Food, in brief

The UK and the EU finished a 200-page deal on Tuesday ending most Brexit checks on food and animals. [1]

British food sales to the EU have fallen by a third since Brexit, the National Farmers' Union says. [1]

Exporting gets easier, but food firms say they need marketing help to win back EU buyers. [2]

UK shoppers should see more French cheese and wine again, after supermarkets cut their range. [2]

Trade economists call costs like the £200 vet certificate non-tariff barriers. [2]

The checks made small batches of cheese and wine too costly, so UK delis stopped buying them. [1]

Many shellfish firms stopped exporting, because a lorry of fresh fish could be held at Boulogne, in France. [2]

A £3 delivery fee is fine on a big food order, but nobody pays it to send one apple.

In May, Defra, the UK farm ministry, expected the deal to start in May 2027. [1] It now says 2028. [1]

The £5.1bn a year in gains is the UK government's own estimate. [3]

Scottish langoustines could again be caught one day and served in EU restaurants the next. [2]

EU ambassadors discuss the text on Wednesday, before the summit on 20 November. [1]

The UK has agreed to follow EU food, plant and animal rules so that British food can cross into the EU without £200 vet certificates and checks. [3]

The checks stay until early 2028, because UK law must first be changed to match EU rules. [2]

Without checks, UK delis can again buy small batches from them, which the costs had made impossible. [1]

Their lorries of fresh fish no longer risk being held at Boulogne for missing papers. [2]

Under dynamic alignment they must move to EU rules, after a short extra transition. [1]

Whether British food sales to the EU will come back once the checks go.

The NFU's president says EU shelves are not waiting for British products, and food firms want marketing help to win buyers back. [2]

When the food deal will actually start.

Defra expected May 2027, then told industry it may be 2028, with six more months for some crops sprayed with fungicides the EU has not approved. [1]

Corn prices in Chicago fell on Tuesday to $4.42 a bushel, their lowest since 2 July. [5]

Soybeans also fell, to $12.12 a bushel, their lowest since 17 August. [5]

US farmers grew their second-biggest corn crop on record this year, the US farm department estimates. [5]

Mexico bought 315,000 tonnes and South Korea 136,000 tonnes on Tuesday. [5] But US sales abroad still lag last year's pace. [5]

US officials say Ukraine may export 10.2 million tonnes of corn this season, against 22.2 million last season. [6] The war with Russia is the cause. [6]

A big crop and slow sales abroad cut the price US farmers get for their corn. [5]

Economists say prices move on expectations: corn fell on expectations of a large US crop. [5]

The US corn harvest was 70% done by 25 October. [17] The crop's size is still a US farm department estimate. [5]

A shop marks umbrellas down when the forecast says a week of sun, before the week arrives.

The US farm department publishes new crop and demand figures on 10 November. [6]

Ukraine's prime minister, Sergii Koretskyi, said on Tuesday that limits on its farm exports to the EU must be temporary. [30]

Last month the European Commission, which runs the EU day to day, proposed keeping some Ukrainian grain out for good. [30]

That would apply even after Ukraine joins, mainly to wheat and other grains, after pressure from several EU countries. [30]

Koretskyi said Ukrainian farmers must also spend heavily to meet EU food standards while rebuilding after Russia's attacks. [30]

Koretskyi says limits must not become a permanent restriction or a subset of the single market. [30]

He says Ukraine accepts short-term limits if they have clear review and exit conditions. [30]

The Commission publishes its roadmap for Ukraine and three other countries on Wednesday. [30]

Why paperwork at a border can cost a food seller as much as a tax

Two places keep different food rules

Each load must prove it meets the buyer's rules

Certificates, vet fees and waits add a cost to every load

Small batches and fresh food stop being worth sending

Matching the rules removes the checks, and one side takes the other's rules

No tax was charged on Scottish shellfish or French cheese, but the certificates and checks on each load stopped small sellers as a tax would have.

Two of the costs a British food exporter paid to sell to the EU. The deal removes both.

buyers abroad refuse wild seafood with any antibiotic trace, so salmon farms would shut nearby lobster grounds to keep those lobster sales open

its German rubber floor had no Dutch certificate, so the cows had to leave the farm

the EU would keep Ukrainian wheat out even inside its single market, with a rule instead of a tax

Removing the checks this way means the UK follows food rules it no longer helps to write.

A cheesemaker in France, a langoustine boat in Scotland and a deli owner in England all paid for these checks.

Whether the EU keeps Ukrainian wheat out for good.

The Commission has proposed it, and Ukraine's prime minister says limits must be temporary; the roadmap due on Wednesday may say more. [30]

Roger Marshall, a Kansas senator on the US Senate's farm committee, lost his seat, AP projects. [27]

Zach Nunn, an Iowa congressman on the House farm committee, also lost, Agri-Pulse, a farm news site, reports. [27]

Iowa grows more corn and hogs than any other US state. [27]

Rob Sand, projected to win Iowa's race for governor, has called for farmers' manure plans to be made public. [27]

He links nitrates, from fertiliser and manure, to rising cancer rates in Iowa. [27]

The US Congress must now decide whether to pass a five-year farm bill this year or wait. [27]

A farm bill sets US crop subsidies, conservation money and food aid for poorer families. [27]

Political scientists call it leverage: Democrats may wait, since they will hold more seats next year. [27]

Agri-Pulse says nobody yet knows who will lead the farm committees. [27]

Whether a US farm bill passes this year or waits for the new Congress.

Agri-Pulse reports both are possible, and nobody yet knows who will lead the farm committees. [27]

Raw sugar prices in New York fell as much as 3.7% on Tuesday, to a five-week low. [8]

They are now more than 13% below last month's peak. [8]

India made 845,000 tonnes of sugar by late October, over eight times as much as a year before. [8]

Its mills started crushing cane earlier this year. [8]

Prices had risen on fears that a strong El Nino, a Pacific weather pattern, would cut harvests. [8]

India is the world's biggest sugar user, so more Indian sugar means fewer imports. [8]

Brazil's cane mills crushed 18% less in early October because of rain. [8]

Economists call this price discovery: a market resets its price when new facts arrive, like India's output data. [8]

Funds that bet on rising prices had piled in, then sold, which made the fall deeper. [8]

When the whole class expects a hard test and it is easy, everyone relaxes at once.

A weaker Brazilian currency gives them more reason to sell their sugar abroad. [8]

Britain's animal health agency told MPs on Tuesday that exotic disease reports have soared. [13]

Reports rose from 57 between 2015 and 2020 to almost 5,000 over the next six years. [13]

There have been 3,472 farms with bluetongue, a midge-spread livestock virus, in the UK since June. [13]

Samples sent to Pirbright, a national lab, rose from about 100 a week to 150 a day by late July. [13]

Farmers waited three weeks or more to learn whether their animals had the disease. [13]

The NFU's animal health adviser said: "I just hope and pray that we're not missing things." [13]

Vets call this surveillance capacity: how many samples labs can test in time. [13]

About 40% of samples arrived without the details needed, so tests took 10 to 12 days. [13]

A school nurse with one line of sick pupils sees each fast, but not a line of fifty.

Richard Lewis, the agency's head, said its way of working "ignores the reality of our situation". [13]

Pirbright's science director says the lab never went over its stated testing capacity. [13]

It holds a lessons-learned exercise with government and industry later this month. [13]

Salmon Tasmania, which speaks for the island's salmon farms, wants an emergency permit to use the antibiotic florfenicol. [28]

A disease outbreak killed about 9,000 tonnes of salmon last summer, even with 5.4 tonnes of the drug used. [28]

The plan would shut nearby wild fishing areas for up to six weeks when pens are treated. [28]

Some countries that buy rock lobster and abalone ban any antibiotic trace in wild seafood. [28]

A permit was revoked in March after the drug turned up in wild seafood over 10 kilometres away. [28]

Lobster fishers say they should not lose their fishing grounds because salmon farms use a drug. [28]

Trade economists call a rule like this a sanitary barrier: buyers abroad refuse food carrying any trace of the drug. [28]

So the salmon farms would close lobster grounds near treated pens, to keep those export markets open. [28]

If one pupil brings nuts to a nut-free school, the whole class's lunches get checked.

Lobster fisher Bryce Way said: "If you're accepting money, you're selling your soul." [28]

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority is due to decide later this month. [28]

buyers abroad refuse wild seafood with any antibiotic trace, so salmon farms would shut nearby lobster grounds to keep those lobster sales open

They would lose their fishing grounds near treated salmon pens for up to six weeks. [28]

Whether Tasmania's salmon farms get their antibiotic permit.

The Australian medicines regulator for farm chemicals decides later this month. [28]

South Africa has stopped all sardine fishing until it sets new rules, its fisheries department said on Monday. [29]

The old rules ran out on 31 October. [29]

A virus, pilchard herpesvirus, killed large numbers of sardines between late July and early September. [29]

Four conservation groups want fishing stopped until a count of the fish is done. [29]

They say October's rules raised the allowed catch from about 4,000 tonnes to 5,500 tonnes. [29]

African penguins, which are critically endangered, eat sardines. [29] So do snoek, a fish small-scale fishers live on. [29]

Fisheries scientists call it a total allowable catch: a yearly limit set from a count of the fish. [29]

This year's limit of 51,800 tonnes was set in April, before the virus. [29] The department says its effect cannot be judged until a new count. [29]

A coach picks a team before the season, then half the players get flu.

The groups say they were not given the reasons for the September and October decisions. [29]

Snoek, the fish they live on, feeds on sardines, and no one knows how many are left. [29]

How many sardines are left off South Africa after the virus.

No new count has been done, and the groups say a survey may not finish before the end of 2026. [29]

Zimbabwe's grain board has bought 345,000 tonnes of cereals, its farm minister, Anxious Masuka, said. [31]

That is more than the 328,000 tonnes it gave out in the 2024 drought. [31]

ARDA, a state farm agency, delivered 187,704 tonnes of summer cereals and 60,529 tonnes of wheat. [31]

Masuka says the country is almost certain to get less rain than normal, because of El Nino. [31]

ARDA plans to farm 100,000 hectares: 60,000 irrigated and 40,000 sown with crops bred for dry weather. [31]

Masuka says the reserve should hold enough to feed everyone if the drought comes. [31]

Economists call this a buffer stock: grain bought and held now so families can be fed if the rains fail. [31]

Masuka says up to 30% of maize can be lost after harvest, so storing well matters too. [31]

A family fills the cupboard before a snowstorm, while the shop is still open.

Zimbabwe's grain board has already bought 345,000 tonnes of cereals, more than it gave out in the 2024 drought.

Since 1 November, four states, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia, bar food aid from some drinks and sweets. [23]

The aid is SNAP, a US scheme that helps poorer families buy groceries. [23]

They join 13 other states, and each sets its own list. [23]

Montana bans energy drinks with over 6mg of caffeine an ounce, and South Carolina sets its own limit. [23]

A judge struck down the limits in 5 states in June, but not elsewhere. [23]

Soda spending per SNAP household fell 8% in early 2026 in states with limits, Circana data shows. [23]

Numerator, a research firm, puts the possible lost sales at up to $830 million. [23]

Economists call this a restricted transfer: aid that can be spent only on chosen things, as in these 17 states. [23]

A rule lists what the card cannot buy, so soda and sweet sales to those families fall. [23]

A canteen voucher that cannot be spent on crisps means the canteen sells fewer crisps.

Kansas, Missouri and Wyoming start in February. [23]

Their sales to families on food aid shrink, and Coca-Cola has warned investors such limits could hurt its sales. [23]

Arla, a dairy co-operative, has opened an urgent inquiry into secret films from farms that supply it. [11]

Animal Justice Project, a campaign group, filmed 15 English farms that supply Arla. [11]

A welfare expert who watched footage from 10 farms counted 360 possible breaches of rules. [11]

They include 50 cases of serious lameness, and cows being kicked or dragged. [11]

Two of the farms are run by the farming business of an Arla board director, George Holmes, the group says. [11]

Some of the milk goes to Tesco and Morrisons, two of Britain's biggest supermarkets. [11]

The group wants the supermarkets to suspend five farms now, rather than let Arla check itself. [11]

No court, regulator or inspection body has yet found that these were breaches. [11]

Whether the films from Arla's supplier farms show real breaches.

No court, regulator or inspection body has ruled on them yet. [11]

The European Commission forecasts most EU crop yields this year below the five-year average. [16]

It cut its estimate of the EU's maize crop by another 1.3 million tonnes, to 47.0 million tonnes, after drought. [17]

Dry soil in France, southern Belgium and southern Germany has left rapeseed, an oil crop, patchy. [16]

In the Baltic states and Finland, heavy rain has stopped winter sowing in some places. [16]

UK feed wheat for May 2027 fell 2.6% last week, to £202.50 a tonne. [17]

The poor start raises worries for next year's winter cereal crops, the Commission says. [16]

Agronomists, who study crops and soil, call this crop establishment: how well a seed takes root before winter. [16]

Dry soil slowed rapeseed coming up, so the crop took root patchily in several areas. [16]

Grass seed sown on a hard dry lawn leaves bare patches by spring.

New Zealand's cows made a record 21.8 billion litres of milk in the 2025/26 season, up 3.5%. [9]

The country has 4.72 million dairy cows, 1% more than the year before. [9]

Farmers were paid NZ$10.44 per kilogram of milk solids, down from NZ$10.75 the year before. [9]

Fonterra, a New Zealand dairy co-operative, raised its forecast for this season from NZ$9.50 to NZ$9.75 a kilogram. [10]

Boss Richard Allen says whole milk powder prices rose about 5% on demand from Asia and Africa. [10]

A higher forecast means more money for New Zealand's dairy farmers this season. [10]

Economists call this a demand-led price rise: buyers paid more for powder even as record milk arrived. [10]

Fonterra could raise its forecast despite record milk because much of the season's sales were already agreed. [10]

A baker can charge more for bread when queues grow faster than the ovens can fill.

Fonterra's higher forecast means more money per kilogram of milk they sell this season. [10]

New Zealand's cows made a record 21.8 billion litres of milk last season.

Brad's Plant Based, a US snack brand, is recalling kale chips because they may contain thallium. [22]

Thallium is a metal found in soil, and it can harm nerves and the gut. [22]

About 25,000 bags were sold across the US between October and December 2025. [22]

California's health department warned shoppers in May, after one person had high thallium levels. [22]

Kale, cabbage and radish draw thallium up from soil more than many plants. [22]

Food scientists call it concentration: drying removes water, so what was in the leaf stays and builds up. [22]

Drying takes out 85% to 90% of the kale's water, so its thallium is packed into less food. [22]

Boil a pan of salty water dry and the salt is still left at the bottom.

The FDA, the US food regulator, found the metal in tests. [22] The recall notice says making the chips did not add it. [22]

The UK's animal health agency helped look into 2 outbreaks linked to raw milk, between April and June. [21]

Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurised. [21]

One outbreak was Cryptosporidium, a gut parasite, and the other a harmful kind of E. coli. [21]

The farm in one case stopped selling raw milk, then restarted after tighter checks. [21]

The agency helped with 10 Cryptosporidium outbreaks in all that quarter. [21]

Families on spring farm visits are most at risk, especially when visitors cuddle lambs. [21]

Hand gel does not kill this parasite, so the agency asks for soap and water. [21]

Neither agency said how many people fell ill. [21]

How many people the two UK raw milk outbreaks made ill.

Neither the animal health agency nor the UK health security agency gave a number. [21]

The harvest price for US corn crop insurance is $4.75 a bushel, the average of October prices. [7]

In spring, the projected price was $4.62. [7]

For soybeans the harvest price is $12.63, against $11.09 in spring. [7]

Farmdoc, a team at the University of Illinois, published the figures. [7]

For the three years before, the corn harvest price was below spring's. [7]

With prices up, farmers get payouts only if their crops came in smaller. [7]

Farm economists call this revenue insurance: it pays when a farm's harvest times its price falls short. [7]

Revenue Protection, one kind of policy, sets its guarantee at the higher price, $4.75 for corn this year. [7]