☁️ Canola is on Cloud Nine

A small 2020 canola harvest combined with strong export demand has the canola market giving GameStop stock a run for its money.

The March futures contract closed at $716/ton on January 27th, coming off a $75/ton rally and nearing a 12-year-high. Notably, canola futures are in an inverse position with May contracts closing at $678. AKA, the market wants that canola, and it wants it now.

And Canadian Canola producers would be on edge to empty their bins, but… many already did.

The price was right: Producers were tempted to take advantage of strong fall prices only to see them spike further, pushing Canada’s year-to-date exports up nearly 33%.

So, where’s all the canola going?

China, Canada’s top purchaser of canola, continues to buy up the oilseeds, just at a reduced rate due to dockage-based restrictions. Canada says the barrier stems from Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, while China says “dangerous pests” are the reason for the restrictions.

And this helps: New markets in the United Arab Emirates and Europe have filled in much of the gap left by China’s restrictions.

Strong canola oil demand is also a factor, and domestic crush plants are racing to buy the commodity.

Where this goes: The canola rally isn’t necessarily over, and Canadian farmers are predicted to plant a 6% bigger canola crop this spring in response. As for the market - high prices tend to turn volatile, so producers may have to fasten their seatbelts.

→ Backtrack: The State Department slipped an exemption to South African H-2A agriculture workers who were originally barred from flying into the country last week via pandemic-related travel bans.

→ Pick up the pace. Over 100 agribusiness and food groups penned a letter to the Senate Finance Committee to quickly confirm U.S. Trade Rep Katherine Tai to her appointment. Similar sentiment by industry groups was given to Ag Secretary pick, Tom Vilsack, whose hearing is today.

→ Getting in on enzymes. FMC and Novozymes have buddied up to research and launch enzyme-based fungicides and insecticides.

→ Smithfield snips sugar and sodium. The global pork leader revealed plans to cut the sweet and salty ingredients by 10% in all products by 2025.

→ Another day, another COVID-19 cancellation. The Louisville-based National Farm Machinery Show is hanging it up for 2021, deciding to cancel this year’s show in light of ongoing uncertainty around the pandemic.

You may have caught our video shout out around flying fruit bots on Friday, so let’s talk about the not too FAR future.

Flying Autonomous Robots, that is.

The company who makes them, Tevel Aerobotics Technologies, just received a major liftoff.

Can you take me higher: The Israel-based company raised $20 million from major investors, including two Asian agricultural equipment manufacturers: Japan’s Kubota and China’s Forbon.

The fruit-harvesting drones will help mitigate a significant - 50% - drop of UN orchard workers over the past two decades. Plus, the robots will allow farmers the opportunity to grow taller trees.

Taller trees = more fruit = extra revenue = more money in the farmer's pocket.

And not only can the drones snag fruit at the tippy top of that tree way easier than humans, but they can also detect the fruit type, size, and ripeness. Pruning, trimming, and thinning orchard trees is another feature set that makes the bot next-level.

Up, up and away: Although the service is not yet commercially available for farmers, Tevel plans to use the investment funds for pilot tests in the U.S. this year.

The fact is plain as day: 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies who offer excellent customer service.

And in agriculture, where communication and trust can make or break business relationships, customer service is mission-critical.

Enter, AgriSync.

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From call management and remote support to team collaboration and dashboard insights, you can have the tools at your fingertips to build best-in-class customer experiences.

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Just like our readers in the northern U.S., new rules and regs have been frozen for the Biden administration to review. This freeze pauses $2.3 billion in supplemental Coronavirus Food Assistance Program [CFAP] payments for producers that were announced on January 15.

The deets: The leftover funds from CFAP 1 and 2 would loop in contract poultry and pork producers, among others, and true-up previous payments.

A temporary timeout: Senate Ag Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) was supportive of the pause, noting that CFAP funds were supposed to address supply chain issues, PPE for farm workers and processors, and assistance to smaller producers.

Bottom line: As things thaw out on determining how to appropriate the leftover funds, eyes are still on the $13 billion of ag aid in CFAP #3 that has yet to be doled out. Implementation of this next round of CFAP is still expected to take a hot minute.