As Canadian farmers enter the 2006 planting season, record volumes of grain and oilseeds are already sitting in their bins following a large 2005 harvest, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday.
"It's in line with what was expected and stock - oats and canola - did a little better than was anticipated," one veteran grain trader said. Canola stocks are at a record at 5.1 million tonnes, 3 percent lower than average trade estimates ahead of the report and up from 3.7 million tonnes the year previous. The 10-year average is 2.8 million tonnes.
The high inventory follows last fall's record production. Although the data show stocks at the low end of traders' estimates ahead of the report, canola traders noted there is still a glut.
The July futures contract opened on the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange C$1.70 a tonne higher at C$277.70 ($252.00) on Wednesday, but was down C$2.40 at C$273.60 at 9:53 CDT (1453 GMT).
This is the second straight year commercial and farm inventories for March 31 have exceeded 10-year averages, Statscan said after surveying 17,100 farms between March 17 and March 31. Stocks of soybeans, corn and durum set records. Durum stocks hit a record 5.2 million tonnes, up 24 percent from 4.2 million tonnes a year ago. The 10-year average is 3.4 million tonnes.
Wheat excluding durum stocks on March 31 sat at 13.592 million tonnes, up 21 percent from 11.2 million tonnes at the same time in 2005. Lower 2005-06 exports caused stock buildup, Statscan said in the report.
"It doesn't look like stocks are as tight as many people are believing," one trader said about feed wheat. One grain merchant noted that feed usage wasn't as strong as earlier anticipated. All wheat was estimated at 18.8 million tonnes, up 1.7 percent from the average estimate ahead of the report, and up 22 percent from the year-before figure.
Barley and oat stocks tightened from the previous year, with oats stocks sitting at 1.722 million tonnes, down from 1.9 million tonnes reported in March 2005. There were 6.485 million tonnes of barley reported, down slightly from 6.7 million the year before.
Flax stocks were estimated at 641,000 tonnes following the large 2005 production. That is above the 10-year average of 451,000. Total soybean stocks were 1.6 million tonnes, up 18 percent from the 1.4 million in storage the previous year.
Grain corn stocks hit a record 4.5 million tonnes, following record yields in Eastern Canada and low domestic prices that deterred farmers from selling.
Comments
Comments are closed.