Labour disruptions haven’t disrupted west coast canola shipments one
iota.
Despite a lockout of employees working at Vancouver’s main grain export
terminals, shipments are on pace with last year.
“The canola is moving out through various other ways,” said Dave
Wilkins, director of communications with the Canola Council of Canada.
Exporters have been routing traffic through Prince Rupert, Thunder Bay
and Vancouver Wharves, a relatively small terminal at the Port of
Vancouver that hasn’t been affected by the lockout that began on Aug.
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Between Sept. 4 and Nov. 5, Canada shipped 18 vessels to Japan, the
country’s most important canola customer.
Most of that tonnage moved through west coast bulk handling facilities.
Nine ships were loaded at Vancouver Wharves, five at Prince Rupert and
four in Thunder Bay.
Wilkins said 385,518 tonnes of crop were exported to Japan during that
period, compared to 319,400 tonnes shipped during September and October
2001.
Vancouver Wharves has played a big role in the continued movement of
oilseeds. Workers at the terminal are not members of Grainworkers Union
Local 333, which has been locked out by the British Columbia Terminal
Elevator Operators Association.
Kevin Campbell, senior oilseeds merchandising manager with Saskatchewan
Wheat Pool, said Vancouver Wharves has a new bulk handling facility
that was built to load human consumption peas. A poor quality pea crop
created the space for canola to move through that facility.
Prince Rupert has also picked up some of the traffic that would
normally be going through Vancouver. Campbell said a temporary picket
line at the northern B.C. port did little to disrupt traffic moving
through that facility.
While canola traffic has been flowing out of the West Coast, basis
levels on the Prairies have been rising. Growers at a recent
Saskatchewan Canola Growers Association meeting in Melville, Sask.,
complained about facing high transportation costs with a small harvest
of 3.1
million tonnes.
Campbell said despite a crop that is about a third smaller than last
year’s harvest, there are more than one million tonnes of “visible
supply” in the grain handling system and another 500,000 tonnes that
have already been exported.
He said there are three reasons farmers have been delivering canola in
droves. The most obvious is the high prices- approaching $10 per bushel
in some locations.
The second reason is the late harvest, which produced a tough and damp
crop. Growers who didn’t have adequate drying capacity on their farm
brought that wet crop to inland terminals to be dried.
A third explanation is that Canadian Wheat Board deliveries are down
because the wheat crop is a mess.
An estimated 74 percent of Saskatchewan’s wheat will grade No. 3 or
worse. To generate cash flow to pay off debts, farmers are selling
their canola.
Campbell estimates 37 percent of the total produced this year and what
was carried over from last year is already in the system.
