Prairie organic crop mostly harvested, market stalled

By Jade Markus
OrganicBiz staff

Most of Western Canada’s organic crop was harvested before a slew of wet weather, but the market is sluggish as buyers continue hand-to-mouth purchasing. “The market continues to be very, very quiet. That’s kind of the state of the nation this year,” said Kris Morrow, commodity trader with Vancouver-based firm C.B. Constantini Ltd.

He added that organic trends have shifted from a sellers’ to a buyers’ market, as purchasers are in a holding pattern, and becoming active as needs emerge.

• Read more: Organic price quotes: Late October

“I think a lot of these buyers are just going hand to mouth, covering off their near-term needs. Not booking off too far in advance,” Morrow said.

Large crops in the U.S., and a relatively strong exchange rate has given the country the ability to increase imports, which has had a spillover effect on Canada’s organic market, he said.

In general, organic crops were able to escape adverse weather better than their conventional counterparts, and the limited amount of crop left in the field isn’t swaying the market in either direction.

Crop conditions have been overall pretty good, but there is still some barley left in the fields, said Tristan Gill, commodity trader with Westaqua Commodity Group in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Wet weather has had an effect on quality, as organic producers are seeing issues with fusarium in their wheat, and malt barley is sprouting, said Scott Shiels, grain procurement merchant at Grain Millers, Inc. at Yorkton, Sask.

“There’s a lot that’s not going to make malt quality,” said Shiels, and while flax has been generally good, there are some samples that have dark kernels.

“But quality is pretty good, yields were pretty good, everything that’s off anyway,” he said.