Since April 26, 2024, the yearly Saudi mango festival has been showcasing tens of varieties in Jazan and Al-Qunfudah areas. The key varieties under showcase are popular within and outside Saudi Arabia, including Tommy Atkins, Langra and Sensation. Most farmers’ showcases have been taking place in Mecca region’s Al-Qunfudah near the Red Sea, which produces 50% of national mangoes.  Despite its lengthy summers that last...

Global coffee prices improved week-on-week on May 20, 2024 on falling supplies due to low rain in Brazil and Vietnam. The futures markets registered a top price of $2.09 per pound against $2.08 a pound in the foregoing week.  A week earlier on May 6, prices had hit $2.04 per pound from April highs, but spiked by 1.96% on May 13. The price...

The announcement of the 2024 World Food Prize has renewed interest in global crop profiles in the background of climate change. On May 9, the U.S. Department of State awarded the prize to Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin OBE and Dr. Cary Fowler, who are behind the 1.25 million seed-strong “Doomsday Vault.” The “Doomsday Vault” rests 150 m inside a mountain in the Arctic circle, to...

The ongoing California avocado season of April through June has hit an early milestone of 97,412,297 fruit pounds before May 12. According to the California Avocado Commission (CAC)’s forecast in January 2024, this season’s output will be 208 million pounds. This production will be a little lower than 2023’s 237 million pounds, due to extreme weather changes.  Interestingly, the ongoing harvest is commonplace...

After a belated May 3, 2024 start, the Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) lobster season is finally underway amid a  price depreciation. The delay owed to gushing seas with strong winds at 20 knots (37 km/hour) in late April and early May.  The late opening on May 3 coincided with Mothers Day holiday the following weekend, a time when prices normally fall. By...

Red Lobster, the affordable American seafood restaurant chain is closing tens of its outlets in the U.S. after reporting losses in quarter 3, 2023. The restaurant has over 750 venues globally but it remains quintessentially American. Most people associate the restaurant with seafood but it also sells various non-seafood offers.  While the company’s name evokes the obvious food staple as lobster, biscuits,...

Australia has set May 2028 as the final date for live sheep shipments by sea, to end animal welfare violations. Agriculture minister Murray Watt stated on May 11, 2024 that legislating the ban this early will provide sheep farmers “certainty.” To ensure certainty, the government is offering A$107 million ($71.40 million) to farmers to cope with the impending ban. According to Watt,...

Peru’s ginger exports in quarter 1, 2024 soared to 8, 453 tonnes worth $22.6 million, echoing annual exports in 2023 which grew by 86%. This is even as 2024 prices look onto an upward trajectory as supplies ebb.  From January to March 2024, North American and Western European markets commanded 92% of the international sales, according to Agraria.pe. The United States, whose entire 2023 Peruvian...

Predictions of rain in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Indonesia offset cocoa prices May 14, 2024 to a 60-year biggest weekly drop.  New York futures markets registered a fall of 19% week-on-week in the best-performing contract while London experienced an 18% drop. The two marked the steepest decrements in the past 1 week and the sharpest in some 60 years. Early morning of May 15,...

Since exporting 372,407 60-kg bags of Robusta and 62,175 bags of Arabica in February, Uganda’s coffee sector has seen sharp changes. The main developments since mid-March 2024 have included: Farm-gate Prices of Uganda’s Coffee Beans Double Beginning midway March 2024, farm-gate prices of coffee beans in Uganda have notched 100% above the 2023 average.  Traders were offering farmers 12,500 shillings ($3.32) per...