North American Grain/Oilseed Review: StatCan releases report

Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm — The ICE Futures canola market took a step back on Wednesday following the release of new data from Statistics Canada.

StatCan estimated in its latest principal field crop report, that was released this morning, canola production for 2024-25 was at 19.502 million tonnes, 310,000 more than the 2023-24 figure.

One analyst said that despite the data being collected in late July and ongoing questions over StatCan’s accuracy, the figures in today’s report were “headed in the right direction”. He also noted that one million tonnes of canola were added towards the past two crop years.

Chicago soyoil was up, but European rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil were down. Crude oil was also slightly lower.

At mid-afternoon, the Canadian dollar was down more than one-tenth of a United States cent compared to Tuesday’s close.

There were 32,191 canola contracts traded on Wednesday, which compares with Tuesday when 46,749 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 18,602 of the contracts traded.

Futures for all three major U.S. WHEAT varieties ended Wednesday’s session higher, marking the first occurrence of back-to-back gains in more than a week.

Statistics Canada’s (StatCan) principal field crop report released earlier today projected Canada’s entire 2024-25 wheat crop to total 34.373 million tonnes, more than the 32.946 million grown in 2023-24 but slightly lower than trade expectations. Durum production is slated to be 6.022 million tonnes, compared to 4.088 million last year.

APK-Inform reported that Ukraine has started sowing winter grains, consisting of 2,000 hectares of winter wheat and 600 hectares of barley.

HB4 wheat, a drought-tolerant, genetically-modified variety developed in Argentina, was given approval by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to be safely grown and bred in the U.S. on Tuesday. However, field trials are still pending before it can be made commercially available in a few years.

The December CORN contract made a slight correction at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) on Wednesday after making a healthy gain on Tuesday. It has not reached US$4 per bushel since Aug. 21.

Canada is set to produce an estimated 15.229 million tonnes of corn in 2024-25, according to StatCan, slightly lower than the 15.421 million grown last year.

Prime corn-growing states Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin all received rain yesterday.

South Korea purchased 136,000 tonnes of corn via tenders on Tuesday.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported ethanol production at 1.071 million barrels per day on average during the week ended Aug. 23, down 27,000 from the previous week. Ethanol stocks slipped 2,000 barrels at 23.572 million, while ethanol exports averaged 145,000 barrels per day, up 63,000 from the week prior.

The USDA reported a private export sale of 165,735 tonnes of new crop corn to Mexico and another sale of 100,000 tonnes to Colombia.

SOYBEANS ended its three-day rally on Wednesday with the November contract hitting resistance at US$9.90/bu.

Canada’s 2024-25 soybean crop was estimated by StatCan to be 7.15 million tonnes, 169,000 more than the previous year.

In order to protect farmers from lower oilseed prices, India is considering an increase in import taxes on vegetable oils, which could reduce demand and overseas purchases for soyoil, palm oil and sunflower oil.

APK-Inform reported Ukrainian sunflower oil exports in August totaled 200,000 tonnes, down 45 per cent from July and the lowest monthly figure in two years.

In total, 264,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans were sold in a private sale to China this morning, according to the USDA.

A report from Reuters suggests U.S. imports of used cooking oil from China are expected to hit record amounts in the next few months despite regulatory uncertainties, according to industry participants.