Wheat sold to new buyers
Do you know who your biggest wheat customer is this year?
You might think China or perhaps the United States. Japan maybe?
They are all big, important markets for Canadian wheat producers, but not the biggest this year, nor were they last year.
At the top of the list is Iran.
To the end of December, Iran purchased 1.383 million tonnes of Canadian wheat, double the amount it bought last crop year at the same time on its way to being Canada’s biggest wheat customer.
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Iran’s booming demand has helped make up for weaker sales to a couple of traditional customers.
Second-place China has taken 628,000 tonnes, about two-thirds of what it bought last year at this time.
Third place goes to Japan with 517,000 tonnes, down about 14 percent from the same time last year.
In fourth place is the United States, which has bought about 512,000 tonnes so far, up almost seven percent.
As reported a couple of weeks ago, all wheat exports are well up over last year thanks to a much warmer Canadian winter that has made rail transportation an easier job.
To the end of December, Canada shipped just over eight million tonnes of wheat compared to 5.64 million at the same time last year.
The busy export campaign has seen a diversified marketing effort.
Algeria, a northern African nation that suffered drought last year, has been a big buyer of wheat, at 340,000 tonnes, and durum, at 711,000 tonnes. In fact, when wheat and durum are taken together, Algeria sits in second spot in the list of biggest volume buyers.
Africa overall has taken much more wheat this year. Exports to 14 African countries total 903,000 tonnes so far, compared to just 167,000 last year by the end of December.
Algeria accounts for more than one third of that, but South Africa and Nigeria also rate high, buying more than 115,000 tonnes each.
Turning to Asia, South Korea was a major destination with 384,000 tonnes purchased.
Turkey had bought more by December, 216,000 tonnes, than all of last year.
Central and South American countries have also been solid buyers: Mexico (371,000), Brazil (342,000), Peru (317,000), Colombia (227,000), Chile (184,000) and Venezuela (176,000).
There have been worries in the past about how Canada would cope if the traditional big buyers, Russia and China, stopped importing.
This year shows Canada can increase exports even when the old standbys reduce demand.
