Fruit and vegetable sector stands with Ontario’s plan to protect agri-food employees

Jun 26, 2020

Guelph ON – Ontario’s fruit and vegetable growers welcome the ongoing efforts by government and health officials to support growers to protect the health of all agri-food employees. Yesterday’s announcement by the Ontario government to further support ongoing and expanded onsite testing, access to employment benefits and supports, and new public health guidance will support the sector as it works to address ongoing challenges with COVID-19 outbreaks on farms.

“Growers are committed to protecting the health and safety of agricultural workers. Yesterday’s announcement by the province aligns with the five-point plan released by the fruit and vegetable sector last week,” says OFVGA Chair Bill George. “As we learn more about how these outbreaks occurred, the sector is working to prevent these circumstances from happening in other regions of the province.”

Based on investigations undertaken by government and health officials, a significant risk factor for a COVID-19 outbreak amongst a farm workforce is the comingling of employees that live on the farm, with contract work crews that live offsite and work on multiple farms. To address this risk factor and proactively identify positive cases of COVID-19, the OFVGA is calling for the use of stricter approaches in high priority regions to:

Undertake proactive testing of all agri-food employees through expanded deployment on-site testing resources.
Limit all employees to working on one farm operation at a time during the pandemic.
Deploy resources to enforce compliance with local health unit orders to restrict movement of contract workers from farm to farm.

“During these challenging times it is even more imperative that growers do everything they can to protect their employees,” says George. “I am calling on growers to take the risk of an outbreak on their farm extremely seriously and take every step possible to protect your employees. We must work together to protect our essential agricultural workers.” As local public health agencies have the expertise to ensure the health of employees, growers are working closely with public health officials for preventing and managing outbreaks, including taking direction in how the new public health guidance announced yesterday is applied. Growers respect the rights and wishes and workers. Even if public health direction allows for asymptomatic COVID-19 positive employees to work, those individuals always have the choice to self-isolate if they are not comfortable working.

During these challenging times, the OFVGA is continuing to work with governments and public health officials to ensure the protection of essential agriculture workers so we can continue to ensure a secure, domestic food supply. The OFVGA continues to keep its members informed of ways to protect employees, including public health guidance, and access to programs and services available to them, including the Ontario government’s Enhanced Agri-Food Workplace Protection Program.

Source : OFVGA

Video: 2025 USDA December Crop Report a “Dud” + Trump $12 Billion U.S. Farm Aid

The USDA December crop report was friendly corn, neutral soybeans and bearish wheat. The USDA did surprise and increase the 25/26 U.S. corn export forecast to a new record high at 3.2 billion bushels now up 12% vs. last year vs. prior at +9% vs. the export pace to date up 30% the best in 10 years even higher than 20/21! The USDA left the 25/26 U.S. soybean export pace unchanged at 1.635 billion bushels. Higher global wheat supplies will remain a weight and headwind for wheat into year end and start of 2026.
Mexico is now the #1 buyer of U.S. corn, soybeans (usually China), wheat and pork!
USDA also released its long-term early projections but expect more changes by February of 2026.
Trump announces a $12 billion U.S. farmer aid package to be paid out by February 28, 2026. This helps no one but the ag banks, farm equipment companies, seed and fertilizer companies. It does prevent more farmer bushels from being sold near-term but is not bullish grain prices long-term. The Trump administration should focus on increasing U.S. domestic demand and propping up grain futures so farmers can cover their higher costs, up since COVID of 2020.
The China U.S. soybean purchase tracker now stands at 4.521 mmt or 38% of the 12 mmt promised by China at year end or is it end of February or the growing season? Why the discrepancy vs. the fact sheet. The optics are poor for the Trump administration.
After surging to contract highs U.S. natural gas futures plunged over 30+% in just 5-trading days!
Silver traded to new record highs as the debasement and de dollarization trade continued but technicals remain overbought near-term.
Soybean futures remained in correction mode after the funds went record long futures on Nov. 19 +233,000 contracts but the $10.80 support should hold into year end when the fund profit taking/liquidation comes to an end from the year end, end of month and end of quarter selling.
The U.S. Fed cut interest rates for the 3rd time by 25 basis points to a range of 3.50 – 3.75% and they will only cut one more time in 2026 and once in 20267/ but when Powell is gone next April the replacement is willing to cut more aggressively and we could see U.S. interest rates fall to 2.0% very bullish for ag and stocks as it could reignite inflation into 2027.
After 2 months of being drier than normal in Brazil the rains have finally arrived for the 1st half of December, and a record crop is still in the cards but if this pattern continues and verifies it could start to delay the harvest. Argentina after being too wet has turned dry but they are too small, compared top Brazil in the grand picture.
The Canadian dollar surged to $0.73 after better-than-expected employment data with 180,000 new jobs in the past 3-months and 3rd quarter GDP at +2.6% but this could be short-lived.
The latest CFTC report as of 11-19-2025 reported a record long fund position in soybeans at +233,000 contracts when 2026 March soybean futures peaked on 11-19-25 at $11.724/bu.