A 70-year-old Californian resident has been awarded more than US$80M in damages after a jury ruled that Roundup, the weedkiller produced by German pharmaceutical group Bayer, had been a ‘substantial factor’ in giving him non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

German foreign trade of biodiesel hit record highs in 2018, totaling around 3M tonnes, with imports showing striking growth, according to a press release by Germany’s Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP) on 19 February.

IBM Spain and Galpagro, a company focused on high yield olive groves, are introducing blockchain technology to trace all stages of extra virgin olive oil production and distribution, reports Olive Oil Times.

Olive oil, butter and essential oils are among a list of EU goods that the USA has threatened to impose US$11bn worth of tariffs on in a long-running dispute over the EU’s subsidy of European aerospace corporation Airbus.

The kenaf seed oil market is expected to grow in 2019-2027, with global sales poised to surpass 27,000 tonnes in 2019, thanks to increasing demand for the product in various industries such as pharmaceuticals, food and biofuels.

China's Ministry of Commerce has confirmed that it will start reviewing its anti-dumping tariffs on US imports of dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), a byproduct of biofuel production used as a feed ingredient, Reuters reported on 15 April.

US bioplastics producer Danimer Scientific – which produces a polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolymer from canola oil – says its new manufacturing plant in Kentucky, USA is expected to open in September, the Western Producer reported on 4 April.

Global cocoa and chocolate products leader Barry Callebaut has pledged to use sustainable coconut oil as part of its Forever Chocolate commitment for 100% sustainable ingredients by 2025.

New pesticides regarded as safe for bees could be causing harm to these vital pollinators when combined with fungicides being applied to crops, reported the Independent newspaper on 11 April.

Australia’s GrainCorp will be spinning off its malting business and integrating its grains and edible oils operations into a new business called New GrainCorp.

Just days after German pharmaceutical group Bayer lost its first Roundup weedkiller cancer test case in the USA, a French appeals court has ruled in favour of a French farmer who claimed to have been poisoned by a different herbicide owned by the company.

US-headquartered Vantage Specialty Chemicals has agreed to buy Textron Plimon SLU, a leading producer and processor of natural oils for the personal care, food and chemical industries.

The US soyabean area this year is expected to drop 2M ha to total 34.3M ha as a result of US farmers planting less of the crop, Germany’s oil and protein plants association, UFOP, reported on 4 April.