“Commodities, in general, have traded sideways to slightly lower over the last year, year-and-a-half,” said Kelly Cornelius, grain procurement specialist for Grain Millers in Yorkton, Sask. “Likely we’ll see a bit of a bump in pea production … I don’t expect to lose oat acres. If anything, we’re looking to gain. But there’s still a lot of time to shift acres.”

He added that conditions are dry in Saskatchewan, especially in the western half of the province. However, major snowfalls over the course of the winter have helped to replenish moisture levels in the southeast.

Ken Richmond, a farmer from St. Andrews, Man. and procurement manager for Regina-based O&T Farms, said some areas in southern Manitoba are in better shape than they were in February. He said growers have plenty to consider due to less demand, conventional price declines from last year and elevated equipment and fuel costs.

“Income is going to be lower. There’s no doubt about it,” Richmond added. “Some farmers are still thinking about C$70 to C$80 (per bushel organic flax prices) from last year. That’s not going to happen. Especially with the outlook on the moisture a little bit better now. I think we’re stuck in a zone now where (prices) are going to stay.”

Jason Breault of RW Organics in Mossbank, Sask. heard about potential seeding for spring wheat, oats and barley. However, slow demand and grain supplies augmented by imports are causing some buyers to look ahead all the way to January 2025. Despite this, Breault believes weather will become a catalyst.

“If it stays dry, (buyers) will probably want a little more (grain) if they’re worried about drought. If we get some moisture, people will back off again,” he said.

As dry conditions persist, Organic Council of Ontario director-at-large Rob Wallbridge said there is still time for much-needed moisture heading into seeding. But while commodity markets stay quiet, growers may choose the familiar.

“We’ll probably see more spring cereals and peas planted than normal, especially if the dry weather holds. But without any clear signals from the market, most farmers will stick with their traditional rotation,” he said.

Harro Wehrmann of Wehrmann Grain and Seeds in Ripley, Ont. repeated Wallbridge’s sentiment. He said most winter grains survived cool temperatures during the month of March, but he doesn’t expect the local organic market to pick up activity until May at the earliest.

“Buyers are just going to wait and see what the mood of the consumer is,” Wehrmann said. “I reckon that feed grains will see hand-to-mouth buying … For specialty crops, I think bids will start coming in as consumption patterns become evident and companies are going to want to secure supply.”

The Prairie provincial organics organizations held their respective annual general meetings near the end of the month.

The Manitoba Organic Alliance held its 2024 AGM in Portage la Prairie on March 20, where the organization voted to change its name to Manitoba Organics. Executive director Marika Dewar-Norosky said the new name will also go along with changes to its website and logo.

“It aims to enhance clarity, branding, and recognition, making communication easier,” she said. “Additionally, aligning our name with similar organizations (SaskOrganics and Organic Alberta) helps to create consistency and unity within the organic community across Western Canada.”

Organic Alberta had its AGM done virtually, also on March 20. The organization will co-host the 2024 La Crete Organic Farming Conference and Trade Show at the La Crete Heritage Centre on April 11.

SaskOrganics’ AGM coincided with the Advancing Organics and Trade Show on March 27 and 28 in Saskatoon. The event included 30 exhibitors as well as more than a dozen sessions featuring speakers across the Prairies with expertise in various topics including brewing, weed management and mental health. A scholarship and awards banquet also took place.

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“There’s people coming in and there’s people going out,” said Tia Loftsgard, executive director of the Canadian Organic Trade Association (COTA).

Loftsgard presented COTA’s 2022 organic industry statistics in a webinar on Oct. 20. COTA collects and analyzes data from several industry sources to get a picture of the sector.

In 2022, there were 7702 organic operators, down from 7998 the previous year, said Loftsgard, including 33 fewer farms. This is the first time they’ve seen a decline in operators, she added.

However, the total is still above 2020 numbers of 7624 operators. There were seven fewer organic livestock farmers in 2022 than in 2021, she said. This continues a downward trend, which Loftsgard said they’d need to investigate and address.

That said, total organic acreage was up to 3.8 million acres, from 3.1 million acres in 2021 though down from the 2020 high of just over 4 million acres.

Forty per cent of these acres were forage, green manure and natural areas; 26 per cent was field crops, 20 per cent fruits and vegetables, with the rest in aquaculture plants, maple, and wild harvest.

Wheat and oats were the main organic cereals grown, with just over 311,000 acres and just over 281,000 acres respectively. Producers also grew more than 54,000 acres of corn. Organic pulses were largely split between lentils, with nearly 40,600 acres; chickpeas, with nearly 41,500 acres, and peas, with nearly 31,000 acres. Nearly 108,000 acres of organic soybeans were grown in 2022, with flax trailing at over 52,000 acres grown, and more than 15,000 acres of mustard.

The vast majority of organic livestock was poultry, with about 4.3 million head. Pigs were a distant second with around 293,000 animals, and about 39,000 cattle and other bovine animals.

Total organic sales in 2022 was $10.26 billion, with $7.94 billion in food and beverage sales, up from $9.35 billion in sales in 2021 and $7.24 billion in food and beverage sales.

—Geralyn Wichers writes for Glacier Farmmedia from Steinbach, Manitoba.

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The marketing webinars, which are held bi-annually before spring seeding and after harvest, are designed to connect organic grain buyers and producers as well as provide information on pricing and contract information to each other.

Representatives answered from a list of questions handed out before the start of the webinar, which ranged from crop needs to dockage allowances to trucking to market predictions for 2023. The webinar was moderated by SaskOrganics board secretary and former Western Producer contributor Will Oddie. All 10 companies which took part in the webinar also sponsored the event.

Dwayne Lee, a Winnipeg-based general manager of Growers’ International Organic Sales Inc. (GIOSI), said wheat yields this year were much higher than in the drought year of 2021, but carryout will remain small.

“Supplies are maybe not largely different year-by-year,” he said. “The (organic) market feels generally pretty balanced…I would say it feels we’re a little bit rangebound. Not overly bearish, not overly bullish.”

Clarence Shwaluk, director of farm operations for Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods, said “traceability”, which allows a grain buyer to know where the crop came from, is a strong selling feature. However, finding the right price for consumers can be challenging.

“We do try to follow commodity pricing. We do realize that being a specialty crop, we want to make sure that hemp returns a little bit more per acre than some of the more common crops that are grown out there organically,” he said. “We’re just about to finalize (our price), but we do need to realize our retailers are pushing back, as well.”

Mike Gallais, director of procurement and general manager of the Avena Foods pulse processing plant in Rowatt, Sask., believes there is “stability” in organic markets for 2023.

“In other years, some of our green pea customers would start taking peas in December or later, but they’ve been actually pulling since September. So we’re seeing good demand,” he said.

Ben Howrigan, a Vermont-based salesperson from F.W. Cobs Company, mentioned that rail movement has been slower than in previous years and echoed Gallais’ sentiment of stability despite a high U.S. dollar.

“It was kind of a mixed bag of a (soybean) crop in Saskatchewan. The demand still seems pretty high for corn and beans, which with the prices being where they are always creates a lot more demand for small grains to kind of supplement the rations as well. That’s why we’re seeing the barley and rye and demand for wheat as well,” Howrigan explained.

Alex Galarneau, owner and operator of Prairie Heritage Seeds (PHS) in Radville, Sask., said it was a “good crop year” in Western Canada with organic crop prices still high despite coming off last spring’s levels. He said 80 per cent of PHS’s grain is exported outside Canada with a low Canadian dollar keeping prices high. However, a high U.S. dollar is also raising freight costs, while supply chain concerns and labour shortages remain pertinent.

“Overall, we’re working through it and we’re finding a way,” Galarneau said. “My standard line is, ‘Put your sunglasses on, because the future’s still bright.’”

Other participants in the webinar were Carolyn Crawford of Mumm’s Sprouting Seeds located near Parkside, Sask., Bailey Ogilvie from Scoular Canada, Ken Richmond of O&T Farms based in Regina, Bill Longman from Sunrise Foods International and Kelly Cornelius from Grain Millers Inc.

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