By Glen Hallick, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, April 16 (MarketsFarm) – Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures canola contracts were lower on Thursday in the front months, and steady to higher in the deferred months.
Declines in Chicago soyoil weighed on values, while support came from a slightly weaker Canadian dollar.
The loonie was at 70.83 U.S. cents at mid-afternoon, compared to Wednesday’s close of 70.99.
There have been anecdotal reports of some Prairie farmers harvesting crop left to overwinter or planting new crops. Temperatures were forecast to improve next week, which should see a growing number of farmers in their fields.
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The remaining harvest will either delay canola planting this spring or lead farmers to plant other crops. This will likely result in fewer canola acres in 2020 compared to last year, according to a trader.
Statistics Canada postponed its crop area report that was to be released on April 24. There has yet to be any official word as to when the agency will issue the report, although there has been speculation in the markets that could be as early as sometime in May.
There were 23,750 contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 25,992 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 20,872 contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
Price Change
Canola May 457.70 dn 1.70
Jul 464.80 dn 2.00
Nov 473.30 dn 0.40
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) were lower on Thursday as there was little fresh buying interest, according to a report.
In its weekly export sales report, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said 244,700 tonnes of old crop soybeans were sold during the week of April 3 to 9. That’s down 53 per cent from the previous week and marked a low for 2019/20. New crop sales were 60,000 tonnes. Soymeal sales amounted to 158,700 tonnes and were down 18 per cent from the week prior. Soyoil sales reached 21,200 tonnes.
There has been market speculation that U.S. soybean acres could be more than the 83.5 million the USDA forecast for this year. Due to extremely low crude oil prices putting biofuels in peril, U.S. farmers could switch from corn to beans.
The Rosario Grain Exchange lowered its estimate of Argentina’s soybean crop by 1 million tonnes to now 50.5 million, citing poor weather conditions.
The USDA attaché in Brazil estimated that country’s soybean crop will increase to 95 million acres in 2020/21 and produce an additional 6 million tonnes.
CORN futures were steady on Thursday as strong export news was balanced off by problems in the ethanol industry.
The USDA reported export sales 906,600 tonnes of old crop corn along with 62,900 tonnes of new crop corn. The old crop sales were down 51 per cent from the previous week.
The markets believe U.S. farmers are likely to plant less corn than the 97.0 million acres the USDA projected for 2020. The reasoning being ethanol will remain rather unprofitable as crude oil prices remain low.
Rosario lowered its estimate of Argentina’s corn crop by 200,000 tonnes to 49.8 million due to poor weather conditions.
There were unconfirmed reports that South Korea purchased almost 211,000 tonnes of corn from South America.
WHEAT futures were lower on Thursday, catching spillover from soybeans.
Export sales of old crop wheat totaled 178,300 tonnes and fell 31 per cent from the previous week. New crop wheat sales were 419,400 tonnes.
The U.S. lost out on a sale of 240,000 tonnes wheat to Egypt despite having the lowest free on board (FOB) offer. Higher shipping costs from the U.S. saw Egypt turn to France (180,000) and Russia (60,000).
FranceAgriMer increased France’s wheat exports headed outside of the European Union on Thursday by 500,000 tonnes to now 13.2 million.
