US farming update:
- Pittsburgh farmers rush to protect crops ahead of freezing temperatures.
- Northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan farmers face rains, delaying planting.
- Iowa and southern Illinois spring planting season continues to be delayed due to rain.
- Southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois freeze warnings in might delay planting for farmers.
- West Texas farmers struggle to plant in drought conditions.
Picture: Freeze & Drought Maps. Table of 9 grain & oilseed commodities in the U.S. which have tight ending stocks. A bumper crop is needed to raise inventory levels.

- US Fed issued their CBDC report covering public dialogue about issuance of a USD retail CBDC and some potential benefits and risks.
- The Philippines to test wholesale CBDC to strengthen payment system.
- Hong Kong is exploring a retail CBDC, launching a discussion paper on the policy and design.
- ECB issues expression of interest for CBDC prototype user interfaces.

- Iran’s oil exports jumped by 30% from last year to 870,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter of 2022. Iran sells its crude oil almost exclusively to China and has never stopped those sales since sanctions against Tehran in 2018.
- Production has partially resumed at Libya's largest oil field after a force majeure was imposed on it earlier this month, says the operator of the field, Spain's Repsol.
- Germany is dropping its opposition to a full embargo on Russian oil on the condition that it is given time to find a replacement to the Russian oil supply. Earlier in the month, Germany, Hungary, and Austria, as well as some other EU members, opposed an immediate outright ban on Russian oil.

Germany consumer price index rose 7.4% year-on-year, a new high in over four decades. The harmonized index of consumer prices, rose 7.8% annually. Electricity prices per kWh = $0.34 USD for households. Germany was the biggest buyer of Russian energy during the first two months of the conflict in Ukraine. Around 46% of companies said they want to reduce investments due to rising energy prices. Germany's producer price index rose 30.9% year-on-year. Sirus Report - Imported electricity costs in Germany rose by 440.8% year on year and the price of imported coal rose by 307.5%, gas by 304.3%, petroleum products by 110.3% and oil by 81.3%.

Fire extinguished at Perdue Farms facility in the South Norfolk area of Chesapeake, Virginia USA. A soybean processing tank caught fire just before 9 p.m. Saturday, and it burned for roughly an hour. Once the fire was brought under control, firefighters had to empty the entire processing tank to ensure there was no residual burning. All employees from the area were evacuated. All employees from the area were evacuated. According to a plant manager, the damage from the fire will have minimum impact on their operations.

NZ SeaRise website, launched to track sea levels in New Zealand was hit by a cyberattack on April 30, leading to false reports showing sea levels rising twice as fast as previously thought in some parts of Aotearoa. The first day it went live. Cybersecurity experts said it appeared to be a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack which aimed to overload websites causing them to crash.

India's wheat output looks likely to fall in 2022 after five consecutive years of record harvests, as a sharp, sudden rise in temperatures in mid-March cut crop yields. The drop could curb Indian exports of the staple. Most of India's wheat is consumed domestically. It’s also raising concerns for the domestic market, with millions depending on farming as their main livelihood and food source. Weaker production will lead to a drop in farmers’ income, squeezing margins just as costs of fertilizer and fuel have soared. The government also buys wheat for its food aid program.

US- The cost of diesel hit a new high. The national average for a gallon of diesel now stands at a record $5.37. Prices in Maine and Connecticut passed the $6 per gallon mark. Prices are driven up by a shortage of refining capacity globally; rising demand for jet fuel, which competes with diesel for refining capacity; and higher fuel demand in diesel-reliant Europe. Western sanctions on Russia has amplified the diesel crisis (Infographic 1). The US continues to release 1 million barrels of crude every day from its strategic petroleum reserves.

The US White House and mainstream media blames the war in Ukraine, branding gasoline price increases as “Putin price hikes”. Gasoline prices have been steadily increasing since early 2021 (Infographic 2). Profit margins from products such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel have now reached the highest since the freak oil collapse of April 2020, confirming that shortages in fuels like gasoline and diesel are greater than in crude oil.

Australian public health expert, warns not to conflate food production with food security. Distribution/resilience and prices are major factors to differentiate. Obesity is an early sign of poor-quality food consumption. Just five multinational companies control the bulk of the world’s food production and distribution. And we’re increasingly reliant on fewer strains of wheat, barley and rice. Not to mention breeds of beef cattle, pigs and chicken. As a result of this efficiency drive, a single disruption or disease could decimate the world’s production.

Policies, corruption and water wastage are underlying factors affecting Pakistan’s battle with food shortages.

97% of Afghans are experiencing food shortages. The Taliban-controlled government has been cut off from the international economy, resulting in a currency crisis & widespread poverty.

Tunisia’s recent emergency importation of grain has stayed off the emptying of shelves, but as the country’s treasury is drained, eventually products begin to disappear from stores again.

Despite Ethiopia’s declared humanitarian cease-fire with Tigrayan rebels, aid groups said they are struggling to get food and medicine to those in need. North of the Amhara region, in Tigray where journalists are banned from entering, there are famine-like conditions.

An investigation is underway to determine what sparked a fire at a food processing plant in northwest Fresno, California, USA. The fire broke out at the Saladino's plant on Sunday night.

The European Union has paid some $50 billion for oil, gas, and coal imports from Russia since late February. Hungary, Slovakia, and Bulgaria have asked for exemptions from the oil embargo discussed by the EU. Few producers that could increase their oil output quickly and the biggest of them, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates appear unwilling to do it.

The world’s third-largest oil importer, India, is negotiating steep discounts for the Russian oil it is prepared to buy, asking for below $70 per barrel price to compensate for logistics, financing, and sanctions troubles for buying crude.

Vitol Group, the world’s biggest independent oil trader, is shipping the first-ever cargo of Russia’s ESPO crude blend to the United Arab Emirates.

Inflation in Turkey hit a 20-year-high in April as the country continued to battle rising rates. Consumer price inflation soared to 69.97% per year in April, and 7.25% monthly, driven by high global energy prices and the weakening lira. The surge in consumer prices was driven by an annual 105.9% increase in transportation, and an 89.1% jump in food and non-alcoholic drinks prices. The Turkish currency lost 44% of its value against the dollar last year and more than 11% since the start of January, making the cost of imported goods and fuel very expensive.

USA- NOPEC legislation is passed by a Senate panel, after being bandied about for some 20 years and rejected time and again. The legislation, if signed into law by Biden would give the U.S. a pathway to sue OPEC for price-fixing and market manipulation. The White House's reaction to the Senate panel’s NOPEC vote so far has been extremely cautious and cognizant of the implications, so there is a fair amount of optimism that it will not go further than the panel. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members have rebuffed requests by the US to boost oil production beyond gradual amounts. Opposition to NOPEC by major trade groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute (API) has intensified in recent weeks and months. They fear it could backfire on America’s oil and gas industry.

Manure has become a hot commodity. U.S. farmers hunting for animal manure as chemical fertilizers are in short supply or at sky-high prices. This is partly a result of the Biden administration sanctioning Russia and Belarus (2 of the world's top fertilizer exporters). The admin's ability to spin the transition of the chemical fertilizer to manure because it's the "green" thing to do is nothing short of disinformation.

Canada-based Nutrien Ltd., the world's largest fertilizer company, warned that fertilizer disruptions "could last well beyond 2022." Nutrien posted a more than 10-fold jump in first-quarter 2022 profit.

Major US fertilizer producer, CF Industries Holdings reported that 2022 quarterly earnings climbed 485%. Mosaic Co the world's largest producer of finished phosphate fertilizer, posted a more than 7-fold surge in quarterly profit.

Australian biosecurity officials are on high alert after reports of 1,247 cases of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle, in Indonesia. Foot-and-mouth disease is considered one of the most serious livestock diseases, affecting cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, buffalo, camels, sheep, goats, deer and pigs. It can kill young animals, cause production losses and lead to significant trade restrictions.

(Avian Flu) Bird flu virus outbreaks continue across the U.S. totalling over 37 million chickens and turkeys killed/culled since March. Under guidance of the federal government, farms must destroy entire commercial flocks if just one bird tests positive for the virus. Wholesale egg prices touched a record $2.90 a dozen in April. Whole turkeys touched an all-time high $1.47 a pound.

National Currency payment & crypto headlines this week.

🇧🇷 Brazil’s previous President Da Silva, proposes a Latin American currency ‘to be free of the US dollar’.

🇦🇷 Argentina's central bank announced that financial institutions cannot enable their clients to carry out operations using digital assets.

🇷🇺 🇨🇳 The Chinese and Russian central banks will discuss the use and promotion of their respective national payment systems in both countries.

🇺🇸 The Stablecoin Transparency of Reserves and Uniform Safe Transactions Act of 2022, makes the U.S. likely the only Western country, to fully regulate and accept stablecoins as an official part of the financial and banking system.

🇺🇸 🇰🇵 The U.S. Treasury sanctioned virtual currency mixer Blender.io (Blender), which is used by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Spring wheat hits 14-year high. A combination of delayed plantings in Northern U.S. Plains and Canada due to soggy weather, a dry spell in Western Europe, chaos in Ukraine, and severe weather in India, have disrupted global wheat markets, sending prices in Minneapolis to the highest levels since 2008. Earlier today, the most-active Chicago Board of Trade wheat (CBOT) was up 1.5% at $11.25 a bushel.

🇨🇭 90% of surveyed central banks are exploring CBDCs — Bank for International Settlements.
🇳🇬 The Central Bank of Nigeria has upgraded their CBDC, the eNaira, to keep the public away from using crypto alternatives.
🇨🇱 Chile's central bank governor says, Chile's CBDC would need to accept offline payments.
🇦🇺 Australia - Privacy isn't of concern, central banks are moving ahead with plans for CBDC's.
🇧🇸 IMF recommends the Bahamas ‘accelerate its education campaigns’ on CBDC.
🇮🇳 India's National Council of Applied Economic Research report says India should take caution in introducing CBDC
The Indian government, after imposing a 30% crypto tax and 1% tax-deductible at source (TDS), is now working to bring them under the goods and service tax (GST) ambit.

Ukraine is now pursuing agreements with Lithuania, Latvia, & Poland to help ship wheat using their ports. The country's grain is also loaded onto trucks etc. in the small Danube ports of Reni & Izmail in the southwest, for transport to the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta. Bulgaria said it was willing to help export Ukrainian grain from its Black Sea port of Varna. Trucks stuffed with Ukrainian grain have already been seen heading to the Moldovan port of Giurdulesti on the Danube. (Video)

Biden signed the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 to make it easier for the U.S. to lend or lease military aid to Ukraine. Under the measure, Ukraine can request transfers of U.S. weapons and other assistance. The U.S. will get guarantees that the country will replace or reimburse the assets.

Ukraine continues to massively exports grain from the Odessa and Nikolaev regions which can be used to pay for lend-lease agreement with the US, and will create the pretext to accuse Russia of a new Holodomor.

BREAKING- Ukraine turns off Europe-bound Russian gas.

Gas Transit Services of Ukraine (OGTSU) declared force majeure, saying that it was impossible to continue transit of gas through a connection point and compressor station located in the Lugansk area. As OGTSU personnel “cannot carry out operational and technological control” over the Sokhranovka connector point and Novopskov compressor station, the company cannot continue to fulfill its contract obligations.

Russian gas conglomerate Gazprom has received no confirmation of force majeure or any obstacles to continued transit of gas through a junction in Lugansk region, after Ukraine’s operator OGTSU announced it would halt further deliveries starting May 11, due to the presence of “Russian occupiers.”

Gas from this connection will not be accepted into the transit system of Ukraine starting at 7 am on Wednesday, OGTSU said. Sokhrankovka accounts for almost a 3rd of Russian gas transiting through Ukraine to Europe – up to 32.6 mmcm/day.