The 2010 cereal crop in Western Canada may have been small in quantity and poor in quality, but it generated an estimated $5.8 billion in net revenue for farmers, the fourth highest in the history of the Canadian Wheat Board.
At its annual year-end press conference, held in late August in Winnipeg, the CWB announced that it exported 15.8 million tonnes of board grains in the 2010-11 crop year, one of its lowest export volumes in the last decade.
Specifically, the board exported 11.2 million tonnes of wheat, 3.4 million tonnes of durum and 1.2 million tonnes of barley in 2010.
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In comparison, the CWB exported 18.8 million tonnes of grain in 2009- 10 and 18.4 million tonnes in 2008- 09.
High cereal prices generated higher than average returns for farmers in the CWB pools. For instance, farmers who delivered No. 3 wheat to the board in 2010-11 will receive a total of $6.60 per bushel in Saskatchewan.
CWB chief executive officer Ian White said it may have been the fourth best year for returns, but 2010- 11 was a challenging year because the board struggled to find markets for lower quality wheat, durum and barley.
The largest export customer last year for CWB wheat was South Korea, which purchased 1.22 million tonnes.
South Korea, Japan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka were the top five customers.
Italy, which purchased 886,000 tonnes, was the largest durum customer, followed by Morocco, the United States, Venezuela and Japan.
Japan bought 424,000 tonnes of feed barley and Saudi Arabia purchased 298,000 tonnes.
