Canada: Western Canada feed barley market remains relatively flat

The feed barley market in Western Canada remains relatively flat as steady corn imports from the U.S. keep domestic feeders well supplied, Farmtario.com reported on November 30.

Ideas that Canadian production ended up above earlier expectations were also keeping a lid on the domestic market.

Delivered barley into the Lethbridge, Alta. area is currently priced in the C$300-C$320 per tonne range, according to brokers in the region. That’s down by about C$20 per tonne at the top end over the past month, and well below bids at this time a year ago that were topping C$400 per tonne.

U.S. corn imports “continue to handcuff and prevent any price growth in this market,” Alberta grain brokerage Agfinity said in a market report. They also noted export opportunities would likely be slow in 2024, due in part to increased Chinese buying from other exporting countries.

Canada has exported 742,700 tonnes of barley through the first 16 weeks of the 2023-24 marketing year, according to Canadian Grain Commission data. That was down by 29 per cent compared to what moved during the same time the previous year.

While less barley is leaving the country, more corn is coming in. U.S. Department of Agriculture export data for the week ended Nov. 23 shows that Canada has already imported 265,800 tonnes of U.S. corn during the marketing year that began Sept. 1. That compares with only 67,400 tonnes of accumulated imports at the same time the previous year. There are an additional 538,600 tonnes of corn already on the books slated to move later, more than double the previous year’s outstanding sales.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada is expected to confirm a larger Canadian barley crop when it releases its first survey-based estimates for the 2023-24 marketing year on Monday (Dec. 4).

Trade guesses range anywhere from eight million to 8.8 million tonnes, which would be up from the 7.84 million-tonne model-based forecast released in September, but still below the 9.99 million tonnes grown in 2022-23.

Central and northern Alberta saw “fabulous” barley yields, according to analyst Jerry Klassen of Resilient Commodity Analysis, although he added that would be offset by drier conditions in southern Alberta and western Saskatchewan.

01 December, 2023