Ag News

Yesterday, Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced the six finalists for the Food Waste Reduction Challenge for the Novel Technologies Stream which features two grand prizes of up to $1 million.

The finalists are:
 - ALT TEX Inc. (Kitchener, Ontario)
 - Aruna Revolution Health Inc. (Trois-Rivières, Québec)
 -  Chinova Bioworks Inc. (Fredericton, New Brunswick)
 -  Clean Works Inc. (St. Catharines, Ontario)
 - Carbon Lock Tech (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
 - Genecis Bioindustries Inc. (Scarborough, Ontario)

Organizers have been busy putting together this year's event following an unplanned break due to covid.

Canada is a key player in the world when it comes to durum.

Durum is mainly grown in southwest Saskatchewan and southeast Alberta with a few acres in Manitoba.

Fusarium issues with the crop in Manitoba caused a number of producers to switch to other crops.

On average, durum production is about 6 million tonnes in the prairies, last year producers brought in 5.4 million tonnes, the lowest level in over ten years.             

Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson joined his Federal, Provincial and Territorial counterparts in a virtual discussion. 

The group discussed and recognized the progress made toward Canada’s Grocery Code of Conduct.

“Consumers in Manitoba and across the country need more transparency and predictability in retail food prices and an assurance of fair dealing and practices in Canada’s food supply chain.”

This year's show is a ticketed event and runs today through Thursday at Brandon's Keystone Centre.

General Manager Kristen Phillips says the trade show focuses only on agriculture and features over 550 exhibitors with 104 new exhibitors on site.

"We're excited to have a full tradeshow, including 32 new innovations. So, people actually entering into our innovation showcase, highlighting or bringing something new to market."

She says this year's theme is " Farmer Safety, Health and Wellness" and features over 70 speakers.

Federal, Provincial and Territorial Agriculture Ministers met virtually on Friday to discuss key areas of interest for Canada’s agricultural sector.

Ministers gave updates on their progress with the new Sustainable CAP program which is set to come into effect on April 1st.

They also discussed the remaining steps to implementation to ensure a smooth transition from the current program.

We can expect to see some key numbers coming out tomorrow (Tuesday) on inflation for the month of December in Canada.

J.P. Gervais, the Chief Economist for Farm Credit Canada says the hope is that it will be coming down, and may start to plateau the cycle of higher interest rates.

"We have a big, big, critical data release tomorrow on inflation for the month of December in Canada. The hope is that this will be coming down slightly, because then that's one critical data point that would actually start, perhaps to plateau the cycle of higher interest rates."

Canadian flax acres dropped last year, but yields rebounded nicely in many areas. 

Chuck Penner with LeftField Commodity Research says we saw lower acres despite new crop bids of $24-25 a bushel.

He says that while acreage was down, yields rebounded allowing supplies to recover to where we were before the drought, but certainly not a big supply situation.

Unfortunately, flax exports this year have not been encouraging. 

Canada has three key buyers of flax that take about a third of the crop each, the U-S, China and the E.U.  

Canada is developing its first-ever Grocery Code of Conduct.

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and André Lamontagne, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food say the agri-food industry has been making substantial progress.

They strongly encourage all agri-food organizations to participate in the upcoming consultations.

The Code will enhancing transparency, predictability and fair dealings and make Canada’s food supply chain more resilient. 

Saskatchewan's Ministry of Agriculture has released its sclerotinia risk map.

Higher disease incidence was found in 2022 compared to 2021 and can be attributed to the weather during the growing season.

The Ministry surveyed a total of 205 canola fields in the province's key canola-producing areas.

The survey covered 29 fields in the northwest, 32 in the northeast, 28 in the west-central region, 52 fields in the east-central region, 27 in the southwest and 37 fields in the southeast.

There was a smaller pea crop on the prairies last year.

Peas are a popular crop in farmer rotations, as the nitrogen left behind from a pulse crop is beneficial to the next crop.

Market Analyst Chuck Penner with LeftField Commodity Research says the smaller green pea crop last year was a good rebound from 2021 and allowed the market to move a little above yellow peas.

He says that's keeping the market somewhat supported.