WINNIPEG/OTTAWA (Reuters) — Canadian stockpiles of wheat and canola dwindled but were among the largest in recent decades at the end of the last calendar year, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday.
Farmers reaped smaller but still relatively big crops last autumn, with ample supplies carrying over from the record 2013 harvest.
Statistics Canada, using a farmer survey, pegged all-wheat stocks in commercial and on-farm storage as of Dec. 31, 2014, at 24.8 million tonnes, down 13.5 percent year over year, but the second largest amount in 18 years.
Canola supplies totalled 11.1 million tonnes, the second largest ever, down 10.5 percent from the previous year.
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“There (are) so many powerful things going on in these markets right now, violence in the currency markets, violence in the petroleum market,” said Ken Ball, a broker at PI Financial Corp. “These stocks numbers are going to get lost a bit among those huge influences” on crop prices.
The trade, on average, expected canola stocks of 10.7 million tonnes and wheat supplies of 25 million tonnes, according to a Reuters survey.
ICE Canada March canola futures extended losses after the report and were down 0.5 percent.
Although canola supplies were slightly larger than expected, demand looks solid from domestic crushers and seed exporters, Ball said.
Durum stocks dipped 22.5 percent to 4.1 million tonnes, slightly less than the average trade estimate of 4.2 million.
Canada is the world’s second largest wheat exporter and the biggest shipper of canola.
Statistics Canada pegged barley stocks at 5.4 million tonnes, off 20.3 percent, and oat supplies at 2.5 million tonnes, down 12.7 percent.
