Argentina is poised to more than double its shipments of wheat to Brazil, displacing competitors including Russia in the key global agriculture market. Shipments of the grain commonly used in Brazilian favorite “French rolls” are likely to average 450,000 metric tons per month in 2024, according to Brazilian trader Serra Morena SA. That would push total annual trade to exceed 5 million tons and put it near historical highs. The outlook compares with about 188,000 tons a month so far this year and annual shipments of roughly 2 million, trade data through October show.

Russia introduced a temporary ban on durum wheat exports until May 31, 2024, with the publication of a government decree on Dec. 11 in an effort to ensure the country’s food security and stabilize prices, Reuters reported. Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, but its durum production and supplies are small. Russia’s agriculture ministry proposed the measure in early November. Russia boosted durum wheat exports between July 1 and Nov. 10 to 657,000 tonnes from 52,000 tonnes in the same period of 2022, according to Russian news agency Interfax. The wheat was shipped to Italy, Turkey and Tunisia

A coalition of agricultural organizations is raising concerns about the potential negative impact to US farmers of removing China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status, which the US Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party is considering recommending to Congress. A letter sent to the select committee was led by Farmers for Free Trade, which counts many of the nation’s leading agricultural organizations as members. The coalition letter pointed out that in 2022, the United States exported $38.1 billion in food and agricultural products to China, a 22-fold increase since China gained PNTR status in 2000.

The purchase by China of 1.12 million metric tons (MMT) of U.S. soft red winter (SRW) wheat for delivery in 2023/24 between Dec. 4 and 8 is a significant and, in terms of its volume, somewhat unexpected factor in the current market. The buyers clearly took advantage of a price opportunity, yet there are other influencing factors behind this buying surge to consider. China is in a wheat-buying phase driven in part by reported damage to its 2023 crop from rain at harvest. USDA expects China to exceed its WTO-agreed 9.6 MMT tariff rate quota again in 2023/24.

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) staff across the world have had quite a busy year in 2023. Blessed in 2019 with additional funding from the Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP) program but handicapped by pandemic restrictions, our teams have been playing “catch-up” with positive results. The extra push helped USW conduct a record number of activities from trade teams and short courses to buyers’ conferences and board teams in 2023.

A farmland-preservation bill expected to be introduced during the 2024 Idaho legislative session will include a reworked incentive. "Agricultural protection" areas remain the proposal’s cornerstone. The new draft replaces a fund to incentivize protection areas with a property tax break. It also requires participating landowners to keep land in preserved status for a while after applying to end the designation. Farmland preservation “is going to be one of our top priorities, to see the bill through the session and offer an additional land conservation or preservation opportunity for interested landowners,” said Braden Jensen, Idaho Farm Bureau Federation governmental affairs director.

There's nothing in the secret commitments the U.S. government made to plaintiffs in the case involving management of the four lower Snake River dams that anybody could sue over, according to a lawyer with experience in litigating similar disputes. "It sort of shows what the agencies are thinking, but there's no cause of action here," Karen Budd-Falen, an attorney in Cheyenne, Wyo., told the Capital Press. A litigant can only sue the federal government over a "final agency action." "A draft is not a final," she said.