India’s domestic oilseed crushing and refining industry has cut operating capacity to historic lows as a result of a surge in cheap vegetable oil imports, the Business Standard said on 17 April.

The EU Commission is forecasting a 6% decline in its total oilseed area for the 2019 harvest, the smallest sown area in seven years, UFOP reported on 26 March.

US organic and non-GM food supplier Pipeline Foods LLC has acquired the organic and non-GM soya and corn business of Canada’s SunOpta Inc for US$66.5M.

The first US ‘bellwether’ or test case hearing allegations that Bayer’s popular glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup causes cancer began in California on 25 February, Reuters reports.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on 25 January that it would complete a proposal to expand sales of higher E15 ethanol blends in time for summer, despite delays from the US federal government shutdown.

Canadian agribusiness firm Richardson International announced on 18 December that it had agreed to buy Wesson, Conagra’s US retail brand of canola and vegetable cooking oils.

The world’s agribusiness giants published their first reports in June on soyabeans sourced from Brazil’s Cerrado region, which has lost nearly half its native vegetation through economic activity.

Brazilian cotton farmers in Mato Grosso state sued Bayer AG on 11 July, seeking to overturn the German chemical firm’s patent protection for its Bollgard II RR Flex genetically modified (GM) cottonseed, Reuters reports.

US logistics company Ceres Global has secured an exclusive option to acquire Canadian commodity provider Delmar Commodities for approximately CAD$16M (US$12M) in cash and the assumption of about CAD$7.6M (US$5.8M) in existing term debt.

Malaysia is planning to submit a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) by November to challenge the European Union (EU)'s restrictions on palm biofuel, according to Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok.

French agro-industrial group Avril and Dutch science-based firm Royal DSM plan to work together to produce a non-genetically modified (GM) protein-based canola to meet growing consumer demand.

South American trading bloc Mercosur and the EU have reached a trade agreement which establishes a 450,000 tonnes/year quota for duty free ethanol to enter Europe.

Two-thirds of palm oil consumed in the EU was burned as energy last year, according to the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E).