While crop prices are weighed down by favourable prospects so far for global production, there are pockets of trouble providing hope for modest price support in certain commodities. European production in particular is struggling, raising hopes for another year of strong imports of Canadian canola, but on the global scale those troubles are balanced out […] Read more
Author Archives
Trade issues frustrating but Canada well positioned
It is irritating when a trade partner puts up a barrier we think is unjust, blocking what was a lucrative market. And we get frustrated with our government’s inability to get the trade partner to change their minds. Current examples are China’s restrictions on Canada’s canola, India’s restrictions regarding fumigation of pulse crops, Italy’s country-of-origin […] Read more
Slaughter is recovering but supply chain still adjusting
The livestock slaughter pace in Canada and the United States is recovering from COVID-19 temporary closures and slowdowns, but the effect on the supply chain and prices will take time to get back to normal. COVID was a devastating experience for the meat sector, but it is amazing that plant operators and workers have adjusted […] Read more
Currencies rebalance as COVID chaos shifts to control
The worst of the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 shutdowns appears to be behind us and equity markets, oil prices and the Canadian dollar are recovering from the lows hit in March. Restrictions on public gatherings and on business are easing and investors hope that people will start spending again, although likely not at […] Read more
Canada-China ag trade better but remains precarious
Canada’s export agriculture sector held its breath last week, worried that China’s increasingly volatile government would use trade to again strike at this country after a British Columbia Superior Court judge allowed Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou’s extradition case to continue. As this column was written May 29, China had so far angrily denounced the court’s […] Read more
Rain arrives in time to lessen global wheat damage
Soil moisture conditions in key wheat growing regions around the world are improving. Lack of rain and temperature extremes earlier in the spring shaved down production potential in the United States and across the Atlantic, but any momentum that gave to wheat prices was offset by worries about demand destruction from the economic disruption caused […] Read more
Massive U.S. corn stock outlook weighs down market
The most burdensome American corn stocks since the early 1990s could be a major depressing factor on all grain prices this year. The United States Department of Agriculture last week forecast 2020-21 year-end U.S. corn stocks at 3.32 billion bushels, up more than a billion from the current year and the most since the 1980s. […] Read more
U.S. packer shutdowns sideswipe Canadian hog farmers
It is cruel irony that Canadian hog prices are hammered lower even as the slaughter pace in this country is surprisingly resilient and pork exports are booming. The Canadian industry is suffering collateral damage from the severe slaughter decline in the United States, caused by outbreaks of COVID-19 at several plants. U.S. hog slaughter in […] Read more
Eastern European dryness, falling demand tug at wheat
I’m covering several issues in this column, including the wheat market, some slaughter statistics that help measure the impact of COVID-19 on the meat industry and observations on the potato market and consumers’ lack of understanding of the scale of modern agriculture. Two stories are at play. One is the weather. A dry spring in […] Read more
Essential meat workers require exceptional protections
As Canadian provinces and other jurisdictions around the world take their first tentative steps toward reopening their economies, businesses, health authorities and governments must increase protections for critical businesses. Meat packers and other food processors right from the beginning of the response against COVID-19 have been designated an essential service. As such, they must be […] Read more
