Canada Markets

At a time when processing capacity and bottlenecks are making headlines across the ag sector and food demand has changed with a massive switch from restaurant demand to a combination of processed foods and home preparation, canola crush data for March can be viewed as favorable for the industry.

Statistics Canada reported that 881,384 metric tons of canola were crushed in March, the highest volume crushed in three months and the third highest crush achieved so far this crop year. This month could also be described as the third-highest crush on record, following the 882,301 mt crushed in October 2019 and 899,301 mt crushed in December 2019.

This volume is 22% higher than the volume crushed in March of 2018-19, while 11.8% higher than the three-year average for this month. It is also above the 812,500 mt steady pace needed to reach the current AAFC forecast of 9.750 million metric tons in 2019-20.

Over the first eight months of this crop year, crush totals 6.757 mmt, up 11% from the same period in 2018-19. This is 4% above the 6.5 mmt steady pace need to reach the current crop year total of 9.750 mmt forecast for 2019-20. Should this pace continue through the balance of the year, domestic crush would surpass 10 mmt for the first time ever.

The oil content is calculated at 43.9% in March, close to the upper-end of the range reported this crop year, while above the 43.6% average reported in the first seven months of the month.

Statistics Canada also reported the soybean crush at 150,539 mt for the month of March. The year-to-date crush totals 1.042 mmt (September through March), down 16.9% from the same period in 2018-19 and 10.5% below the three-year average for this period.

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Cliff Jamieson can be reached at cliff.jamieson@dtn.com

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