Canadian Special Crop Stocks Tighten

VANCOUVER - May 7/08 - SNS -- Available supplies of specialty crops in Canada on March 31 continued their recent slide, dropping almost 700,000 metric tons (MT) below last year's inventory, which itself was down nearly a million tons from stocks in all positions in 2006.

Growers and companies reported having 1.398 million MT of peas, lentils, chickpeas, canary, mustard and sunflower seed in inventory this year, compared to last year's revised total of 2.031 million MT and the record 2.819 million MT on hand on March 31 of 2006.

Stocks on hand are well below the recent five-year average of 2.077 million MT for the specialty crop sector. Merchandise in commercial hands is up slightly, sitting at 408,000 MT, compared to 392,000 MT last year and the recent average of 367,400 MT. Grower inventories are down sharply at just 990,000 MT of all specialty crops, compared to 1.639 million MT last year and the recent average of 1.71 million MT.

Inferred use since the August 1 start of the current marketing year totals a record 3.436 million MT or 71.1% of available supply, compared to an inferred use of 3,042 million MT or 60% of available supply in during the same eight month period in 2006-07.

Statistics Canada bases its on-farm stock estimates on telephone and internet interview of roughly 16,000 farm operators across Canada, down from 16,800 last year. Commercial stocks of western major crops originate from the Canadian Grain Commission. Commercial stocks of specialty crops originate from a survey of handlers and agents of specialty crops.

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