There will be more pulses (surprise!), barley, corn and durum planted on Canadian farms in 2016, according to StatsCan’s acreage estimates published on Thursday. The canola acreage number was likely the largest surprise in the report, coming in below trade expectations at 19.3 million acres, down from 20.1 million in 2015. (see numbers below) “I think… Read More

Grains this week were mixed as the USDA’s April WASDE report was published, and seeding starting in multiple areas across North America. Favourable weather conditions on the north half of the equator are competing with less favourable conditions in South America, which is why corn and soybeans ended the week up over 4% each (it also helped… Read More

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board was the winning bidder as Switzerland-based commodities giant Glencore sought to sell a chunk of its agricultural assets, including grain company Viterra. The CPPIB and Glencore announced last week they have reached a deal that will see the CPPIB pay $2.5 billion for a 40 percent stake in Glencore’s ag… Read More

The grain markets ended the month of March with fanfare on the backs of the U.S.D.A.’s March 31st stocks and acreage report and China switching up some policy. Beijing decided to scrap its minimum support prices for corn, pushing domestic corn prices immediately down to 5-year lows as the domestic price needs to gap down… Read More

Grain traders are questioning whether the USDA played an early April Fool’s Day joke with its corn acreage projection in the department’s March 31st acreage estimates. The Prospective Plantings Report included a projection of 93.6 million acres of corn in 2016, well beyond the trade’s average expectation of just under 90 million. The soybean acreage… Read More

The Chinese government has agreed to postpone tighter dockage standards on Canadian canola. In February, China indicated a new standard allowing no more than 1 percent foreign material would be implemented on April 1. As Reuters first reported on Tuesday morning, China’s import policy changes have now been postponed until September 1, 2016. The Chinese say… Read More

Grains ended this week in the green, with soybeans leading the way at almost 1.5% higher for the week, and nearly 6% higher for the month of March. Canola is a close second, up over 1% for the week and over 5% so far in March. Wheat futures aren’t far behind, after seeing a slight push earlier in the… Read More

Evidence is adding up to show Western Canada really did grow a big canola crop last year, despite the drought. A combination of ample supplies, expanded crush capacity and the lower Canadian dollar are driving a rapid pace in canola consumption this year, both domestically and through exports. Canadian canola crush is up 12 percent from last… Read More

A lot of focus in the market last week was on the wheat market as warm weather from Kiev to Kansas is pushing fall-seeded crops out of dormancy much earlier than usual. After last week’s best weekly gain for wheat since October, investors’ focus will now turn to weather forecasts and the stocks and acreage… Read More

As we predicted in last week’s Friday column, grains started to pick up some steam in the second week of March, as the monthly WASDE report from the USDA was published. Global ending stocks were lowered a bit but the better catalyst for the move was the grains complex, which finally started to track oil’s move to the upside like… Read More

Grains started the month of March fairly hot, trying to rebound from its end of February, with more liquidity being added to the market and more bulls coming to the table on weather concerns. Nonetheless, given the size of the short position that managed money is holding on the futures board, there are some fundamentals… Read More

Satellites are helping depict a clearer picture (literally) of what Canadian farmers grow each year. Accurately predicting and measuring production of each crop grown in Canada has been an ongoing quest for the grain industry and government agencies since farming began in North America. Or at least since the start of the 20th century when E.Cora… Read More

Grains continued to trade sideways to lower through the end of February as the data points that keep coming do not support a reversal of the bearish market fundamentals. The market is taking into account more crop conditions from Europe and South America, while adjusting for the new forecasts for U.S. grain supply, demand, and… Read More

 

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