There was no new news on the access to China issue so trade in Winnipeg canola futures was mostly driven by the weaker Canadian dollar.
At noon, the Bank of Canada said the Canadian dollar was worth 94.2 cents US, down about one penny from Friday. The U.S. dollar was worth 1.0616 Cdn.
November canola gained $1.30 to settle at $381.70 per tonne on volume of 1,964 contracts.
January rose 90 cents to settle at $388.60 with a volume of 8,433 contracts.
March closed at $395.30, up 70 cents, on a colume of 1,449 trades.
The lightly traded Winnipeg November barley futures contract rose $1.10 per tonne to settle at $162 with 11 trades. January fell $3.90 to close at $157 with six trades.
Soybeans in Chicago fell on the stronger U.S. dollar, forecasts for better harvest weather next week and talk that China had defered delivery of three to four shipments. Traders were also taking profits after the big gains made in the last two weeks.
Canadian officials are expected to travel to China this week to try to resolve that county’s refusal to accept Canadian canola unless it has blackleg-free status. The new rule is to come into effect Nov. 15 and could interfer with exports to China.
Blackleg is a plant disease not harmful to humans. Spores of the fungus are common on harvested grain but varieties grown in Canada have resistance.
Australian canola shipments are under the same restriction but there is no restriction of American canola, although little U.S. production is exported.
Late on Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released harvest progress reports that indicated combining last week was slower than traders hoped.
As of Oct 25. 44 percent of the soybean crop had been havested, down five year average of 80 percent. Traders had expected 50 to 60 percent of the crop to be harvested.
The corn crop was 20 percent in the bin compared to the average of 58 percent. Traders had expected 25 to 30 percent to be harvested.
In seeding, 76 percent of the winter wheat had been sown, short of the five-year average of 85 percent.
