Ag in the News

03/25/2008

National

EU industry chief urges end to U.S. poultry import ban
The European Union is being urged by its industry commissioner to end its import ban on U.S. poultry. MORE!

Research focuses on hog plant holding pens to reduce salmonella
Food Safety Consortium researchers at Iowa State University are working to determine whether lairage facilities at hog slaughter plants have minimal effective doses of salmonella. MORE!

Americans are grilling more often to improve health:
Grilling season is fast approaching, although the confines of such is expanding if a recent survey by Weber-Stephens Products Co. is any indication. MORE!

KFC pushes forward grilled chicken plan
Louisville, Ky.-based chicken chain KFC announced that it is currently testing grilled chicken items in select locations, with plans to launch them nationally in early 2009. MORE!

Popeyes Chicken founder dies
Al Copeland, who used money from a doughnut business to start what became the Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits chain, died Sunday near Munich, Germany, from cancer of the salivary glands. He was 64. MORE!

Wrap Up

More overnight gains. Soybean futures followed up Monday's limit-up performance with 40-plus cent gains in old- crop contracts and 11 to 14 cent gains in new-crop futures overnight. Corn futures were 7 to 9 cents higher. Chicago wheat was mostly 20-plus cents higher in overnight trade.

No Canada wheat for ND mill. Approval for North Dakota's state-owned flour mill to import Canadian wheat has been rescinded, and the mill says it has nearly enough supply to take it through August. Officials said the prospect of imports had freed up some wheat supplies in the state. The prospect of importing wheat from Canada to feed the mill also angered many of the state's growers.

More global wheat prospects. It look like the world wheat situation is poised to improve. Australia's wheat crop is put at 27 million metric tons (MMT) by private firm Australian Crop Forecasters. They see wheat plantings rising 3.8% in response to historic world wheat prices. Meanwhile, Egypt -- the world's largest wheat buyer -- says that growers there have planted 3.2 million acres to wheat, up from 2.7 million acres last year and the highest in ten years.

Report: China S/D situation 'stable.' A new report by China's Ministry of Commerce says expectations are for the supply/demand situation for China's commodity market will be mostly stable the first half of the year. However, some products are expected to be in tight supply, including pork, beef, mutton, soybeans, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, peanut oil and fresh milk.