Canola closed the week lower, pressured by confirmation by Statistics Canada of a large canola crop and a private forecaster’s outlook for a record U.S. soybean crop.
StatsCan put the canola crop at 10.27 million tonnes, up from 9.54 million tonnes forecast on July 31.
It was still smaller than the 2008 crop, which was 12.64 million tonnes.
But traders think the StatsCan survey, done in early September, underestimated yields and the final number in the production report to be issued Dec. 3 could top 11 million tonnes.
Oilseeds generally were pressured lower by the latest forecast by Informa Economics that put the U.S. soybean crop at 3.383 billion bushels, up from its September outlook of 3.305 billion bu. USDA’s forecast is for 3.245 billion bu.
The threat of frost damage to the U.S. soybean crop is fading.
Harvest across much of the Canadian prairies is delayed after two days of showers. Saskatchewan Agriculture said that as of Sept. 28, canola harvesting was 60 percent complete, down from 79 percent last year and the five year average of 65 percent.
The Winnipeg ICE canola November contract ended the day at $374.30 Cdn per tonne, down $7.90 from $382.20 on Thursday.
The January contract was at $379.80 per tonne, down 8.40 from $388.20 on Thursday.
In the week between Sept. 25 and Oct. 2, November canola lost $12.30 per tonne and January fell $11.80.
At noon, $1 US was worth $1.0845 Cdn compared to $1.0774 on Thursday at the same time.
One dollar Canadian was worth 92.2 cents US compared to 92.8 cents the day before.
