Canada's Wheat Crop to Shrink 17% From Last Year on Flooding in Prairies
Wheat farmers in Canada, the world’s second-largest exporter, will harvest 17 percent less this year than last year after wet weather damaged crops, according to a government survey of growers.
Production will slide to 22.205 million metric tons from last year’s 26.848 million tons, Statistics Canada said today in a report, based on a survey of 14,000 farmers. Prospects have worsened since July, when respondents forecast a harvest of 22.659 million tons.
Excessive rain curbed seeding and plant development this year, and more wet weather in September delayed the harvest, the government agency said. In July, the agriculture ministry said it would pay as much as C$450 million ($440 million) to farmers whose land was damaged by floods. Wheat futures traded in Chicago are up 47 percent from a year ago.
Spring-wheat output will fall 11 percent to 16.494 million tons, durum wheat will plunge by 44 percent to 3.044 million tons, and winter wheat will decline by 11 percent to 2.667 million tons, according to today’s report. The Canadian Wheat Board said Sept. 29 that the harvest was 34 percent complete.
Reduced output from Canada may be “a little supportive” to wheat prices, which fell to a nine-week low today in Chicago as rain improved the prospects for crops in Russia, said Darrell Holaday, the president of Advanced Market Concepts in Manhattan, Kansas.
Wheat futures for December delivery dropped 0.5 percent to $6.5175 a bushel at 10:41 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade, after earlier tumbling as much as 1.8 percent.
Canola, Soybeans
Canola production will fall 16 percent to 10.43 million tons as declining yields in Manitoba and Saskatchewan more than offset record planting in Alberta, the statistics agency said. Barley output will drop 13 percent to 8.259 million tons.
Soybean production may rise to 4.028 million tons, 15 percent higher than last year and 2 percent more than forecast in July, Statistics Canada said. Production in Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario may reach a record, the agency said.
Canada may produce 2.321 million tons of oats, down 20 percent from a year earlier and 3 percent less than estimated in July, according to the report.
The survey was conducted Sept. 1 to Sept. 9 and doesn’t reflect the effect of recent frost on crops in the western prairie provinces, Statistics Canada said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney McFerron in Chicago at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net; Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net.
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