Farmers can deliver all the wheat and feed barley they signed up for under the Canadian Wheat Board’s Series B contracts.
The board announced last week it has accepted 100 percent of all classes and grades of wheat and feed barley, 50 percent of the top three grades of durum wheat and 100 percent of the bottom two durum grades.
The board said those acceptance rates reflect good demand for tight supplies of high protein wheat and weaken demand for large supplies of durum.
Canadian production of durum is estimated to be 6.1 million tonnes, the largest on record, while U.S. production of 3.8 million tonnes is the largest since 1982. At the same time, global trade in durum is expected to be down nine percent at 6.2 million tonnes.
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Under the Series A contracts, the board accepted 100 percent of wheat, barley and high protein durum and 80 percent of low protein durum. The deadline for offering grain under Series C contracts is Feb. 26.
Meanwhile, CWB spokesperson Deanna Allen said farmers can expect to see steady grain movement during the next few months.
Six million tonnes of wheat and barley had been exported by the end of December, representing about 41 percent of the 14.5 million tonnes projected to move this crop year.
That compares with more than 13 million tonnes at the same time last year, which represented 50 percent of the projected total shipments of 27 million tonnes.
“Certainly in August, September and early October, prices were very poor and we weren’t prepared to sell large volumes at those prices,” Allen said. “There was a surge in mid-October and it’s certainly a stronger market now.”
She said there should be no problem meeting the board’s May 31 target of moving 85 percent of the 21 million tonnes of the six major grains expected to be shipped this crop year.
