(Reuters) — Canada produced more wheat and canola than expected this year, but not as much as 2013’s record levels, according to Statistics Canada’s final crop production report of 2014.
Statistics Canada pegged the all-wheat crop at 29.28 million tonnes, up 6.5 percent from its October estimate of 27.5 million tonnes and above the average trade expectation of 27.8 million tonnes.
Canola production reached 15.56 million tonnes, up 10.5 percent from Statistics Canada’s previous estimate for 14.1 million, and one million tonnes higher than the average trade guess of 14.6 million tonnes.
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“That’s a shocker,” said Ken Ball, commodities broker at PI Financial Corp. “That’s a game-changer right there” for canola.
Canola will find ample demand from exporters and domestic crushers, but supplies now look “reasonably comfy” through the 2014-15 season, Ball said. One major Western Canada crushing plant, owned by Louis Dreyfus Corp., has been shut since Oct. 24 after an explosion and fire.
ICE Canada January canola futures slightly extended their losses after the report, slipping 0.2 percent.
Canada is the third-largest wheat exporter and the biggest shipper of canola, a cousin of rapeseed used largely to produce vegetable oil.
