Latest news with #ResilientCapital
The Sun
10 hours ago
- Business
- The Sun
Australia reopens market for Canadian beef after 22-year ban
OTTAWA: Australia has ended its 22-year ban on Canadian beef and beef products, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced. The move brings relief to farmers but is unlikely to drive significant new exports due to market conditions. Australia first restricted Canadian beef imports in 2003 after Canada reported its first domestic case of mad cow disease. Last week, Australia also lifted a similar ban on U.S. beef. Canada's government welcomed the decision, calling it a crucial step for trade in the Indo-Pacific region. 'With restored access to Australia, a key market in the Indo-Pacific, we can unlock more opportunities for our producers to deliver the top-quality beef we're known for,' said federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald. Analysts remain cautious about the potential for increased North American beef exports to Australia. The U.S., a major beef importer, sources much of its supply from Australia, Canada, and other countries. 'U.S. beef is still very highly priced compared to Australian beef,' said Resilient Capital analyst Jerry Klassen. 'North American beef is really the highest-priced in the world.' The Canadian Cattle Association praised the decision, noting Australia was among the last countries maintaining mad cow-related restrictions. Canada's beef industry suffered heavily after the 2003 export bans, as much of its production relies on foreign markets, particularly the U.S. - Reuters
The Star
4 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Economists doubt Trump outlook that US will sell 'so much' beef to Australia
WASHINGTON/CANBERRA/CHICAGO: President Donald Trump said the US will sell "so much" beef to Australia after Canberra relaxed import restrictions on Thursday(July 24), but economists and traders said high prices and tight supplies make major American exports unlikely. Australia said it would loosen biosecurity rules for US beef. The move will not significantly increase US shipments, though, because Australia is a major beef producer and exporter whose prices are much lower, analysts said. US companies export small quantities of beef to Australian buyers. They import much more in the form of lean beef used to make hamburgers, particularly as US production has declined because of tight cattle supplies. US beef prices set records this year after ranchers slashed their herds due to drought that burned up pasturelands used for grazing. The total herd size fell to 94.2 million head as of July 1, a record low for that date, according to US Department of Agriculture data on Friday. A ban on cattle imports from Mexico because of New World screwworm, a devastating livestock pest, and steep tariffs on Brazilian beef that are set to take effect on Aug. 1 could further tighten meat supplies, and require additional imports of Australian beef. "We can't get enough beef in the US right now, so we're bringing it in from Australia and Brazil," said Dan Norcini, an independent US livestock trader. "We're not going to be selling anything significant to anyone." Last year, Australia shipped almost 400,000 metric tonnes of beef worth US$2.9 billion to the United States, with just 269 tonnes of US product moving the other way. "They have more cattle than people," said David Anderson, an agricultural economist at Texas A&M University. "That's why they export so much." US and Australian beef also taste different. Many Australians like the grass-fed beef raised there, not marbled beef from US-raised cattle that are generally fed with grain, said Jerry Klassen, chief analyst for Resilient Capital in Winnipeg. He predicted the United States will not export substantial amounts of beef to Australia in the next five years. "We just aren't in a position to export much beef to anyone, and the reality is Australia doesn't really have much need for US beef," said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag. The barriers that remain to exporting significant volumes of US beef to Australia appeared to be lost on Trump this week. "We are going to sell so much to Australia because this is undeniable and irrefutable Proof that US Beef is the Safest and Best in the entire World," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "The other Countries that refuse our magnificent Beef are ON NOTICE." Trump has attempted to renegotiate trade deals with numerous countries he says have taken advantage of the United States, a characterisation many economists dispute. "For decades, Australia imposed unjustified barriers on US beef," US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement, calling Australia's decision a "major milestone in lowering trade barriers and securing market access for US farmers and ranchers." Australian officials say the relaxation of restrictions was not part of any trade negotiations but the result of a years-long assessment of US biosecurity practices. Canberra has restricted US beef imports since 2003 due to concerns about bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. Since 2019, it has allowed in meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the US but few suppliers were able to prove that their cattle had not been in Canada and Mexico. The US sources some of its feeder cattle from the two neighbouring countries. On Wednesday, Australia's agriculture ministry said US cattle traceability and control systems had improved enough that Australia could accept beef from cattle born in Canada or Mexico and slaughtered in the United States. The decision has caused some concern in Australia, where biosecurity is seen as essential to prevent diseases and pests from ravaging the farm sector. "We need to know if (the government) is sacrificing our high biosecurity standards just so Prime Minister Anthony Albanese can obtain a meeting with US President Donald Trump," shadow agriculture minister David Littleproud said in a statement. Australia faces a 10 per cent across-the-board US tariff, as well 50 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium. Trump has also threatened to impose a 200 per cent tariff on pharmaceuticals. Asked whether the change would help achieve a trade deal, Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said: "I'm not too sure." "We haven't done this in order to entice the Americans into a trade agreement," he said. "We think that they should do that anyway." - Reuters
The Sun
4 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Economists skeptical of Trump's US beef export claims to Australia
WASHINGTON/CANBERRA/CHICAGO: President Donald Trump said the U.S. will sell 'so much' beef to Australia after Canberra relaxed import restrictions on Thursday, but economists and traders said high prices and tight supplies make major American exports unlikely. Australia said it would loosen biosecurity rules for U.S. beef. The move will not significantly increase U.S. shipments, though, because Australia is a major beef producer and exporter whose prices are much lower, analysts said. U.S. companies export small quantities of beef to Australian buyers. They import much more in the form of lean beef used to make hamburgers, particularly as U.S. production has declined because of tight cattle supplies. U.S. beef prices set records this year after ranchers slashed their herds due to drought that burned up pasturelands used for grazing. The total herd size fell to 94.2 million head as of July 1, a record low for that date, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data on Friday. A ban on cattle imports from Mexico because of New World screwworm, a devastating livestock pest, and steep tariffs on Brazilian beef that are set to take effect on Aug. 1 could further tighten meat supplies, and require additional imports of Australian beef. 'We can't get enough beef in the U.S. right now, so we're bringing it in from Australia and Brazil,' said Dan Norcini, an independent U.S. livestock trader. 'We're not going to be selling anything significant to anyone.' Last year, Australia shipped almost 400,000 metric tons of beef worth $2.9 billion to the United States, with just 269 tons of U.S. product moving the other way. 'They have more cattle than people,' said David Anderson, an agricultural economist at Texas A&M University. 'That's why they export so much.' DIFFERENT TASTE U.S. and Australian beef also taste different. Many Australians like the grass-fed beef raised there, not marbled beef from U.S.-raised cattle that are generally fed with grain, said Jerry Klassen, chief analyst for Resilient Capital in Winnipeg. He predicted the United States will not export substantial amounts of beef to Australia in the next five years. 'We just aren't in a position to export much beef to anyone, and the reality is Australia doesn't really have much need for U.S. beef,' said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag. The barriers that remain to exporting significant volumes of U.S. beef to Australia appeared to be lost on Trump this week. 'We are going to sell so much to Australia because this is undeniable and irrefutable Proof that U.S. Beef is the Safest and Best in the entire World,' Trump said in a post on Truth Social. 'The other Countries that refuse our magnificent Beef are ON NOTICE.' Trump has attempted to renegotiate trade deals with numerous countries he says have taken advantage of the United States, a characterisation many economists dispute. 'For decades, Australia imposed unjustified barriers on U.S. beef,' U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement, calling Australia's decision a 'major milestone in lowering trade barriers and securing market access for U.S. farmers and ranchers.' Australian officials say the relaxation of restrictions was not part of any trade negotiations but the result of a years-long assessment of U.S. biosecurity practices. Canberra has restricted U.S. beef imports since 2003 due to concerns about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. Since 2019, it has allowed in meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S. but few suppliers were able to prove that their cattle had not been in Canada and Mexico. The U.S. sources some of its feeder cattle from the two neighboring countries. On Wednesday, Australia's agriculture ministry said U.S. cattle traceability and control systems had improved enough that Australia could accept beef from cattle born in Canada or Mexico and slaughtered in the United States. The decision has caused some concern in Australia, where biosecurity is seen as essential to prevent diseases and pests from ravaging the farm sector. 'We need to know if (the government) is sacrificing our high biosecurity standards just so Prime Minister Anthony Albanese can obtain a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump,' shadow agriculture minister David Littleproud said in a statement. Australia faces a 10% across-the-board U.S. tariff, as well 50% tariffs on steel and aluminium. Trump has also threatened to impose a 200% tariff on pharmaceuticals. Asked whether the change would help achieve a trade deal, Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said: 'I'm not too sure.' 'We haven't done this in order to entice the Americans into a trade agreement,' he said. 'We think that they should do that anyway.' - Reuters
Reuters
09-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Insight: Tariffs on canola seen supercharging Canadian farmers' shift to spring wheat
WINNIPEG, Canada, June 9 (Reuters) - In the U.S. Great Plains, where spring wheat once dominated fields, farmers are turning away from the crop. But across the border in Canada, the pinch and prospect of Chinese and U.S. tariffs on canola have prompted farmers to pick up the slack on wheat. Farmers are still putting their crops in the ground, so it is not yet possible to know the extent of the acreage shift into wheat. However, early signs, based on interviews with more than 20 Canadian and U.S. farmers, agricultural analysts, traders and industry organizations, show that the grain primarily used to bake bread is proving to be a big winner in this year's global trade war. China's 100% tariffs on Canadian canola meal and oil and its threat to impose duties on canola seed, amid President Donald Trump's broader global trade war, have rattled Canadian farmers, who since 1990 had nearly quadrupled their canola acres before paring back in recent years because of growing problems with drought, high production costs and crop diseases. Now, tariffs are expected to accelerate the likelihood that thousands of farmers could further cut back, adding up to hundreds of thousands or even millions of acres less canola, and more wheat, farmers and analysts estimated. "There is going to be a massive switch," said Jerry Klassen, a Manitoba farmer and market analyst with Resilient Capital. He has switched hundreds of acres on his own farm from canola to spring wheat this year and thinks like-minded farmers will do the same. Reuters' reporting on fallout from tariffs in grain markets illustrates how global trade turmoil is causing the neighboring countries to diverge on spring wheat production. Canada's rebounding supply of wheat has kept prices down for millers who fuel global bread demand as well as consumers. The shift to Canadian fields has also offset some worry about the long-term decline in U.S. production area. Politicians in Canada are funding and supporting the shift toward greater wheat production as a way to shield the thinly-populated agricultural export powerhouse of Western Canada from foreign pressure. And farmers have their own motivation: improved wheat varieties have boosted the grain's profitability. Adam Dyck of U.K. breadmaker Warburtons in Winnipeg said some Canadian farmers had tripled their production to 90 to 100 bushels per acre since the 1990s. The shift toward wheat reflects canola's vulnerability to tariffs. Most of the C$14.5 billion ($10.59 billion) 2024 Canadian canola exports go to the U.S. and China, with the U.S. biofuels market consuming most of Canada's canola oil while China buys most of Canada's seed exports to crush for edible oil and animal feed, while wheat is sold to dozens of countries around the world. Some Canadian farmers are expecting that in a prolonged trade war, globally-diverse wheat is a safer bet than U.S. and China-dependent canola. In 2024 Canada shipped two-thirds of its total canola seed exports to China, and 95% of total canola oil exports of 3.5 million tons to the U.S. But Canada's wheat exports were "highly diversified," the U.S. Department of Agriculture noted., opens new tab The world's wheat and canola markets will be guessing for weeks about Canadian farmers' final decisions on what to seed. Statistics Canada's next report is scheduled for June 27, and the numbers for that report are being collected before farmers have finished planting. Scott Huso, a farmer in Aneta, North Dakota, said that across the northern Great Plains, stretching from Minnesota to the Montana Rockies, farmers have been planting less wheat in favor of crops like corn and soybeans, which are generally more profitable. University of Minnesota data found that last year, farmers in central Minnesota earned hundreds of dollars in operating profit per acre with corn and soybeans, but lost money on spring wheat in 2024, opens new tab. "Wheat, you're not making money on it," Huso said. U.S. total hard red spring wheat production hasn't changed much since the mid-1990s because of substantial improvements in the amount grown per acre. However, total acres are in long-term decline, dropping from 15-20 million acres in the mid-1990s to 13-15 million in the mid-2000s to 10-13 million in the mid-2010s. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on March 31 that it expects hard red spring wheat acreage in 2025 to drop to 9.4 million acres -- the lowest since 1970. Yet spring wheat is in great demand from the world's millers and bakers. Its high protein content allows it to be used as the base for top-quality bread flour, or as something to blend with lower-quality, cheaper wheats. The U.S. and Canadian plains are the most reliable major source of the world's high-quality spring wheat. Yet that doesn't always lead to the kind of premium prices U.S. farmers might need to justify growing the crop, with steady Canadian supplies and those from overseas competitors like Russia keeping millers comfortable enough to avoid bidding wars, a frustration for many U.S. farmers like Huso. "You just can't convince guys to love wheat these days," said Huso, a member of the North Dakota Wheat Commission. Committed wheat growers like him and organizations like the commission and export-focused U.S. Wheat Associates are trying to convince buyers to pay higher prices and breeders to produce better wheat crop varieties to help wheat compete for U.S. farmers' fields. It's been an uphill struggle. In Canada, the mood is different. Rather than getting knocked out of the crop roster, more farmers are warming to wheat. In May, farmer Korey Peters finished seeding 1,700 acres of spring wheat on his farm near Winnipeg. With new varieties providing more crop per acre, and canola costly and hard to grow profitably in his area, he said he's been putting more and more of his land into wheat and corn. "I know some people call it 'poverty grass,' but it works for us," Peters said. ($1 = 1.3691 Canadian dollars)
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tariffs on canola seen supercharging Canadian farmers' shift to spring wheat
By Ed White WINNIPEG, Canada (Reuters) -In the U.S. Great Plains, where spring wheat once dominated fields, farmers are turning away from the crop. But across the border in Canada, the pinch and prospect of Chinese and U.S. tariffs on canola have prompted farmers to pick up the slack on wheat. Farmers are still putting their crops in the ground, so it is not yet possible to know the extent of the acreage shift into wheat. However, early signs, based on interviews with more than 20 Canadian and U.S. farmers, agricultural analysts, traders and industry organizations, show that the grain primarily used to bake bread is proving to be a big winner in this year's global trade war. China's 100% tariffs on Canadian canola meal and oil and its threat to impose duties on canola seed, amid President Donald Trump's broader global trade war, have rattled Canadian farmers, who since 1990 had nearly quadrupled their canola acres before paring back in recent years because of growing problems with drought, high production costs and crop diseases. Now, tariffs are expected to accelerate the likelihood that thousands of farmers could further cut back, adding up to hundreds of thousands or even millions of acres less canola, and more wheat, farmers and analysts estimated. "There is going to be a massive switch," said Jerry Klassen, a Manitoba farmer and market analyst with Resilient Capital. He has switched hundreds of acres on his own farm from canola to spring wheat this year and thinks like-minded farmers will do the same. Reuters' reporting on fallout from tariffs in grain markets illustrates how global trade turmoil is causing the neighboring countries to diverge on spring wheat production. Canada's rebounding supply of wheat has kept prices down for millers who fuel global bread demand as well as consumers. The shift to Canadian fields has also offset some worry about the long-term decline in U.S. production area. Politicians in Canada are funding and supporting the shift toward greater wheat production as a way to shield the thinly-populated agricultural export powerhouse of Western Canada from foreign pressure. And farmers have their own motivation: improved wheat varieties have boosted the grain's profitability. Adam Dyck of U.K. breadmaker Warburtons in Winnipeg said some Canadian farmers had tripled their production to 90 to 100 bushels per acre since the 1990s. The shift toward wheat reflects canola's vulnerability to tariffs. Most of the C$14.5 billion ($10.59 billion) 2024 Canadian canola exports go to the U.S. and China, with the U.S. biofuels market consuming most of Canada's canola oil while China buys most of Canada's seed exports to crush for edible oil and animal feed, while wheat is sold to dozens of countries around the world. Some Canadian farmers are expecting that in a prolonged trade war, globally-diverse wheat is a safer bet than U.S. and China-dependent canola. In 2024 Canada shipped two-thirds of its total canola seed exports to China, and 95% of total canola oil exports of 3.5 million tons to the U.S. But Canada's wheat exports were "highly diversified," the U.S. Department of Agriculture noted. The world's wheat and canola markets will be guessing for weeks about Canadian farmers' final decisions on what to seed. Statistics Canada's next report is scheduled for June 27, and the numbers for that report are being collected before farmers have finished planting. 'POVERTY GRASS' Scott Huso, a farmer in Aneta, North Dakota, said that across the northern Great Plains, stretching from Minnesota to the Montana Rockies, farmers have been planting less wheat in favor of crops like corn and soybeans, which are generally more profitable. University of Minnesota data found that last year, farmers in central Minnesota earned hundreds of dollars in operating profit per acre with corn and soybeans, but lost money on spring wheat in 2024. "Wheat, you're not making money on it," Huso said. U.S. total hard red spring wheat production hasn't changed much since the mid-1990s because of substantial improvements in the amount grown per acre. However, total acres are in long-term decline, dropping from 15-20 million acres in the mid-1990s to 13-15 million in the mid-2000s to 10-13 million in the mid-2010s. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on March 31 that it expects hard red spring wheat acreage in 2025 to drop to 9.4 million acres -- the lowest since 1970. Yet spring wheat is in great demand from the world's millers and bakers. Its high protein content allows it to be used as the base for top-quality bread flour, or as something to blend with lower-quality, cheaper wheats. The U.S. and Canadian plains are the most reliable major source of the world's high-quality spring wheat. Yet that doesn't always lead to the kind of premium prices U.S. farmers might need to justify growing the crop, with steady Canadian supplies and those from overseas competitors like Russia keeping millers comfortable enough to avoid bidding wars, a frustration for many U.S. farmers like Huso. "You just can't convince guys to love wheat these days," said Huso, a member of the North Dakota Wheat Commission. Committed wheat growers like him and organizations like the commission and export-focused U.S. Wheat Associates are trying to convince buyers to pay higher prices and breeders to produce better wheat crop varieties to help wheat compete for U.S. farmers' fields. It's been an uphill struggle. In Canada, the mood is different. Rather than getting knocked out of the crop roster, more farmers are warming to wheat. In May, farmer Korey Peters finished seeding 1,700 acres of spring wheat on his farm near Winnipeg. With new varieties providing more crop per acre, and canola costly and hard to grow profitably in his area, he said he's been putting more and more of his land into wheat and corn. "I know some people call it 'poverty grass,' but it works for us," Peters said. ($1 = 1.3691 Canadian dollars)
