December 12, 2012

 

Canada's Aug-Oct soy exports reach 868,300 tonnes

 

 

From August-October, total Canadian soy exports amounted to 868,300 tonnes, more than double the pace of a year earlier.

 

This is according to Canadian Grain Commission data.

 

Of that total, China accounted for nearly two-thirds of Canada's export sales, or about 538,000 tonnes in three months. It bought just 166,000 tonnes from Canada in 2011-12.

 

Canadian soy production reached a record 4.9 million tonnes in 2012-13, Statistics Canada said last week.

 

That's puny compared with the crops in the US and South America. But with drought curbing soy production in the US, the world's biggest soy source, to the lowest level in four years this year, some importers are looking for sources to top up supplies until South American harvests are available early in the New Year.

 

Canada also harvested a record high 13.1 million tonnes of corn this year as farmers cashed in on high prices of both soy and corn that were due to the severe drought in the US Midwest.

 

Canada's rapeseed plantings have soared in Western Canada due to strong returns for farmers, while soy has remained a small crop, limited by their longer growing season. But farmers in Manitoba have become more comfortable growing soy, which adds the nutrient nitrogen to the soil, making it a valuable rotation with cereal grains.

 

Plantings hit a record 800,000 acres in the flood-prone province, and are likely to hit one million acres next year, said Dennis Lange, a crops advisor with the Manitoba agriculture department at Altona. Canada's biggest soy supplies continue to come from Ontario.

 

Rapeseed is the main crop being displaced by the growing popularity of soy in Western Canada. Rapeseed plantings have hit a record high six years in a row, but some expect farmers to taper back this spring after hot, dry mid-summer weather resulted in harvest disappointment. The crop could eventually spread to significant numbers of acres in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Lange said, limited mainly by drier conditions in some areas of those provinces.

 

Some farmers will also continue to be wary of the risk from Canada's cold climate. The first significant freezing temperatures in Western Canada typically occur by mid-September, when May-planted soys are still being harvested.

 

Canadian trade patterns are subtly shifting to reflect soy's popularity. Exporters shipped more than 116,000 tonnes of soy through Canada's Port Metro Vancouver in October, a rare export shipment of the crop directly from the country's West Coast, rather than through US channels.

 

Soy exports via the West Coast have increased steadily to 148,000 in 2011-12 from zero just four years earlier.