Bee Numbers Impact on Almonds and EU Open to Lowering Tariffs
From the Ag Information Network, this is your Agribusiness Update.
**Despite concerns earlier this year that there would not be enough bees to pollinate the 2025 almond crop, it does not appear to have affected production.
A USDA forecast shows California farmers will harvest 2.8 billion pounds of almonds, which is less than average but slightly more than last year.
Blue Diamond Grower’s Mel Machado told the Voice of California Agriculture podcast, growers are “cautiously optimistic.”
**The European Union says it’s open to lowering tariffs on U.S. fertilizer imports during trade talks with the Trump administration but will not weaken its food safety standards in pursuit of a deal.
Whether that would mean zero tariffs, or a reduction of current rates, would need to be negotiated.
Reducing tariffs could boost Europe’s purchases of U.S. fertilizer, to fill a gap as the EU cuts supplies from Russia.
**Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton introduced the Biothreat Prevention Act, that would ban federal funding to any lab or university conducting agricultural research with nationals from China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, or North Korea.
Cotton says foreign terrorists seeking to poison and destroy America’s food supply should not have access to American labs and universities.
This comes after three Chinese researchers were charged with smuggling a “potential agroterrorism weapon” in a fungus into the U.S.
