Canada’s largest mustard handler is pleased that farmers intend to plant more of the condiment crop in 2009.
Statistics Canada’s March seeding intentions report shows farmers plan to grow 550,000 acres of mustard, up 15 percent from last year.
“That’s where we need it to be,” said Steve Foster, a mustard trader with Viterra. “If it would have been any less than that, I would have been concerned for sure.”
A week before Statistics Canada released its seeding intentions report the grain company took out an advertisement in The Western Producer extolling the benefits of growing the crop.
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“Since our merger, we’re really a leader in the mustard industry. We think we have a role to play in promoting mustard as a cropping option,” said Foster.
The ad is the first foray in a campaign undertaken by the grain company and industry groups to help farmers better understand the crop.
“We want to make sure that there’s enough mustard out there grown year after year to meet our end customer needs,” said Foster.
In 2008, growers planted 479,000 acres of the crop and harvested 161,000 tonnes. Carryover is expected to be a paltry 15,000 tonnes, much of which is of poor quality.
Foster was hoping to see 550,000 to 600,000 acres in the seeding intentions report to fuel 180,000 to 200,000 tonnes of regular annual demand. He was pleased the report met his expectations.
“If we can get a reasonably good crop yield and good crop quality, that should go a long way to recouping some of the mustard shortfall that we’ve seen in the last little while that has eroded the values.”
Mustard prices have tailed off since the highs of last summer. For instance, Stat Publishing is reporting a spot market range for No. 1 oriental mustard of 38.75 to 41 cents per pound, while new crop values are in the 18.70 to 20.75 range.
Foster said he hasn’t seen anything that low for new crop values but he’s not contracting oriental mustard now.
Demand has been a little off of late due to the economic downturn and the chilling effect of what had been sky-high prices.
“That’s only short-lived and when it does come back, and I’m sure it will, we want to make sure we’ve got significant production to meet our end-use customer needs,” he said.
So he hopes growers follow through with their stated intentions and harvest a good crop.
“If we don’t have the production, we’re going to be in a pickle,” said Foster.
