By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, August 24 – ICE Canada canola contracts were sharply lower Monday morning as panic over plunging Chinese markets drove values lower across the agricultural sector.
Chinese stocks suffered a drop of nearly nine percent which was their worst performance since 2007.
The US soy complex was sharply lower as was the entire vegetable oil market.
Canola could see additional selling to bring it in line with other markets which have dropped to further levels.
However, the Canadian dollar was lower relative to its US counterpart which made canola more attractive to its customers overseas.
Commercial buying began on Friday which lent canola some support.
Statistics Canada pegged the 2015/16 canola crop at 13.3 million tonnes which was lower than last year’s 15.6 million tonne crop and viewed as supportive.
About 9,000 canola contracts had traded as of 8:45 CDT.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley futures were all untraded and unchanged.
Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 8:45 CDT:
