WINNIPEG (Reuters) – Canada has exported 28 percent more wheat to Asia through two-thirds of the current crop year as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka sharply boosted their buying.Asian countries imported nearly 3.2 million tonnes of wheat, excluding durum, from August through March, up from 2.5 million tonnes a year earlier, Statistics Canada said May 27.Demand for Canadian spring wheat was led by Bangladesh, which more than doubled imports to 785,000 tonnes.“The economy in Bangladesh is improving, much like that entire region, and so our sales in there have been increasing,” said Bruce Burnett, director of weather and market analysis for the Canadian Wheat Board.Bangladesh typically steps up wheat imports when domestic food supplies are short and wheat prices are low, said Chuck Penner, owner of LeftField Commodity Research in Winnipeg.“They really tend to be price shoppers,” he said. “I don’t think it’s something to be relied on (long-term).”Bangladesh’s third rice crop may fall short of earlier estimates, which may have stirred its interest in Canadian wheat, Penner said.China bought nearly 139,000 tonnes in the crop year’s first eight months, already far more than it imported from Canada in each of the past two crop years, but little compared to its past imports.Sri Lanka, Canada’s second biggest Asian wheat market this year, has imported nearly 612,000 tonnes or 41 percent more.Canada shipped about 11.5 million tonnes of wheat from August through March, up 1.9 percent from the same period a year ago.Weaker demand for spring wheat from the United States, which bought about 1.1 million tonnes or 19 percent less, partly offset strong Asian demand.Asian buying is also key this year since Iran, Canada’s second largest spring wheat market last year, bought nothing from August through March.Exports of durum more than doubled to Italy, which bought nearly 348,000 tonnes. Italian buying has increased because the European crop is of lower quality, Burnett said.The weak euro remains a concern for marketing both Canada’s old and new crops of wheat and barley, because it makes European grains cheaper to export and raises the cost of imported grain to European countries, Burnett said.
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