Farmers didn’t receive nearly as much for the agricultural goods they sold last fall compared to prices they received a year earlier.
According to Statistics Canada, commodity prices decreased by 13.5 percent between October 2002 and October 2003, driven in large part by an 18.7 percent drop in the crop price index.
Statistician Gail-Ann Breese said recovery from the 2002 drought is largely to blame.
“The lack of grain out there pushed the prices up the previous year,” she said. “This year prices are coming down because there is more grain out there.”
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The oilseed index almost held its own, buoyed by a smaller-than-expected North American soybean crop, while the grain index plummeted 41.2 percent between the two Octobers.
Breese said the big drop in the grain index is partly because of the inclusion of a Canadian Wheat Board interim payment in the 2002 total, while the October 2003 number only reflects initial payments.
The livestock index was down 4.4 percent from October 2002, led by the cattle and calves index, which fell 12.5 percent over the one-year period.
It’s not that dramatic, considering the May discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in an Alberta cow, but Breese pointed out cattle prices had rebounded by October.
A comparison of July 2003 with a year earlier shows a 41.4 percent drop in the calves and cattle index.
The loonie’s rapid appreciation relative to the American dollar also weighed heavily on Canadian commodity prices.
