Canadian Wheat Board sales agents travel the world to sell wheat and barley grown by prairie farmers.
But their biggest customer last year was right on their own doorstep.
Canadian processors bought more than 2.3 million tonnes of wheat in 2000-01, well ahead of the biggest overseas customer, Iran, which purchased 1.5 million tonnes.
Domestic processors also topped the list of buyers of designated barley, taking 1.2 million tonnes. That’s double the 634,000 tonnes sold to the biggest foreign buyer, the United States.
The sales figures were released by the board Aug. 7 at a crop year-end news conference in Winnipeg.
Here are the top buyers in each of the board’s four pool accounts in 2000-01 (with the previous year’s purchases in brackets):
- Wheat – Canada 2.35 million tonnes (2.18), Iran 1.54 million (3.49), Japan 1.42 million (1.24), Mexico 1.2 million (814,000), U.S. 1.03 million (1.08).
- Durum – Algeria 1.34 million tonnes (1.45), Morocco 636,000 (472,000), U.S. 362,000 (296,000), Venezuela 325,000 (359,000), Canada 295,000 (300,000).
- Feed barley – Saudi Arabia 296,000 tonnes (163,000), Japan 238,000 (336,000), Iran 110,000 (n/a).
- Designated barley – Canada 1.15 million tonnes (1.15), U.S. 634,000 (585,000), China 585,000 (428,000).
