North American Grain/Oilseed Review: Canola, grains in the red

Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm – The ICE Futures canola market followed the lead of comparable oils by moving lower on Monday.

Chicago soyoil, European rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil were in negative territory. Crude oil was also more than US$1 per barrel lower after the United States held off on tariff threats to Colombia.

One analyst said the ongoing threat of tariffs to be imposed on imports into the U.S. and weather concerns in South American were the primary drivers of canola prices.

At mid-afternoon, the Canadian dollar was down nearly one-quarter of a U.S. cent compared to Friday’s close.

There were 43,258 canola contracts traded on Monday, which compares with Friday when 48,866 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 22,050 of the contracts traded.

The March CORN contract fell to its lowest level in 10 days at the Chicago Board of Trade on Monday after United States President Donald Trump pulled back his tariff threats to Colombia, one of the top-five buyers of U.S. corn.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported corn export shipments for the week ended Jan. 23 at 1.247 million tonnes with marketing year inspections at 20.497 million tonnes, up 30 per cent from one year ago.

AgRural reported Brazil’s first crop corn harvest at nine per cent complete. Meanwhile, its safrinha corn crop was 2.2 per cent planted compared to 11.4 per cent one year ago.

Argentina cut its export tax on corn and soybeans from 33 per cent to 26 per cent starting today.

Ukraine’s minister of agrarian policy estimated corn plantings for 2025 at 4.146 million hectares.

The March SOYBEAN contract ended the day lower than US$10.50 per bushel for the first time since Jan. 17 despite weather concerns moving more to the forefront in the eyes of the trade.

The USDA reported 729,362 tonnes of soybeans shipped for export with marketing year shipments at 33.03 million tonnes, up 19.3 per cent from last year.

AgRural cut its Brazilian soybean production estimate by 500,000 tonnes at 171 million, citing lower yields in southern regions. Meanwhile, 3.9 per cent of the crop has been harvested, compared to 10.8 per cent one year earlier.

China will suspend five Brazilian firms from exporting soybeans to the country for two months, according to a media report.

Ukraine is expected to plant 2.4 million hectares of soybeans in 2025.

U.S. WHEAT futures extended their downturns on Monday.

Below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation are expected for the U.S. Midwest and Plains during the first week of February. Frigid weather in those areas may have killed up to 15 per cent of the U.S. winter wheat crop last week.

Ukraine is projected to devote 222,700 hectares to spring wheat, as well as 790,000 to spring barley.

Kazakhstan’s grain stocks on Jan. 1 totaled 19.26 million tonnes, including 15.73 million tonnes of wheat.