Reading Time: 3 minutes 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, […] Read more
Flax sector slowly recovers from Day of the Triffids
StatsCan confirms surprisingly small canola crop
Reading Time: 2 minutes 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 […] Read more
Smaller canola crop expected from StatsCan
Reading Time: 2 minutes 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, […] Read more
Fund traders exit canola longs
Reading Time: < 1 minute 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 […] Read more
Canola crush margins tightening
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canola crushers in Western Canada are having a tougher time bringing in feedstock supplies from farmers, and will likely be forced to operate with tighter profit margins going forward, according to market participants. A sell-off in the CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade) soybean complex, together with uncertainty in the Prairie crop, has caused canola prices […] Read more
Minnesota canola crusher creates new delivery option
Reading Time: 2 minutes A new canola crusher at Hallock, Minn., just south of the Canadian border, is operating at full capacity or above and is providing a good opportunity for farmers with canola to sell in both the US and Canada. The Northstar Agri Industries facility started initial operations in May and was up to full capacity of […] Read more
Canola exports picking up steam
Reading Time: 2 minutes New-crop canola supplies currently finding their way into the commercial pipeline in western Canada are helping set the stage for another record export program for the commodity. "It’s expected to be fairly busy, and I don’t see anything that would change that," said Lach Coburn, west coast manager of shipping with Cargill Ltd. in Vancouver […] Read more
Sunflowers bounce back in Manitoba
Reading Time: < 1 minute Manitoba farmers will start bringing in this year’s sunflower crop by mid-September, and early reports point to a large, good-quality crop that will help replenish supplies in the province. After planting only 35,000 acres of sunflowers in 2011, due to adverse spring conditions, area in the province bounced back in 2012 with seeded area pegged […] Read more
ICE’s grain futures waiting on cash market
Reading Time: 2 minutes Trade in milling wheat, durum, and barley contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform remains slow, but officials at the Winnipeg-based arm of IntercontinentalExchange remain confident liquidity will build in the new contracts over the next few months, as the cash market also takes shape. Legislation passed by the Canadian government in December 2011, ending […] Read more
Strong prices lure chickpeas back to Sask.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Saskatchewan farmers are expected to more than double the area planted to chickpeas in the province this year, as improving prices made the crop a more attractive option. The acreage increase was “driven by some fairly strong prices for chickpeas relative to where they’ve been the last number of years,” said Carl Potts, executive director […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
