ICE Canola Weaker In Choppy Trade

News that another Canadian canola crushing plant has been restricted from exporting canola meal to the US accounted for some of the weakness in the market, according to a trader. An Archer Daniels Midland plant in Ontario has been added to the list of facilities on the US Food and Drug Administration’s import alert list, due to the discovery of salmonella in canola meal. Four other Canadian canola plants have been unable to sell canola meal to the US for a number of months.

The trader said crush margins for canola have deteriorated by C$20 per metric ton over the past week, which was likely taking some of the demand out of the market.

Strength in the Canadian dollar was also bearish for canola, making the commodity more expensive to export customers.

A firmer tone in the CBOT soy complex provided some underlying support for canola, according to the trader. However, he expected the soy market could see some wide price swings before the close, which may spillover to canola.

At 10:50 CST, about 7,000 canola contracts had changed hands. The January/March spread was accounted for about 3,000 of the contracts traded as participants continue to clean up the last of their January positions.

Western barley futures were untraded and unchanged at midsession.

ICE Futures Canada will be closed on December 25 and December 28 for Christmas and Boxing Day. The market will close early on December 24.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 10:50 CST: