For Pete Zimmerman, a Minnesota farmer, the age of gene-edited foods has arrived. While he couldn’t be happier, the hi-tech soybeans he’s now harvesting are at the crux of a long-running debate about a frankenfood future.

The USDA attache in Beijing has slashed its estimate of Chinese imports of soybeans this year 9.5% to 85 million mt – bringing it more in line with Chinese estimates and front-running the Washington DC office's new projection to be published on Thursday.

‘US soya farmers eye new markets’ – that’s the headline of an article in today’s Business Day and also in The Wall Street Journal. It notes that ‘With trade tension cutting deeply into exports, US soybean farmers, industry groups and US government officials are looking for a stronger foothold in the global markets beyond China, including Europe and Southeast Asia.’

Oilseeds markets have been dominated by the effects of the U.S. trade war with China as markets react to every hint from either side. Price movements have been mixed as the uncertainty’s impact varies from region to region.

It has been nearly two months since the Chinese authorities temporarily suspended South African wool imports because of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak earlier in the year.

The South African agricultural sector has been facing severe headwinds over the past few years. It came in the form of policy uncertainty, drought in large parts of the country, devastating disease outbreaks, infrastructure constraints and persistent non-tariff barriers and other trade-related problems.

The price of US yellow corn increased by 7.4% compared to last week.

Weekly Market Report- GrainSA

Africa has predominantly a resource-based economy with agriculture and mining the most significant sectors. Farm gate prices for fresh produce agricultural products vary typically between 30% and 50% of retail prices.

China lifts ban of imported cloven hoofed animals and their products.- South Africa 

Poultry imports and exports have dominated the headlines in the recent past. While such discussions are welcome when the subject is unfair trade, consideration of the sustainability of the SA poultry industry should also include input costs.

Soybeans are critical in sustaining the current human population, but it also brings huge sustainability concerns in terms of cultivation in South America

Something important for global agriculture happened this past week but received minimal media coverage.

 Over the typical two-year rotation of corn and soybeans most Iowa farmers use, 40% of nitrous oxide emissions are in the soybean year, according to a new study by an Iowa State University research team. 

A renewed call by EU agriculture ministers to boost local protein production has sparked a divide over the direction of a forthcoming policy initiative.Agriculture ministers meeting in Brussels this week disagreed over Europe's protein future after a position paper suggested rebalancing towards plant-based solutions.