No one who makes a living growing, hauling or handling grain will lament the demise of the 2002-03 crop year.
Farmers, grain companies, railways, truckers and vessel operators, as well as processors and farm suppliers, know all too well how little grain there was to move through the system in the wake of last year’s devastating drought.
With just a few weeks left in the crop year, it’s now possible to look at some numbers that show how bad a year it has been.
Exports of the major grains and oilseeds are expected to total around 14.5 million tonnes, little more than half of the Canadian long-term average of 26.4 million tonnes.
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Those numbers include wheat, durum, barley, oats, rye, canola and flaxseed.
That will be the lowest total since 1974-75, when exports reached 14.1 million tonnes, and a far cry from the record 31.2 million tonnes shipped in 1991-92.
For Western Canada, bulk grains and oilseeds exports for 2002-03 will end the year below 13 million tonnes, with wheat and durum totalling only 8.5 million tonnes.
The top three wheat customers this year to the end of May are Japan at 858,100 tonnes, Mexico at 548,100 tonnes and the United Kingdom at 259,500 tonnes.
The poor quarterly financial results reported by prairie grain companies so far are easy to understand when looking at grain delivery statistics for the crop year.
Farmers in Western Canada will haul about 18.5 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds to primary elevators this crop year, down about 44 percent from the average.
The biggest drop is in Saskatchewan, with deliveries likely to end the year around 8.5 million tonnes, about half the long-term usual of 16 million.
Farmers in Manitoba will deliver about 5.4 million tonnes and their counterparts in Alberta about 4.4 million.
Total deliveries from western farms, including shipments to processing facilities and terminal elevators, will be about 20.3 million tonnes, down from 27.3 million tonnes last year and 35.2 million the year before that.
About 10.6 million tonnes of western Canadian grain will be received at terminal elevators at Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Thunder Bay and Churchill, down from 16.5 million tonnes last year.
About 47 percent of this year’s export shipments will go through the west coast, including 3.5 million tonnes exported from Vancouver and 2.4 million through Prince Rupert.
By contrast, Vancouver has handled as much as 14.7 million tonnes in a crop year, a record established in 1991-92.
Eastbound exports through the St. Lawrence Seaway and direct rail to eastern export elevators will total 4.7 million tonnes, with 1.6 million tonnes moving out via direct exports from prairie elevators and 280,000 tonnes through Churchill.
