Plant breeding innovation: Grain trade and seed federation meeting on information sharing

A number of representatives from the IGTC and the International Seed Federation (ISF) met on 20 October in Berlin to discuss the impact of innovation on the international movement of seed and grain. Pragmatic, achievable and effective information-sharing solutions were top of the agenda. A debrief from the meeting will be presented to the IGTC Policy Team on 2 November.

The IGTC’s policy document on Plant Breeding Innovation is here. It addresses trade concerns focussing on three pillars: safety, regulatory coherence, and education and sharing of information.

Grain trade corporate stakeholders seek to modernize agricultural trade

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) (“ADM”), Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG) (“Bunge”), Cargill, Incorporated (“Cargill”), and Louis Dreyfus Company (“LDC”) have jointly announced their plans to modernize global agricultural commodity trade operations. In a statement released yesterday, 25 October (full text here), a vision is laid out to investigate ways to standardize and digitize global agricultural shipping transactions for the benefit of the entire industry. Driven by opportunities to increase transparency and efficiency for customers, the companies emphasize that global agribusinesses are turning to emerging digital technologies – including blockchain and artificial intelligence options – to reduce resource- and time-intensive processes associated with the global agricultural commodity value chain.

Published: International declaration on agricultural applications of precision biotechnology

An “international declaration on agricultural applications of precision biotechnology” has been published on the WTO website (in Spanish, here), with the intention that it will be presented at the upcoming WTO SPS committee on 1-2 November by the Government of Argentina. The statement promotes the role of agricultural innovation, and highlights the need for science and risk-based policies that avoid trade disruptions.

IGTC welcomed at South African grain trade annual meeting

IGTC thanks the South African Cereals and Oilseeds Trade Association (SACOTA - https://sacota.co.za/) for the opportunity to attend its annual meeting on 10 October in Pretoria. IGTC took the opportunity to highlight the activities, projects and successes of our collective work to achieve a market and regulatory system that is supportive of the grain trade (presentation here).

At the meeting, SACOTA Chairman Konrad Keyser, and executives De Wet Boshoff and Dirk Kok (pictured with IGTC Secretariat) presented the vision of SACOTA to be a significant, influential and respected force in the Southern African grain and agricultural sector.

WTO Public Forum: Report of IGTC panel now online

The report from the IGTC’s panel session at the 2018 WTO Public Forum is now online and can be read in “Session 18”, here. The focus of the panel was “the future of sustainable agriculture and trade: Directions, policies and investment priorities”.

Speakers were as follows:

• George Rapsomanikis, Senior Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Carmel Cahill, Deputy Director, Directorate for Trade and Agriculture, OECD
• Lee Ann Jackson, Counsellor, WTO
• Katy Lee, IGTC Secretariat 

The accuracy of the information reported and interpreted in this communication is not guaranteed. All contents are subject to correction and revision. This newsletter and referenced links are for the use of IGTC Members and Stakeholders only and should otherwise be treated as confidential.