Despite significantly lower production expectations this year and tight carryover supplies, Canadian canary seed prices are seen continuing to slowly move lower as harvest approaches.
According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s August outlook for principal field crops, canary seed production is expected to drop by 50,000 tonnes this year, while carryout stocks are expected to be cut in half from the previous season.
Tight supplies and lower acreage “should equal out to something that should push the price, but it’s been tight supplies and low acres for the past few years on canary, and nobody ever seems to care,” said Kent Anholt, assistant operations manager with Rayglen Commodities in Saskatoon.
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As the harvest in southern Alberta presses on, a broker said that is one of the factors pulling feed prices lower in the region. Darcy Haley, vice-president of Ag Value Brokers in Lethbridge, added that lower cattle numbers in feedlots, plentiful amounts of grass for cattle to graze and a lacklustre export market also weighed on feed prices.
“They have been slowly working their way down due to a lack of demand.”
As of Monday, Prairie Ag Hotwire had FOB farm canary seed as high as 25 cents per pound, but Anholt said prices have dropped into the 23 to 24 cents per pound range.
If demand starts to pick up, prices could gain back some cents, Anholt added.
“It’s tough to say where prices go,” he said. “It depends on whether some demand comes to the table or not. If somebody comes back to buy, yeah, we could definitely see some cents, but if we don’t anything from someone looking to buy, it’s going to stay quiet.”
Going into harvest in the next week or so, Anholt said crops vary in condition around the province, so there could be reports of very different yields.
“Some crops are not good and some are,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a mixed basket.”
— Brandon Logan writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.
