Prices for sawmill wood chips in Austria have moved from around €115–135 per tonne atro ex sawmill at the end of 2025 to asking prices above €200, according to market data cited by biorefinery AustroCel Hallein. With 320,000 tonnes atro consumed a year, every €10 per tonne adds €3.2 million to the company's costs. The Salzburg Chamber of Labour reports pellet prices up about 30% year on year.
Drought and summer heat cut German rapeseed yields, with Destatis putting the crop at 3.8 million tonnes against 4 million tonnes in 2025 and the DBV seeing only 3.3 million tonnes. German processors bought 222,000 tonnes from outside the EU between July and 20 August, 20% more than a year earlier. Prices on MATIF are holding near 550 euros per tonne despite larger import flows.
South Africa's 2026-27 summer grain and oilseed season is approaching under warnings of an intensifying El Nino, even though farmers start with favourable soil moisture. White and yellow maize spot prices rose 9% and 10% in a month to about R3 965 and R3 931 per tonne, while soybeans gained 13% to roughly R8 953 per tonne. The increases came after a record 2025-26 harvest, with higher fertiliser and fuel costs adding pressure.
Thailand exports about 12 billion baht of planting seed a year, ranking first in ASEAN, second in Asia-Pacific and eighth worldwide, according to the Thai Seed Trade Association. Field corn and vegetable seed dominate the mix, with the United States and the European Union among the main markets. The industry now targets 50 billion baht in total value between 2027 and 2036 under a World Tropical Seed Hub policy.
ISMEA puts Italy's 2025-26 olive oil production at 325,000 tonnes, up 31% on the previous season, with prices declining in 2026 while Italian extra virgin keeps a premium over Spanish, Greek and Tunisian oil. Rome has launched a €40 million liquidity facility for mills and earmarked €300 million for the olive sector in 2027-2029. Italian buyers are meanwhile covering their needs in Spain at €3.35-3.80/kg ahead of the new harvest.
UFI Hydrogen, part of Italy's UFI Filters Group, inaugurated a 14,000 m² industrial and technology hub at Serravalle di Ala on 25 September, its European centre for membrane electrode assemblies. The plan foresees around €50 million of investment by 2029 and about 100 jobs. Together with FBK's hydrogen facilities in Rovereto, Trentino is assembling a 40,000 m² cluster worth some €100 million.
Registration data from ACEA shows electric cars accounted for 6.4% of new car registrations in Italy over the summer, leaving the country among Europe's slowest adopters. The figures point to a widening gap between fast- and slow-moving national markets inside a single EU regulatory framework, with consequences for volume allocation, supplier capacity and trade in finished vehicles.
Chile's 2025/26 fresh fruit export season closed at US$8,198.8 million FOB, up 6.8% on the previous cycle, with 3,021,216 tonnes shipped between September 2025 and August 2026. The United States remained the leading destination with 30% of volume despite a 12.5% tariff, while India grew 36% to become the second-largest Asian market.
Ghana, Japan and Meiji Holdings signed a Letter of Intent in Accra on September 14 covering sustainable cocoa production, agroforestry and circular-economy projects. Ghana supplies nearly 70% of Japan's imported cocoa beans and sold about $146 million worth to the country in 2024. The agreements land as Accra prepares a directive requiring at least 50% of its beans to be processed domestically from the 2026/27 season.
Georgia imported $15.8 million of Russian wheat in August 2026, the highest monthly value since August 2020, with January-August shipments reaching $66 million. Russia held roughly 92% of Georgian wheat and meslin imports in the first half of the year, while Kazakhstan supplied only $145,000 in August.
The European Commission has sent letters of formal notice to 26 EU member states, including Spain, for failing to transpose the 2024 directive on the hydrogen and decarbonised gas market by the 5 August legal deadline. Italy is the only country that notified full transposition on time. The 26 states have two months to respond before Brussels can escalate with a reasoned opinion.
Vietnam's wood and wood-product exports have grown more than 57-fold in two decades to $17.2 billion, with a trade surplus of nearly $12 billion and about 1 million jobs. Industry association VIFOREST says the sector remains primarily a manufacturing hub, with design, branding and customer data still controlled by foreign buyers. The United States accounted for 49.9% of export value in the first eight months of 2026.
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