Canada Markets

An early harvest, cooperative weather and favorable pricing for some crops have led to aggressive producer deliveries in to licensed facilities. In week 6, or the week ended Sept. 13, 1.644 million metric tons (mmt) of all grains were unloaded at primary elevators, just slightly higher than the previous week. Of this volume, 447,000 metric tons (mt) was wheat (excluding durum), making up 27% of the total, 115,800 mt was durum that accounted for 7% of the total, while 595,700 mt of this volume was canola, making up 36% of the total.

Over the first six weeks of this crop year, producers have delivered 7.873 mmt, a record pace for this period that is 42.2% higher than the same period in 2019-20 and 31.2% higher than the 5-year average. Deliveries of the largest crops are well ahead of last year and the 5-year average, with wheat deliveries up 42.6% (12.1%), durum up 40.8% (37.3%), oat deliveries up 46.7% (41.8%) barley deliveries up 62.7% (109.1%), canola up 29.7% (33.5%) and peas up 43.4% (20.2%), with the 5-year average in brackets.

As can be expected, primary elevator stocks jumped over the past week from 2.108 mmt to 3.740 mmt, with the largest jump seen in Saskatchewan with a 947,300 mt increase week-over-week. The total volume represents roughly 47% of the Prairie capacity as well as 71.8% of the estimated working capacity as calculated by Quorum Corporation for the weekly Grain Performance Update.

Primary elevator stocks represent 67.5% of working capacity in Manitoba, 79.5% in Saskatchewan and 61% in Alberta.

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

Follow him on Twitter @Cliff Jamieson

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