Western Canada’s farmers may not get a vote in the upcoming U.S. election, but policy south of the border can have a major effect on the agricultural markets across North America. U.S. agricultural policy “is extremely important… and has always had drastic effects on us,” said Terry Boehm, president of the National Farmers Union in
Will the U.S. election matter for Canada’s farmers?
Canola stuck in range
ICE Futures Canada canola contracts have seen some wide price swings over the past week, but are relatively unchanged from where they were only five trading days earlier, with small losses in the two front months and a firmer tone in the more deferred positions. Choppy, range-bound activity is expected to persist in the canola
Expect demand rationing after StatsCan canola report
ICE Futures Canada canola contracts managed to move higher during the week ended Oct. 5 — but not before first hitting their weakest levels since June. Speculative long liquidation and spillover from the harvest pressure weighing on U.S. soybeans weighed on canola prices for the first few days of the week. However, technical support was
Hot, dry weather takes its toll on canola crop
Hot, dry weather took a larger toll on the Canadian canola crop than many industry participants expected. The latest Statistics Canada survey pegs canola production at 13.4 million tonnes, a two-million-tonne drop from its previous forecast and well below the 14.5 million tonnes grown in 2011-12. Although one Winnipeg-based broker said “the number was unexpected
Mustard has room to the upside
A smaller-than-expected mustard crop in Western Canada this year should keep values well supported going forward, especially as end-users look to secure supplies through the spot market, according to an industry official. Yellow mustard and brown mustard bids have some room to the upside, as a number of end-users are starting to be short of
Flax sector slowly recovers from Day of the Triffids
Canada’s flaxseed industry continues to make progress eliminating traces of genetically modified Triffid seed from the country’s crop, but there is still work to be done given Europe’s very tight allowances for the gene. Triffid, a genetically modified flaxseed variety, was bred in Saskatchewan in the 1990s for tolerance to soil residues of sulfonylurea herbicides,
Funds trample market fundamentals in fleeing canola
The ICE Futures Canada canola market continued to fall apart during the week ended Sept. 28, as speculative long liquidation took precedence over any fundamental support that might still be there. The most active November contract fell below the psychological $600 per tonne level during the week, and settled below that key chart point for
StatsCan confirms surprisingly small canola crop
A hot, dry growing season took a larger toll on the Canadian canola crop than most industry participants had expected to see in the latest survey results Thursday from Statistics Canada. As a result, the market will need to work to ration demand for the commodity going forward. StatsCan pegged the 2012-13 canola crop at
Smaller canola crop expected from StatsCan
Canada’s 2012-13 canola crop was likely considerably smaller than the record production forecast by Statistics Canada in August — and market participants will watch the agency’s latest survey results on Oct. 4 closely to see just how much tighter the supply situation is. After hot and dry weather cut into yields in July and August,
Fund traders exit canola longs
Speculative fund traders were heavy sellers in the canola market over the past week, sharply reducing their overall long positions in the commodity. In the span of only a few trading days, the fund net long position has dropped from over 20,000 to around 5,000, said a commission house broker. "It dropped pretty significantly last
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