Organic prices holding steady through harvest

Prices would normally be pressured lower this time of year but weather and quality issues could offset volumes

By Jade Markus
OrganicBiz staff

Despite the ongoing harvest, most organic commodity prices are holding steady, bucking typical trends. But in coming months, quality issues could support select grains, while pressuring others.

• Related: Organic price quotes: Late September

Grains

“It’s really just holding steady. We haven’t really seen anything slide in price at all this fall,” said Scott Shiels, grain procurement merchant at Grain Millers Canada, Inc. in Saskatchewan.

“Commodities like barley, wheat, it’s not really pushing it down, but it’s not really letting it come up at all.”

He added that most oat buyers have already purchased what they need for this year.

Rain has stalled harvest progress in many areas, but oat yields are above-average and quality is good.

A lack of harvest pressure is visible in other grain markets, though they are not without bearish fundamentals.

Right now we’ve had such a disaster in this area (southwest Ontario) with corn that the price is a little low. – Leia Weaver, organic grain marketer

Rain in Western Canada throughout the summer has bumped up grain volumes, but some crops have suffered quality losses, bringing an increased amount of feed grains.

“I think that prices are going to continue to fall even further,” said Tristan Gill, commodity trader at Westaqua Commodity Group in British Columbia.

He noted that the U.S. is expecting the single largest corn crop in history, and that increased volume will add spillover pressure to Canada’s organic corn market.

However, production concerns could limit the downside on prices in Ontario.

“Right now we’ve had such a disaster in this area (southwest Ontario) with corn that the price is a little low,” said Leia Weaver, organic grain marketer at Roger Rivest Marketing in Ontario.

She expects prices for organic corn could increase into harvest, once yield and quality outcomes become clear.

“Then the price would also continue to rise, if the farmer were to store it,” she said.

Oilseeds

Soybeans are one of the few commodities feeling harvest pressure.

Soybean prices have moved down about a dollar between old-crop and new-crop, Weaver said.

However, prices for yellow, also known as golden, flax have increased exponentially, pushing past C$50 a bushel.

“There’s no yellow flax out there at all, the conventional side too. The price is just going through the roof,” Shiels said.

Only a limited amount of yellow flax was grown last year, he said, as it’s difficult to find producers who want to grow it.

“The variety wasn’t very good, you couldn’t get good yields out of it like you can with the brown now,” he said.

Farmers who did grow yellow flax will be waiting to sell to make sure they are able to meet quality specs.

“They don’t want to get stuck with a C$50 dollar flax contract they can’t fill,” Shiels said.

Pulses

The pulse market has stayed consistently strong, underpinned by a lack of supply.

“For things like lentils, peas, and products like that, those prices are going to stay the same,” Weaver said.

She added that buyers want more product than is available for organic pulses, to the point that they may need to look outside the country.

“But we prefer to work with the domestic producer and see what we can get at harvest time at the price that we’re able to market them at, so we’ll try to do that first,” she said.

The one weak spot in the pulse market are yellow peas, as ample supply exists.

Prices for yellow peas are about two dollars per bushel lower than their green counterparts.