May 6, 2014
Canada''s rapeseed and wheat stocks soar to record high
Canada''s rapeseed stocks were at a record high and wheat supplies hadgrown to the largest in 20 years as at the end of March, as a bumper crop and transport bottlenecks produced huge piles on the Prairies, according to Statistics Canada (Statscan).
Statscan pegged rapeseed stocks at March 31 at 9.02 million tonnes, nearly double last year''s level. All-wheat supplies reached 21.25 million tonnes, up 47% from 2013 and the most since 1994.
"The wheat number is significant for the North American market, because, obviously, there is a shrinking (US) hard red winter crop," said Ken Ball, a broker at PI Financial Corp in Winnipeg. "If we can get the (Canadian) wheat down there, it may balance out the North American wheat market."
Intercontinental exchange (ICE) Canada July rapeseed futures were down 0.9%, adding to their decline before the release of the report. Minneapolis July spring wheat futures were up more than 1%.
Late ice cover on the Great Lakes has compounded the backlog in moving Western Canadian grain, which piled up due to the frigid winter and record harvest, overwhelming railways that transport crops to port.
Farmers were stuck with most of the increase in crop supplies. Statscan said commercial stocks of both wheat and rapeseed had declined year over year, while on-farm storage jumped. The three Prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba held record volumes of rapeseed in farm bins and temporary storage.
Farmers struggled during the winter to find buyers for their crops at profitable prices as commercial grain handlers said railways delivered far fewer grain hopper cars than needed. Railway movement has improved as the weather has grown milder, said Bruce Burnett, weather and crop specialist at grain marketer CWB. A backlog of orders for grain cars remains, but the eastern flow of grain through the seasonal Port of Thunder Bay, Ontario, on Lake Superior should start to pick up, he said.
Canada is usually the world''s second- or third-largest wheat exporter and the biggest shipper of rapeseed. Stocks were also much higher year over year of oats (60%), barley (43%) and durum (32%).