was seen declining while demand was expected to be stable.

Persons: Gus Trompiz, Emelia Sithole Organizations: United, Agriculture Organization's, FAO, El, Thomson Locations: United Nations, Ukraine, Brazil

☆ El Nino may hammer Asian farms with dry weather, but shower American growers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Naveen Thukral | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

El Nino, a warming of water surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean, is expected to develop in the coming months, according to meteorologists. The onset of monsoon rains across South Asia is likely to be slightly delayed this year and El Nino could hit rice and oilseeds production. "El Nino could develop during July ... it might have an impact in the second half of the season," said O.P. "In general, a big part of the Pampean region and Northern Argentina have above-normal rains with the El Nino phenomenon." In Europe, where El Nino is not typically linked to pronounced weather patterns, major crops are in good shape after abundant spring rain, with the exception of drought-hit Spain.

Persons: El Nino, Chris Hyde, El, Phin Ziebell, Sreejith, Germán Heinzenknecht, David Tolleris, Rains, Naveen Thukral, Maximilian Heath, Mark Weinraub, Rajendra Jadhav, Gus Trompiz, Christian Schmollinger Organizations: Nino, El, National Australia Bank, India Meteorological Department, El Nino, HIT, Thomson Locations: Australia, India, Southeast Asia, Asia U.S, South America, SINGAPORE, Asia, U.S, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, El Nino, Americas, Russia, Ukraine, New South Wales, Queensland, South Asia, ARGENTINA, United States, Argentina, Northern Argentina, China, Europe, Spain, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Paris

Farmers in Poland and other eastern European countries who held out for higher prices have been hit by a perfect storm. A jump in exports from Brazil and Russia helped to drive global grain prices lower while the EU opened its borders to tariff-free Ukrainian grain imports in a show of solidarity after Russia blocked the country's Black Sea ports. After opening its borders to Ukrainian grain, Poland imported 2.08 million tonnes of maize and 579,315 tonnes of wheat last year, up from just 6,269 tonnes of maize and 3,033 tonnes of wheat in 2021. If the grain corridor due to expire this month were to collapse, Ukrainian farmers would have little option but to send all their grain exports through eastern Europe. European wheat prices hit post-harvest highs in October 2022 of more than 350 euros a tonne but since then prices have dropped to pre-invasion levels of about 235 euros.

PARIS, April 18 (Reuters) - French shipping group CMA CGM (CMACG.UL) is offering 5 billion euros ($5.48 billion) for the logistics unit of Bollore, the family-run conglomerate said on Tuesday. For Bollore a deal would mean cutting ties with its biggest business while offering cash-rich CMA CGM a chance to bolster its bid to offer end-to-end transportation services and supply chain management. Bollore said in a statement that it had agreed to enter into exclusive talks with CMA CGM until May 8. CMA CGM, privately controlled by the founding Saade family, has seen its earnings surge in the past two years on high freight rates and saturated supply chains. Bollore, run by the family of billionaire Vincent Bollore, sold its Bollore Africa Logistics business last year to shipping company MSC Group for 5.7 billion euros.

☆ France's Macron signs contested pension bill into law
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PARIS, April 15 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron has signed into law a bill to raise the state pension age that sparked mass protests, the government's official journal showed on Saturday. The proclamation of the law came after France's Constitutional Council on Friday approved the main pension-age increase and follows months of demonstrations against the plan, which the government forced through parliament without a final vote. Protesters gather in front of the Paris City Hall after the Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel) approved most of the French government's pension reform, in Paris, France, April 14, 2023. Francois Ruffin, a lawmaker from the left-wing LFI party, on Twitter accused the government of proclaiming the pension law "like thieves in the night". Opposition parties have tabled another bid for a citizens' referendum on the reform after the Constitutional Council on Friday rejected a first such proposal.

☆ France says pesticide ban will not hit grain exports
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

He said that EU countries including Germany and Bulgaria were also using the pesticide on grain exports to Algeria. The questions in Parliament followed a weekend report by l'Opinion newspaper that said French grain exports would come to a halt from April 25. With the deadline looming, French grain producers had called for a swift response from the government. "We are depriving ourselves of a quarter of the outlets for French cereals," Eric Thirouin, head of French grain growers group AGPB, told Reuters. Exports put at risk by the ANSES decision amount to about 4 billion euros ($4.37 billion) in trade surplus, compared with a total grain trade surplus of about 11 billion euros last year, he said.

[1/4] French railway workers on strike demonstrate against BlackRock company inside an office building as part of the eleventh day of nationwide strikes and protests against French government's pension reform, in Paris, France, April 6, 2023. REUTERS/Stephanie LecocqPARIS, April 6 (Reuters) - Dozens of trade unionists railing against French President Emmanuel Macron's pension overhaul briefly invaded the central Paris building in which U.S.-based investment firm BlackRock has an office, chanting slogans and setting off firecrackers. The union action in the historical Centorial building near Paris' Grand Boulevards area, targetted BlackRock because of its private pension fund activity, protester Françoise Onic, 51, told Reuters. Thomson Reuters has an office in the same building. The government says change is needed to keep the pension system in the black.

☆ French PM offers to meet opposition, unions amid pension crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PARIS, March 26 (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne plans to meet with opposition leaders and trade unions in the hope of ending weeks of protests against a new pension law, her office said on Sunday. President Emmanuel Macron has ruled out scrapping or delaying the legislation, tasking his prime minister with finding fresh support in parliament after the government failed to find enough votes for the bill. Borne will meet with political party leaders and also aims to restart dialogue with unions over labour issues, her office said, without mentioning the pension bill. The prime minister added in an interview with AFP that the meetings with opposition and union leaders would take place in the week starting April 3. Unions have scheduled a 10th day of nationwide protests against the pension law on Tuesday, after a previous day of action last Thursday saw the most violent clashes yet with police.

☆ French police clash with protesters opposed to farm reservoir
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Yves HermanSAINTE-SOLINE, France, March 25 (Reuters) - Police in western France clashed with protesters on Saturday opposed to the creation of a large water reservoir for farm irrigation. Thousands of protesters converged on the site of the planned reservoir in the rural district of Sainte-Soline, where a similar protest last October resulted in injuries. Police fired tear gas to repel some protesters who threw fireworks and other projectiles as they crossed fields to approach the fenced-off construction area. Supporters say artificial reservoirs are a way to use water efficiently when needed, while critics argue they are outsized and favour large farms. Reporting by Yves Herman and Marco Trujillo; Writing by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Mike HarrisonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The government had been preparing a third and final annual dispensation to cover the 2023 sugar beet crop. Sugar beet growers group CGB condemned the "brutality of the decision" a few weeks before spring planting. That could further discourage sugar beet growers who faced drought-related yield losses last year and put a question mark over sugar production capacity. "When sugar manufacturers don't have enough sugar beet they have to close. The EU court's ruling followed a challenge to a similar exemption for neonicotinoid use on sugar beet in Belgium.

PARIS, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Senalia, operator of France's largest grain export terminal, aims to load 4.6 million tonnes of cereals in the 2022/23 season to June 30, up nearly 14% from 2021/22, supported by Chinese demand and war disruption to Black Sea trade, it said on Friday. France is the European Union's biggest grain supplier and its brisk wheat shipments have contributed to higher overall EU wheat exports so far this season. Flows from Russia and Ukraine have since recovered, though, helped by the creation of a wartime grain corridor from Ukrainian ports. Senalia loaded 4.05 million tonnes of cereals in the previous 2021/22 season, it said. Tonnage was more than halved in 2021/22 after Saint Louis Sucre, a unit of Germany's Suedzucker (SZUG.DE), ended a partnership.

☆ Paris shooting suspect expressed 'hatred of foreigners', says prosecutor
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/PARIS, Dec 25 (Reuters) - The suspect detained over the killing of three Kurdish people in Paris told investigators of his "hatred of foreigners", the Paris prosecutor said on Sunday. The 69-year-old man was arrested on Friday after shooting dead two men and a woman at a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby Kurdish cafe in the 10th district of Paris. The suspect said during questioning that a burglary at his home in 2016 had triggered a "hatred of foreigners that became totally pathological", prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement. The suspect remained in a psychiatric unit on Sunday after his questioning was halted on Saturday on medical grounds, the prosecutor said. The prosecutor had previously said that the suspect had been freed from detention recently while awaiting trial for a sabre attack on a migrant camp in Paris a year ago.

☆ France's Kurds gather to protest after Paris killings
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A gunman carried out the killings at a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby cafe on Friday in a busy part of Paris' 10th district. Friday's murders caused particular dismay in the Kurdish community as it prepared to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the killings of three Kurdish women in Paris. "The Kurdish community is afraid. It needs answers, support and consideration," David Andic, a lawyer representing the CDK-F told reporters on Friday. Paris' police chief was due to meet members of the Kurdish community on Saturday morning ahead of the afternoon protest.

Though a tiny fraction of the nation's plantings, the previously unreported total represents the company's biggest ever release of hybrid wheat. NEARLY 100 YEARSFarmers have used hybrid seeds since the 1930s to grow corn, followed by other crops ranging from peanuts to tomatoes. Producing hybrid wheat seeds is still more complicated and expensive than conventional wheat. Hybrid wheat can produce more uniform results across fields than conventional wheat, and may deliver better yields on poor soil, Hankey said. Syngenta projected in 2015 that its annual sales of hybrid wheat seeds could potentially reach $3 billion by 2032.

☆ World food prices ease further in November, says FAO
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) price index, which tracks the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 135.7 points last month, down from 135.9 for October, the agency said on Friday. Lower readings for cereals, meat and dairy products in November offset higher prices for vegetable oils and sugar, the FAO said. The slight decrease in November meant that the FAO food index is now only 0.3% above its level a year earlier, the agency said. The FAO warned last month that expected record food import costs in 2022 would lead the poorest countries to cut back on shipped volumes. In separate cereal supply and demand estimates, the FAO lowered its forecast for global cereal production in 2022 to 2.756 billion tonnes from 2.764 billion estimated last month.

☆ France's CMA CGM sees profits ebbing as shipping boom fades
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] The logo of CMA-CGM shipping company is pictured on a container in Montoir-de-Bretagne near Saint-Nazaire, France, March 4, 2022. French-based CMA CGM, one of the world's largest container lines, reported on Friday a net profit of $7.0 billion for the third quarter, up from $5.6 billion in the year-earlier period. CMA CGM, based in Marseille and privately controlled by the founding Saade family, said its energy costs had increased by $822 million year-on-year in the third quarter. Its soaring profits over the past year drew calls from the French government for CMA CGM to help cushion inflation pressures. CMA CGM responded with shipping discounts for cargoes to France.

☆ World wine output dips slightly after year of torrid weather
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PARIS, Oct 31 (Reuters) - World wine production in 2022 is expected to dip slightly below last year's level, with a better than anticipated volume in drought-hit Europe mostly offsetting a forecast drop in southern hemisphere output, an intergovernmental wine body said. In initial projections this year, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) pegged world production at between 257.5 million and 262.3 million hectolitres (mhl), with a mid‑range estimate at 259.9 mhl. That would be around 1% lower compared with an estimated 2021 volume of 262 mhl and below the average of the past 20 years, the OIV said in a note. "Overall, in 2022 the dry and hot conditions observed across different regions of the world have led to early harvests and average volumes," it said. The OIV cautioned that it did not have 2022 data for China and Russia, but anticipated a structural decline in Chinese production would continue.

Moscow suspended its participation in the Black Sea deal on Saturday, in response to what it called a major Ukrainian drone attack on its fleet in Russian-annexed Crimea. That relative calm is likely to end when Chicago and Paris wheat, the world's two most-active wheat futures contracts, start their trading week on Monday. Purchasing of grain for Black Sea ports in Ukraine has stopped following Russia's decision, a Ukrainian broker said. Ukraine's infrastructure ministry said on Sunday 218 vessels were "effectively blocked" by Russia's decision to suspend its participation in the grain export deal. Market participants are watching to see if the corridor deal can be salvaged, as the U.N. pursues negotiating efforts.

Summary Grain purchases for Ukraine sea ports stop, broker saysDrought and torrential rain disrupt southern hemisphere suppliesExports increasing from RussiaPARIS, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Wheat futures are expected to leap on Monday as Russia's withdrawal from a Black Sea corridor agreement puts Ukrainian exports at risk, analysts said. Moscow suspended its participation in the Black Sea deal on Saturday, in response to what it called a major Ukrainian drone attack on its fleet in Russian-annexed Crimea. Purchasing of grain for Black Sea ports in Ukraine has stopped following Russia's decision, a Ukrainian broker said. "There are increasing exports from Russia so in the short term availability might still be there from the Black Sea," he said. Market participants will also be watching to see if the corridor deal can be salvaged, as the U.N. pursues negotiating efforts.

☆ Kidnapped French-Australian environmentalist freed in Chad, president says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

N'DJAMENA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - A conservationist with dual French and Australian citizenship has been freed after he was taken hostage in Chad earlier this week, interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby said on Sunday. The man, who manages an oryx park on behalf of a conservation group, was kidnapped by unknown individuals in the northeastern Wadi Fira province on Friday. Deby announced his release on Twitter without providing any details on how it was achieved. "I am delighted with this happy ending," he said. Reporting by Mahamat Ramadane Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris Writing by Alessandra Prentice; editing by Barbara LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ French police clash with protestors at farm reservoir site
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PARIS, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Clashes at a protest on Saturday against the construction of a large water reservoir for farm irrigation in western France left scores of police injured, the authorities said. France's worst drought on record this summer has sharpened debate over water resources in the European Union's biggest agricultural sector. French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau condemned on Twitter the violence against police and criticised protestors for "the intention to block a project developed locally over years." Four protestors were injured and six arrested, the prefect said. Reporting by Gus Trompiz, Marc Angrand and Jean-Stephane Brosse, Editing by Franklin PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

In a monthly cereal report, the French firm lowered its 2022 EU maize (corn) crop forecast to 50.4 million tonnes from 52.9 million projected in September. However, Strategie Grains raised its projection of EU maize imports in the current 2022/23 season following a recent rush of imports supported by a Black Sea corridor for Ukrainian shipments. Supply would remain dependant on the war situation in Ukraine, including the continuation of the shipping corridor, Strategie Grains added. It increased its forecast for EU maize imports in 2022/23 to 23.0 million tonnes from 21.4 million projected last month, with imports from Ukraine now expected at 12.8 million tonnes against 10.4 million forecast in September. For soft wheat, Strategie Grains raised its estimate of this year's harvest by 1.4 million tonnes to 125.5 million tonnes.

The order should also prohibit firms related to "unfriendly" states from owning Russian companies involved in grain loading capacity in ports, and grain storage, he said. VTB owns stakes in a number of major Russian grain export hubs in the Black Sea. Russian grain market players should still be allowed to sell grain to international traders for export on a free-on-board basis, which includes delivery to the final destination, the letter said. "But the main idea is to strengthen the position of Russian traders on the global market, not to prohibit anyone from doing anything," the source said. According to one grain trader, the government is expected to prepare its response to VTB's proposal by Sept. 30.

☆ Droughts, Ukraine war push global grain stocks toward worrying decade low
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Tom Polansek | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

But the United States, the world's top corn producer, is now expected to harvest its smallest corn crop in three years. That would be fewer days of corn stocks than the world had in 2012, when the last global food crisis spurred riots. Ukraine is expected to harvest 25 to 27 million tonnes of corn in 2022, down from 42.1 million tonnes in 2021, following Russia's invasion, according to official estimates. read moreSanctions related to the war mean Russia has also struggled to export what is expected to be a record-large wheat crop. read moreAgricultural lender Rabobank said the next U.S. wheat crop is also at risk and will be planted in dust this autumn unless rains fall.

BERLIN/FRANKFURT, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Initial offers for RTL's 48% stake in French TV channel M6 are expected by Friday after a failed tie-up with France's TF1 broadcaster, a person familiar with the matter said. RTL has been "inundated" with expressions of interest in the M6 stake since TF1 and M6 called off their planned merger last week, its boss Thomas Rabe told the Financial Times on Thursday. Other potential buyers include French media group Vivendi (VIV.PA) and Altice, owned by billionaire Patrick Drahi, alongside Italian media conglomerate MediaForEurope (MFE), Reuters reported on Monday. If RTL wants to sell M6, a deal must be completed by spring 2023, because M6's broadcasting license comes up for renewal in May. In March 2021, when Bertelsmann confirmed talks to sell its stake, French media reported the RTL's stake was worth 1.5 billion euros ($1.48 billion), valuing all of M6 at around 3 billion euros.

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