A freighter is loaded with grain from a terminal at Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet. (Maxvis/iStock/Getty Images)

Wheat, canola exports ahead of year-ago pace

MarketsFarm — Canadian grain and oilseed exports are running well ahead of the year-ago level eight weeks into the 2020-21 marketing year, according to the latest data from the Canadian Grain Commission. Total bulk exports of the major grains and oilseeds, as of Sunday, of 7.17 million tonnes compare with the six million exported during […] Read more

(File photo by Dave Bedard)

Grain exports flow fast as pandemic lockdowns clear rail capacity

Traffic accelerates on lower coal, crude volumes

Winnipeg | Reuters — Canadian grain exporters are boosting sales in a slumping global economy, as demand for commodities like oil weakens and frees up railway space. Brisk crop movement in a country that relies heavily on rail is a bright spot during pandemic lockdowns, which have hammered most industries. “We’ve had an almost unlimited […] Read more


Bulk wheat being loaded on a ship in a Russian port. (YGrek/iStock/Getty Images)

Russia will suspend grain exports for six weeks if quota runs out mid-May

Several supplies to Egypt might be affected, traders say

Moscow | Reuters — Russia, the world’s biggest wheat exporter, will suspend grain exports until July 1 once its export quota is exhausted, which is currently expected to happen in mid-May, its deputy agriculture minister Oksana Lut said on Friday. Russia last fully banned wheat exports in 2010 when drought hit its harvest, rocking global […] Read more

A freighter is loaded with grain from a terminal at Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet. (Maxvis/iStock/Getty Images)

Handlers focus on keeping grain moving despite COVID-19

Grain companies, Canadian Grain Commission working but unsure of future

Canada’s grain companies are committed to keeping grain moving to domestic and export customers, but how the spread of COVID-19 might affect business is still an unknown, says Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association. “We are are going to do everything in our power to keep grain moving at this time,” […] Read more


A freighter is loaded with grain from a terminal at Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet. (Maxvis/iStock/Getty Images)

Grains sector backed to develop export rejection insurance

Code of practice for 'sustainable' crops also in works

The organization representing Canada’s crops sector will get public funding to develop an insurance plan against the “unpredictability” of export customers. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, speaking Wednesday at the CropConnect conference in Winnipeg, announced over $430,000 for the Canada Grains Council to develop a pilot insurance product for grain exporters. Such an insurance plan […] Read more




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Visible Canadian canola stocks back above one million tonnes

MarketsFarm — Solid deliveries into the commercial pipeline and lacklustre export movement saw visible Canadian canola supplies climb back above one million tonnes during the week ended June 9, according to the latest grain handling report from the Canadian Grain Commission. Farmers delivered 422,500 tonnes of canola during week 45 of the 2018-19 crop year […] Read more



(PortOfHalifax.ca)

Baltic Dry Index near 2-1/2-year lows

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) has dropped sharply over the past two months, as declining global demand for commodities — especially from China — weighed on the economic indicator. The BDI, compiled daily by the London-based Baltic Exchange, provides an assessment of the price of moving major raw materials by sea, including grain. The BDI […] Read more