The weak soybean market, driven lower by the strong American dollar, pressured Winnipeg canola futures lower again on Friday.
January canola settled at $404.70 per tonne, down $1.80 from the previous day on a volume of 3,881 contracts.
March fell $1.90 to close at $411.70 per tonne on a volume of 8,489 contracts. March was down 1.8 percent on the week.
May fell $1.70 to $418.70 on 547 trades.
The Bank of Canada at noon Friday said the Canadian dollar was worth 93.65 cents US, up from 93.34 cents on Thursday. The U.S. dollar was worth $1.0678 Cdn.
The Winnipeg January barley contract rose $1 to $160 per tonne with 61 trades and March fell $6 to $156 on 33 trades.
Chicago January soybeans fell 10 cents to $10.12 US per bushel.
The Canadian Oilseed Processors Association said 73,869 tonnes of canola seed were crushed in the week ending Dec. 16. That was down 5.5 percent from the week before.
The crush capacity use rate was 71 percent, down from this year’s average of 74.6 percent and well below last year’s pace of 94 percent
Analytical firm Informa Economics released its first outlook for 2010 U.S. crops on Friday.
It expects corn seeded acreage will rise by 3.7 percent and soybeans will drop by 0.7 percent.
It estimated 2010 U.S. corn acreage at 89.504 million and soybeans at 76.993 million, Reuters Newservice reported.
It forecast winter wheat plantings at 39.446 million acres, down from 43.448 million last year.
