July 31, 2009

The Canadian Wheat Board had its largest wheat export program in nine years during the 2008-09 (August-July) crop year and brought in the second-highest grain revenue in history for western Canadian farmers, CWB executives said Thursday (July 30).

 

Large grain production in 2008-09 and favourable market conditions allowed the CWB to increase sales.

 

However, poor weather conditions across western Canada during the 2009 growing season will likely mean a reduction in exports for the 2009-10 marketing year, the CWB said.

 

The CWB exported about 18.5 million tonnes of wheat, durum and barley during the 2008-09 crop year, said CWB President and Chief Executive Ian White. The 2008-09 export total was up 1 million tonnes from the previous year and was the highest volume since the 1999-2000 crop year.

 

Of the total 2008-09 exports, the CWB exported 13.2 million tonnes of wheat, 3.6 million tonnes of durum, 1.5 million tonnes of malting barley and 185,000 tonnes of feed barley.

 

Canada saw increased wheat sales to several nations, including Iran and Saudi Arabia in 2008-09. Iran was the largest customer for Canadian wheat during the 2008-09 crop year, purchasing 1.8 million tonnes, White said.

 

CWB's net revenue for 2008-09, returned directly to farmers, was estimated at more than C$6 billion (US$5.5 billion), which would be second only to the C$7.2 billion (US$6.66 billion) recorded in 2007-08, White said. However, he added that high crop input costs limited the total profits seen by producers.

 

Larry Hill, chair of the CWB's board and also a Saskatchewan farmer, cautioned that poor weather across the Prairies continues to create concern for the 2009 crop.

 

"Looking ahead, it is now quite certain that drought and cold weather will take a toll," said Hill.

 

Also Thursday, the CWB released its second official Prairie-wide crop production estimates for 2009-10, lowering its all-wheat projections by 600,000 tonnes from June to 20.2 million tonnes. Production in 2008-09 was 25.5 million tonnes.

 

Durum production for 2009-10 was now estimated at 4.2 million tonnes, down 200,000 tonnes from the June estimate and below the 5.5 million tonnes grown the previous year.

 

Barley production was down 300,000 tonnes from the June estimate, to 8.6 million tonnes. Western Canadian farmers grew 11.2 million tonnes of barley in 2008-09.

 

The lower production numbers will likely result in lower exports as well, with the CWB's early expectations for the 2009-10 crop forecasting total exports of 15.5 million tonnes, according to CWB data.

 

Bruce Burnett, director of the CWB's weather and crop surveillance department, said yields will generally be below normal across the Prairies.

 

While it is still early and there are many factors to consider ahead of the harvest, Burnett also estimated that more of the wheat crop than normal will grade as feed. Burnett noted that typically 8 percent to 10 percent of the spring wheat crop is downgraded to feed, but that number could be as much as 5 percent higher this year.

 

US$1 = C$1.08 (July 31)