As we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, people are trying to compare this situation to what’s happened in the past. From a health perspective, there are parallels to the 1918 Spanish Flu; but from an economic standpoint, many are bringing up the early eighties and even the Great Depression of the ’30s. My grandfathers lived through… Read More
Category: Finance
COVID-19 has been an unprecedented situation. People throughout all sectors are going through a lot with their businesses, and it has shed new light on the word “risk” and risk management. When farmers are doing their strategic risk analysis for the year, and they get to the threat portion, a global pandemic wasn’t exactly something… Read More
In a time like this, there’s so much financial turmoil out there, and many people concerned about what their farm business looks like as we try to get to the other side of COVID-19. We’ve got major demand deterioration in the protein markets, there’s milk dumping going on in parts of the U.S. and Canada… Read More
No one can predict how long the COVID-19 pandemic will last, but a huge focus on social and physical distancing has been effective, at least in part, to “flattening the curve” of infection and critical illness. Tracking on an inverse curve is the local and global economy. Right now uncertainty, social distancing, and shuttered businesses… Read More
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced additional support for farmers and farm businesses, following last week’s announcement of $82 billion in various spending measures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Parliament will reconvene March 24, 2020, to pass emergency legislation for these previously announced measures, and to release $5 billion in additional lending capacity through Farm… Read More
The Bank of Canada took a step to attempt to soften the blow of COVID-19 on the economy by dropping its key rate by another 50 bps to 0.75 per cent — the second cut in as many weeks. The Bank of Canada also took additional measures with banker acceptances to keep the short term… Read More
For many of the commodity futures in meats and grains, it has been a very rough two weeks of panic selling in response to coronavirus economic impacts. The sell-off has not been isolated to agricultural commodities, as the equity market in the U.S. is now officially in a bear market and down 20% off of… Read More
Early March has brought a very bearish tone to the commodity and equity markets due to concerns regarding the coronavirus. As a result, both the Bank of Canada and the U.S. Federal Reserve aggressively cut their key rates 50 basis-points. The possibility of both countries making even stronger cuts in the coming months is likely… Read More
Although there are still talks happening behind closed doors, progress of the business risk management program (BRM) review feels as though it’s slow-moving. At this year’s CropConnect conference held at Winnipeg, Man., the topic was acknowledged by federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, but there was no mention of action — which is what most are… Read More
Due to the trade war between the U.S. and China, the White House used the Market Facilitation Program (MFP) to compensate farmers from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC). The compensation was justified based on farmers willing to be “true patriots” for the greater good of America’s decision to call out China on its trading practices…. Read More