The Canadian Wheat Board’s biggest customer last year was Canada.
As is usually the case, domestic processors were the biggest buyers of Canadian wheat, durum and barley from the CWB.
Canadian millers and maltsters bought 2.34 million tonnes of wheat, 305,000 tonnes of durum and 925,000 tonnes of malting barley from the farmer-run marketing agency, for a total of 3.57 million tonnes.
That’s far ahead of the top foreign customer, the United States, which bought 1.97 million tonnes, including 1.06 million tonnes of wheat, a record 630,000 tonnes of durum, 264,000 tonnes of malting barley and 17,000 tonnes of feed barley from the board.
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Third in the rankings was Indonesia, which bought 1.54 million tonnes of wheat, and then Japan, which purchased 908,000 tonnes of wheat, 260,000 tonnes of feed barley and 53,000 tonnes of malting barley for a total of 1.22 million tonnes.
Meanwhile, a drop in wheat production in Western Canada will result in a smaller CWB export program in 2007-08.
The board said last week it has established a preliminary 2007-08 export target of 15.8 million tonnes of wheat, durum and barley.
That’s down 14 percent from the 18.4 million tonnes exported in 2006-07.
Chief executive officer Greg Arason said there’s no doubt there will be less wheat available to export this year.
“We are looking at a reduction in exports, primarily because of the decline in wheat acreage,” he said during a news conference to discuss the board’s crop year end.
Wheat area this year dipped to its lowest level since 1970, reflecting farmers’ low expectations of returns from the crop during spring seeding planning.
Other factors include a wet spring that prompted many farmers to switch from wheat to shorter-season crops, and extreme heat throughout July, which has reduced yield expectations, especially for durum.
The board projects wheat production in Western Canada (not including durum) will be 16.1 million tonnes. That compares with 19.1 million tonnes last year and 18.9 million in 2005.
Durum production is pegged at 3.9 million tonnes and barley at 11.3 million.
As for the year just ended, one highlight was the export of a record 4.4 million tonnes of durum topping the previous record of 4.2 million tonnes in 2005-06.
The board was able to accept delivery of all the durum offered for sale by prairie farmers.
Algeria was the top durum buyer at 659,000 tonne, while sales to the U.S., which had been limited by prohibitive tariffs for several years, rebounded to a record 630,000 tonnes.
Wheat exports were 12.9 million tonnes, with record sales to Indonesia and Mexico, and significant shipments to the U.S., Sri Lanka, Japan and India. Sales to the United Kingdom were the highest in 20 years.
Barley sales totalled 1.1 million tonnes, including malting barley sales of 390,000 tonnes to China and 264,000 tonnes to the U.S., and feed barley sales of 260,000 tonnes to Japan.
