The Canadian Wheat Board plans to adopt a cautious approach in calling forward durum deliveries for the remainder of the crop year.
The board wants to avoid a repeat of last year, when it issued calls for all the durum farmers had available to deliver to enable them to take advantage of higher prices in the 2002-03 pool.
The elevator system was unable to take it all by the end of the crop year July 31, with the result that some farmers delivered old-crop durum contracts in the new year.
Read Also
Farming Smarter receives financial boost from Alberta government for potato research
Farming Smarter near Lethbridge got a boost to its research equipment, thanks to the Alberta government’s increase in funding for research associations.
“We’ve had a reasonably good program in the first half of the year but there is a lot of uncertainty in the second half, so we’re going to be taking a cautious approach to durum acceptance,” said CWB president and chief executive officer Adrian Measner.
“We want to make sure we can close the year better than we did last year.”
The board announced 70 percent acceptance of the Series A contract Oct. 31.
Measner said it’s still unclear what the board will do with the Series B or Series C contracts, which have deadlines of Jan. 30 and May 31 respectively.
“We want to see more sales in place before we make those decisions,” he said.
Canada’s durum supply is up by about 10 percent in 2003-04 to 5.9 million tonnes, due to higher production and increased carry-in stocks. Exports are forecast to be between three and 3.5 million tonnes.
Agriculture Canada forecasts ending stock at 1.7 million tonnes compared to 1.66 million in 2002-03.
World trade in durum is down this year and the board doesn’t want to get caught taking in more durum than there is demand for.
“There comes a point where if you continue to build supplies and we can’t accept all the durum this year and then we have the same type of crop year, it just makes the situation worse,” said Measner.
Overall, the board is on track to achieve its target of exporting 16 million tonnes of wheat, durum and barley this year, including 11 million tonnes of wheat, at least three million tonnes of durum and two million tonnes of malting and feed barley.
That’s up from total exports of 8.7 million tonnes last year.
The final number could be higher if additional durum sales arise and if developments in the cattle industry prompt farmers to consider selling feed barley to the export market.
