ADM, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus, the four global behemoth agribusinesses known as the A-B-C-D’s, announced they are partnering to pursue ways to use technology to digitize and standardize the global agricultural commodity value chain. Understanding that the integration of technologies such as AI and blockchain will provide opportunities to increase transparency and efficiency for customers while also reducing resource and time-intensive processes for suppliers, the com

Brennan Turner, CEO & President, Farmlead - In the October 22 FarmLead Breakfast Brief, we namely discussed corn prices, exports, & Harvest 2018, the speed of Plant 2018 for the Brazilian soybean crop continues to impress. 34 percent of the crop has been planted so far across the country, versus the 20 percent seen by this time a year ago and the five-year average of 18 percent. [3] While the 2018/19 crop is going in, the 2017/18 crop is still being shipped out: Nearly four m

POET is commencing with the construction of a $160 million ethanol plant in Indiana after the Trump administration lifted regulations on E15 fuel. Now that E15 will be available to consumers on a year-round basis, it is estimated that nationwide demand for the fuel will climb by 7 billion gallons, translating into an increase in demand of an additional 2 billion bushels of corn from farmers per year. The new facility, which is scheduled to be completed in 2020, will have the

Harn Soper, founder, Sustainable Farm Partners - A financial crisis has fallen on U.S. conventional and organic farmers alike … but for different reasons with a different impact. Conventional grain farmers have seen the prices for their corn and soybeans fall to the extent that many struggle to produce at a profit. With grain still in their bins from last year’s harvest and anticipating a fast approaching bumper crop this year, over supply has, as it always does, driven down

U.S. acreage of organic field crops is on the rise, while acreage of non-GMO corn and soybeans in on the decline, according to data compiled by Mercaris, a tracker of the identity-preserved grain industry. Under the USDA’s National Organic Program, the number of certified organic farms in the country increased by 3 percent in 2018 to 17,648, and organic acreage increased by 2 percent this year to a total 6.5 million acres. A main driver of this expansion is rising demand for

U.S.-based agribusiness giant The Andersons announced it has agreed to acquire all shares not already owned in Lansing Trade Group, LLC in a cash and stock deal valued at $305 million. By its nature, the transaction also will result in the consolidation of Ontario, Canada-based Thompsons Limited and its related entities as they had been previously jointly owned by The Andersons and Lansing. Founded in 1947 in Maumee, Ohio, The Andersons is a diversified North American agribus

Sales for organic foods in the U.S. increased by 6.3 year-on-year in 2017, with the value of organic sales climbing from $3.4 billion in 1997 to more than $45 billion last year. Behind this growth remains the challenge of souring adequate organic feed ingredients to support the necessary food production to meet demand. Yorktown Organics, a poultry feed producer in Illinois, started business when organic producers in the region were sourcing organic feed from more than 200 mil

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) has opened a new, modernized flour mill in Enid, Oklahoma. Under the project, the company conducted a complete retrofit of its existing mills on site, which were built in 1928. ADM replaced the two mills in Enid with a single, highly-automated facility which will increase ADM’s capacity to meet customer demand in the region, and which will include a high-speed packer in the first quarter of next year. ADM Milling controls multiple mills across the

The U.S. trade deficit widened to its greatest point in six months as soybean exports plunge. Data from the Commerce Department show that the value of U.S. soybean exports dropped by $1 billion, or 28 percent over the month of August, to a value of $2.58 billion. Overall, U.S. imports increased by 0.6 percent, while exports fell by 0.8 percent. It appears as if third quarter results will be negatively affected by the widening trade deficit, as ongoing trade disputes with Chin

Bloomberg caught up with April Hemmes, an Iowa farmer who grows 1,000 acres of soybeans and corn, at the Women in Agribusiness Summit in Denver during the last week of September. There, Hemmes addressed the real price that farmers are paying amid the ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Hemmes states that the possibility of tariffs early in the year led her to lock in a price for half of her soybean crop, however, now that harvests are beginning and the trade di