Harvest Selling Pressures Birdseeds

VANCOUVER - Oct 17/08 - SNS -- Birdseed ingredient markets were pressured lower by solid progress with harvests in the United States and collapsing end user demand.

This resulted in significant decreases in the value of Canadian and U.S. origin birdseed ingredients.

Confectionary sunflower markets managed to close unchanged, but oil-type sunflower was down sharply. White proso millet continued its recent downward slide, losing another 25 cents per hundredweight (cwt) in both grower and inter-dealer markets.

SunPrairie Grain's Jeremy Burkhart adds, "We still have heavy bearishness from outside factors. With all the uncertainties in the markets, the index funds are sitting on the sidelines waiting, and as we know they were a big reason we saw the prices we did last year.

"On the bright side for wheat, the basis is starting to see some strength as farmer selling is next to nothing and the pipeline is starting to look for bushels. Same story as last week, we will have to wait and see when the financial markets level out."

Subscribers can read the full text of the article by Clicking here