Canada Markets

Flax deliveries into Canada's licensed system totaled 308,600 metric tonnes as of Week 22 statistics, 34.6% above year-ago volumes and well above the five-year average of 192,300 mt. Despite the higher deliveries, today's flax bid delivered to Saskatchewan plants as published by Statpub is $524.09/mt or $13.31/bu, a $15/mt jump from last week and the highest level seen since July. At least one Saskatchewan broker is promoting FOB farm prices of $13/bu for January movement.

Not only are prices firming in the face of higher deliveries, but the latest AAFC supply and demand report lowered its forecast for 2014/15 exports by 100,000 mt to 700,000 mt while increasing the carryover by 20% to 150,000 mt from its November estimates while calling for an average annual price range of $465 to $495/mt.

Current licensed exports are reported at 179,800 mt as of Week 22, 20.3% above the year-ago volume and above the five-year average of 151,480 mt. Should the 700,000 mt target be achieved, this volume would be slightly higher than last year and the largest since 771,700 mt were shipped in 2009/10.

Like canola, the flax market will continue to face the headwinds of record global oilseed production.

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

Follow Cliff Jamieson on Twitter @CliffJamieson

(ES)

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