Argentina temporarily suspends exports of soybean meal and soybean oil and will raise export taxes from 31% to 33% (the same as soybeans) on soybean crushers. Argentina is the world's largest soybean meal exporter. Last year Argentine exporters and traders saw a 300% increase y-o-y due to low water levels in the Parana River which is used for soybean ship transportation. China, the world's top importer of soybeans, brought in 13.94 million tonnes of the oilseed in the Jan-Feb period, up 4.1% from 2021.

US- The highly infectious strain of avian flu (bird flu) has now been discovered in commercial poultry flocks in 12 states. The USDA stated that state officials had quarantined the affected premises, and birds from the properties will be depopulated. Almost 1 million laying hens killed in Iowa to prevent spread. The chances of humans getting sick from avian flu are low. Reports arise about bird flu cases in Canada too.

Russia now considering a ban on wheat, rye, barley and corn exports from March 15 to June 30. Russia is the world's #1 wheat (20% of global), #6 rye, #9 barley, #11 corn exporter. Nitrogen and potash based fertilizer exports from Russia and Belarus are restricted due to sanctions and farmers around the world and unable to plant acreages as previous years. UK ammonium nitrate is up to £1,000 per tonne compared to £650 a week ago.

Breaking - Reports of cyberattack against government websites in Israel, including the Ministries of Finance & Transportation and the national cyber system. Alleged Iranian-affiliated hacker group Black Shadow claimed responsibility for the attack. According to data from the Internet Association, there is an unusual increase in traffic into http://gov.il through Cellcom (Netvision). This probably indicates a denial of service (DDOS) attack. The bandwidth of the attack is about 15-20 GB. The attack began at 6:15 p.m., and ended at about 7:30 p.m.

Concerns grow over global food security. Europe has seen major increases in natural gas prices, used in nitrogen fertilizer production, resulting in shutdown of fertilizer facilities. Fuel price increases creating budget constraints for farmers to heat barns and run agricultural machinery. Hungary, Indonesia and Argentina have imposed trade barriers on agricultural exports ranging from wheat to cooking oil. Russia and China has placed bans/restrictions on exports of nitrogen fertilizers. President Putin warns that global food security can be negatively affected and result in inflationary pressure increases due to sanctioning Russia.

A new multi-polar world order is in progress. India considering buying Russian crude and commodities at big discounts conducting trade in rubles and rupees as Indian exporters are awaiting payments of about $500 million that have been stuck after the sanctions. Under the proposed mechanism, ruble could be deposited into an Indian bank after converting it into rupee and vice versa. Saudi Arabia is in active talks with Beijing to price some of its oil sales to China in yuan. Russia is working on implementing already developed SWIFT bypasses. The official website of the Eurasian Economic Commission announced that the EAEU and China will develop a draft of an independent international monetary system. This was immediately scrubbed off the website. Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister, Bakhyt Sultanov later denied the announcement.

US Producer Prices Index at double-digits for first time and Feb is the 21st straight month of MoM rising producer prices. Nearly 40 percent of the Feb increase in prices for final demand goods can be attributed to the index for gasoline, which rose 14.8%. Wholesale energy prices were up 33.8% over the past year and food prices 13.7%. Biden’s JCPOA negotiations with Iran to restore Iranian frozen funds, in exchange to drop sanctions on Iran to increase world's oil volumes market availability is being mediated by Russia the JCPOA key broker.

A worsening drought in the southern U.S. Plains is threatening the region's winter wheat crop. U.S. hard red winter wheat represents nearly half of the country's overall wheat production and is milled mainly for bread flour. Russia on Monday temporarily banned grain exports to ex-Soviet countries and most sugar exports. US farmers are looking at over a 300% increase on fertilizer alone this year. Black Sea supply squeeze continues. China’s winter wheat crop could be the worst in history after heavy rainfall delayed planting last fall.

Government's centralised more economic control under the guise of 'sanctions'. The UK's Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill in final stages of approval sets precedents to potentially in the future undermine UK private property rights. European banks will now intensively scrutinize all transactions Russia and Belarusian clients which is based on an ethnicity and nationality. Some ECB supervisory teams, which include staff from the central bank and national authorities, have told banks to tighten control of EU residents too if they come from Russia or Belarus.

US- Walmart 1.2 million square feet distribution center in an Indianapolis suburb engulfed in fire. No reported injuries. Smoke plume can be seen from weather satellite. 200 firefighters were battling blaze.
2 days ago the Carrefour Yangmei Logistics Distribution Center (for the 8th largest retailer in the world) was burnt down. The massive logistics center is the second warehouse in Taiwan to catch fire this month.

Black Sea research firm SovEcon expects Ukraine's 2022 corn harvest to plunge 35% to 27.7 million tons this year based on if farmers start planting on time in April. Ukraine and Russia accounts for more than a quarter of global wheat trade & about a fifth of global corn trade. Ukraine has enforced protectionist measures of banning wheat and other commodities exports. In South Korea, Asia's 4th largest economy, import prices of corn surged 40% y-o-y to $335 last month, which was up 63% from the same month in 2020. EU -In order to prevent animal feed shortages, the European Commission agreed to allow a temporary lifting of corn import restrictions for EU member states in order to allow imports from Latin America which was restricted due to pesticide residues.

Swedish farmers may be forced to reduce their harvests by as much as half due to a shortage of manure and fertilizers. Russia supplies Sweden with up to 20% of its manure and also supplies of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. Swedish farmers are seeing massive increases in fertilizer costs from other sources. Swedish government announces €1.32 billion subsidy package to help Swedes cope with soaring fuel/energy prices. Last month Swedish farmers got a one billion-kronor ($106 million) government compensation package for a surge in costs for electricity, fuel and fertilizers. Next door, the Finnish government is about to enact a $331 million subsidy to farmers facing an "acute liquidity crisis" caused by high inflation and rising energy prices.

CBDC news this week- The Bank of Canada will work closely with MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative team to explore distributed ledger technology and how it would impact the potential design of a CBDC. India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has dismissed all speculations that the government plans to issue a cryptocurrency that would be regulated by RBI, instead looking to CBDC as a digital equivalent to the rupee. Ghana’s central bank is deploying hardware wallets (smartcard, key fob, wrist watch/band) for its CBDC. This is how a cashless society—easily monitored, controlled, manipulated, weaponized and locked down—plays right into the hands of the government (and its corporate partners).

Brazil is one of the most foreign fertilizer reliant countries in the world that imports more than 85% of its total fertilizer demand. Russia, Canada & Belarus are Brazil’s top suppliers and sanctions on Russia are creating fertilizer supply chain issues. This has led urea fertilizer importers to push the Brazilian gov’t to negotiate a bartering deal (food for fertilizer) with Iran who is also under US sanctions. Brazil is a leading exporter of coffee, sugar, soybeans, manioc, rice, maize, cotton, edible beans, and wheat. Brazil announces a National Fertilizer Plan with goals for 2030 and 2050 to modernize, reactivate and expand existing fertilizer plants; improve the business environment to attract investments in the fertilizer production chain and promote competitive advantages in the national fertilizer production chain, to name a few.

Nickel markets correcting - The London Metal Exchange’s embarrassing weeklong suspension of nickel trading is an example of the volatility particularly difficult to navigate because some moves appear to defy fundamentals, with hedge funds exiting long-term bullish bets just as supply looks the tightest in years. The LME suspended trading as prices surged 250% to a record, canceling almost $4 billion of transactions. The illiquidity is a worry for consumers who use nickel in stainless steel and electric-vehicle batteries.

Cyberattack - Credit score reporting company TransUnion South Africa is hacked by a group of hackers demanding a ransom of $ 15 million (R225 million) for over 4 TB of personal data on 54 million South Africans. Data includes credit rating scores, financial institution facts, and ID quantities. South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC), said it has engaged with TransUnion “with the aim to coordinate the banking industry’s efforts to secure bank customers’ profiles against abuse”.

Hundreds of Greek farmers, some on tractors, protested in Athens, demanding more tax cuts and subsidies to combat high fuel and fertilizer prices. The farmers say their costs are so high they will be forced to produce less and also raise prices for consumers. Greek farmers are impacted by the low availability of nitrogen and potash based fertilizers imported from Russia. Farming associations say they were largely left out of a $1.21 billion financial support package announced earlier this week to help consumers and business to cope with surging energy costs. Benchmark wholesale European gas prices surged by more than 300% last year, pushing up the cost of electricity in Greece.

Spain's farmers are considering giving animal herds less feed and may eventually be forced to slaughter some of the animals to keep farms going due to imported grains supply shortages. Spain has the largest livestock herd in the EU with about 58.8 million head covering pigs, cows, sheep and goats. Feed stocks have become depleted in Spain, a major customer of corn from Ukraine. This week, Spanish truck drivers protested high fuel prices. Today, thousands of demonstrators hit the streets across Spain to protest the soaring cost of food, light and fuel.

The pace of petrodollar developments is reminiscent of late 2017 USD attacks pointed to in this YouTube video.
This week -Saudi Arabia is in talks with China to sell oil for CNY. China is maybe preparing for possible US sanctions. China and Saudi Arabia have been talking about yuan-based oil contracts for six years. China ranks as the biggest foreign holder of US debt. The main hurdle is the yuan’s limited convertibility and that it is still tightly managed by China. The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is progressively interconnecting with the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. Half of Russia’s gold and foreign reserves have been frozen by unilateral sanctions.

Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) trains were halted this morning, stalling global shipments of key commodities like fertilizers, after an impasse in contract negotiations between the company and more than 3,000 conductors, engineers and yard workers. Businesses/politicians publicly urge the Canadian parliament to introduce back-to-work legislation that would force striking workers to return to their jobs. CPR is the sixth-largest freight railway in North America. Nutrien, the world’s largest potash & major nitrogen fertilizer producer sends most potash production from its Saskatchewan mines via CPR to ships for exporting. Manitoba farmers worry as they use CPR to transport grains & oilseeds. 75% of all fertilizer in Canada is moved by rail. Farmers concerned if fertilizers will arrive on time for fertilizing window in spring.

Breaking - Saudi Arabia alleges Iran-aligned Houthi group launched four attacks on the kingdom that targeted a water desalination plant in the city of Al-Shaqeeq, an Aramco facility in Jizan, a power station in the southern Dhahran al Janub city, and a gas facility in Khamis Mushait. Firefighters have the fire under control at the Aramco facility at the present time as shown in video with footage of the strike earlier in the day.