Black Earth, which controls 256,000ha of Russian farmland, has said the 2015 crop is expected to be the third-largest in post-Soviet history, despite a dry autumn in 2014. The total crop is expected to be 101m tonnes (vs 105m tonnes in 2014), of which wheat will account for 61m tonnes (65m tonnes in 2014).

Chinese farmers are walking away from sugar cane as a crop, with prices down by more than 20% from peaks around five years ago. Farmers are switching to other crops where better returns are available. This is driving demand for imports, where costs of producing sugar cane in Brazil are half that of China.

The Mato Grosso region in Brazil, where 10% of the world’s soya is grown, is experiencing a late and prolonged sowing season due to lack of rains. There are some areas still to be planted in the region, which will affect yields of the crop this year.

A delegation of American agribusinesses have joined with the Algerian-based Groupe Lacheb to create the US-Algeria joint venture (JV) El Ferma, which is valued at $100m (€94m). The role of the US companies in the JV will be to provide advanced agricultural technologies needed to establish and operate integrated US production models in Algeria.