grain wheat

A grain shipment has left the port of Odesa for the first time in months, in a crucial test of a deal between Russia and Ukraine intended to alleviate soaring global food prices (The Financial Times £).

The Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni, carrying 26,000 tonnes of corn, finally set sail for Lebanon on Monday morning, according to Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry, following weeks of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, led by Turkey and the United Nations (The Guardian).

Ukraine’s infrastructure minister has warned it will take months before grain exports from Odesa and neighbouring ports reach prewar levels and alleviate the global food crisis despite the relaxation of a Russian blockade in the Black Sea (The Financial Times £).

The UK heatwave has caused fruit and vegetables to die on the vine as growers fear the drought and further hot temperatures could ruin harvests this year (The Guardian).

Heineken has warned that the price of a pint will continue to rise over the next year as the Dutch brewer expects to pass on higher costs to consumers (The Financial Times £).

Heineken has reported better than expected profits after putting up the amount it charges for its drinks by an average of 8.9% and has warned prices will continue to rise in the year ahead (The Guardian).

Although the rise in costs had yet to translate into higher prices for consumers, such increases were inevitable, the brewer said (The Times £).

The Lex column in The Financial Times (£) says that drinkers’ willingness to swallow higher prices will be tested by Heineken betting on the premiumisation trend continuing.

Bacon and sausages are set to become more expensive with the price of a pig in the UK increasing by more than a quarter, according to industry figures (The Mail).

Cranswick, Britain’s leading purveyor of pork, said yesterday that pig prices had risen by 27% this summer (The Times £).

Morrisons will offer consumers the first “carbon-neutral” eggs to be produced by feeding hens insects raised on food waste from the company’s supermarkets (The Guardian).

One of Scotland’s largest whisky producers is backing a Highlands bid for a green freeport, claiming it will help efforts to decarbonise distilleries (The Times £). Whyte & Mackay believes that plans for hydrogen production in the area can be accelerated through the use of freeport status.

A feature in The Telegraph is headlined: ‘Why retailers’ big bet on an online shopping boom went so disastrously wrong’. “E-commerce shares plunge as the high street pulls off an unlikely post-lockdown renaissance.”

Pour one out for Australia’s beer drinkers, says The Guardian, as the price of a pint at the pub surges up to $15 (£8.60) following the largest tax hike in more than three decades.