The Canadian agriculture sector is welcoming the ratification of the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement in both countries’ Parliaments. After being approved by the Korean government this week, International Trade Minister Ed Fast announced Wednesday that the CKFTA will come into force on January 1st, 2015. As discussed previously on RealAg, the deal is expected to help Canadian… Read More

SaskCanola today announced the results of their election, which sought to fill four positions on the Board of Directors. Charlene Bradley of Stranraier, Bernie McClean of Glaslyn, Lane Stockbrugger of Englefeld and Dale Leftwich of Esterhazy will fill those roles. “We are pleased to welcome Charlene, Bernie, and Lane to the SaskCanola Board and to… Read More

The Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) is aggressively increasing the amount of money it’s investing in field crop research. The board for the producer organization recently passed a budget of over $18 million for 2015 — up from a projected $14.8 million in 2014 and $7.3 million spent in 2013. “WGRF member organizations have encouraged… Read More

The federal government is extending — but also reducing — the weekly minimum grain shipping requirements for Canada’s two national railways, as it aims to resolve the remainder of the grain backlog in Western Canada. A new Order in Council will take effect on Sunday, November 30th and require CN and CP Rail move between 200,000 and 465,000 tonnes of grain… Read More

Louis Dreyfus Commodities today announced the appointment of Mayo Schmidt as the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective January 5th, 2015. Schmidt will succeed interim CEO Claude Ehlinger, who will continue in his existing roles of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Louis Dreyfus Commodities and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Biosev. Ehlinger has also been promoted… Read More

Today, the United States officially lodged an appeal to the third and most recent World Trade Organization ruling on Country of Origin Labelling (COOL). Canadian Ministers are not pleased with the announced appeal. The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and the Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food issued the following statement… Read More

The Ontario government’s plans to reduce the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments, the passage of the Bill C-18 (the Agricultural Growth Act) in the House of Commons and actual full-contact jousting at Canada’s largest livestock show — Lyndsey Smith and Debra Murphy join Kelvin Heppner on TWORA for November 27th, 2014: Related: Grown-Up Bullying Alive… Read More

Representatives from across Canada’s grain sector are in Ottawa today for the launch of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Crops. The group will serve as a forum for “advancing, reporting on and communicating the sustainability of Canadian grain production.” “Increasingly, our customers are factoring in environmental and social considerations when sourcing products,” said Chantelle Donahue,… Read More

Canada’s two major railways have changed they way they process requests for grain cars in Western Canada. To deter shippers from ordering more cars than they can handle, both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific are capping the number of outstanding orders a grain shipper can have in their systems. As of September 14th, the total… Read More