Russian wheat export prices continued to decline last week following a drop in global markets, while shipments also fell amidst challenging weather conditions, analysts said. The informal restriction of the export price by the Russian Ministry of Agriculture also remains one of the influencing factors, they said. The price of 12.5% protein Russian wheat scheduled for free-on-board (FOB) delivery in the second half of February to the first half of March was $238 per metric ton, down $4 from the previous week, the IKAR agriculture consultancy reported.

Ukraine has managed to boost its Black Sea grain exports to a level not seen since before Russia's invasion, although the Red Sea shipping crisis poses a new challenge to its crucial agricultural trade.Kyiv's unexpected success in replacing a UN-backed Black Sea export deal with its own shipping scheme has brought relief for Ukrainian farmers and importing countries while representing a naval breakthrough for Ukraine's military as a land counteroffensive has stalled.

Grain shipments increasingly are being diverted away from the Suez Canal because of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden by Iranian-backed Houthi militia based in Yemen, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on a social media platform on Jan. 18. The WTO said on X (formerly Twitter) that wheat shipments via the Suez Canal plunged to 500,000 tonnes in the first half of January, almost 40% lower year-on-year. “Available data points to surging volume of re-routed vessels to avoid the Suez Canal in the past two weeks, albeit with no major impact on total deliveries to Asia or Eastern Africa,” the WTO noted. The Suez Canal, which connects the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea, is the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

Breads made with U.S. wheat caught the attention of the U.S. Ambassador to Chile during September’s Espacio Food and Service trade show in Santiago. It set in motion a series of discussions that led to Amb. Bernadette Meehan touring a top Chilean flour mill arranged by the U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) South American regional team The bread Meehan raved about at the show was baked in the USW wheat flour and baking laboratory on the campus of Universidad Mayor.

Looking ahead to a contentious political year, the American Farm Bureau Federation plans to insist lawmakers don’t leave key agricultural policies on the back burner any longer. “We need to get even louder,” said Zippy Duvall, AFBF’s president, told members during the group’s annual convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. After postponing action on a new farm bill in 2023, Congress must now make complex decisions about crop insurance, conservation programs and food assistance amid the tumult of a national presidential election.To ensure lawmakers keep their eye on the ball despite these distractions, the nation’s largest agriculture organization will need farmers to continue demanding the legislation be a priority,

As most every farmer knows, trade remains vital to US agriculture. Undersecretary of Agriculture Robert Bonnie, telling an audience the other day that his use of that word “vital” is probably an understatement because About 20% of all US agricultural production is exported to world markets. And that’s one reason the US Department of Agriculture puts out so many reports lots of reports on us ag exports sales and US imports as well. The USDA has just put out its monthly ag trade update report in it. We have the complete ag trade numbers for the first 11 months of 2023.

It’s taken a bit longer than we’d hoped to roll out a monumental, CALS-led sustainable agriculture program, funded by the largest grant in University of Idaho’s history. Yet it’s already clear that Innovative Agriculture and Marketing Partnership for Idaho (IAMP) will live up to the hype and will be well worth the wait. IAMP, formerly known as “Climate-Smart Commodities for Idaho,” will receive up to $55 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture over five years, building cropping systems that are more resistant to changing climates and paying more than half of the funding directly to Idaho agricultural producers. The program will incentivize the state’s producers — with a focus on barley, beef, chickpeas, hops, potatoes, sugar beets and wheat.