MarketsFarm — Canada’s tight supplies of canola, wheat and other crops following the 2021 Prairie drought received more confirmation from Statistics Canada with the release of updated stocks data on Tuesday.
Canola stocks, as of Dec. 31, 2021, of 7.6 million tonnes were down 43 per cent from the previous year and the tightest since 2007. Total wheat stocks, at 15.6 million tonnes, were down by 38 per cent from the previous year.
“Everybody expected low stocks, and we got it,” MarketsFarm analyst Bruce Burnett said.
While the headline numbers for both wheat and canola were down on the year, commercial stocks of the two commodities were actually higher. Burnett noted end-users have been buying aggressively in order to keep on top of the tight supply situation.
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For wheat, supplies in commercial hands of 4.3 million tonnes were up by about 600,000 tonnes from the same point the previous year. Meanwhile, on-farm wheat stocks of only 11.2 million tonnes were down by 47 per cent.
The situation was similar in canola, with commercial stocks of 1.9 million tonnes up by 80,000 from the previous year while on-farm stocks at 5.6 million down by 51 per cent.
Barley stocks, at 3.1 million tonnes, were down by 44 per cent and marked the tightest supplies as of Dec. 31 in records going back to 1980.
While stocks of crops grown in Western Canada were down sharply, growing conditions for corn and soybeans in Eastern Canada was much more favourable in 2021 and corn stocks were actually up on the year.
Canadian corn stocks as of Dec. 31 came in at 11.5 million tonnes, up 4.1 per cent from the previous year. In addition to the solid production, imports of corn for grain hit a record of 1.7 million tonnes during the reporting period, rising 227 per cent on the year. The corn imports were tied to the tight feed grains situation in the Prairies, said Statistics Canada.
Soybean stocks were down 6.4 per cent on the year, at 3.3 million tonnes. On-farm soybean stocks were up 4.9 per cent, at two million tonnes, but were offset by a 19 per cent decrease in commercial stocks to 1.3 million tonnes.
Table: A recap of Statistics Canada’s stocks report for the period ended Dec. 31, 2021. Figures are in millions of metric tonnes.
| Total stocks, | Total stocks, | 5-year average, | |
| Dec. 31, 2021. . | Dec. 31, 2020. . | 2016-2020 | |
| Barley | 3.146 | 5.580 | 5.794 |
| Canola | 7.561 | 13.284 | 14.420 |
| Flaxseed | 0.260 | 0.377 | 0.457 |
| Oats | 1.657 | 2.722 | 2.638 |
| All wheat. . | 15.564 | 25.090 | 24.893 |
| Durum | 2.094 | 4.806 | 5.181 |
| Lentils | 1.182 | 1.852 | 2.080 |
| Peas | 1.629 | 2.836 | 2.715 |
| Soybeans | 3.285 | 3.511 | 3.910 |
| Corn | 11.530 | 11.071 | 11.494 |
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