Canadian Special Crop Stocks Rise

VANCOUVER - May 8/09 - SNS -- Available supplies of specialty crops in Canada on March 31 rose well above last year and their previous five year average, jumping 650,000 metric tons (MT) over last year's combined inventory and 90,000 above the recent average.

Growers and companies reported having 2.261 million MT of peas, lentils, chickpeas, canary, mustard and sunflower seed in inventory this year, compared to last year's revised total of 1.611 million MT and the record 2.915 million MT on hand on March 31 of 2006.

Stocks on hand are just above the recent five-year average of 2.171 million MT for the specialty crop sector. Merchandise in commercial hands is up, sitting at 500,000 MT, compared to 408,000 MT last year and the recent average of 409,800 MT. Grower inventories are much higher at 1.761 million MT of all specialty crops, compared to 1.203 million MT last year and the recent average of 1.762 million MT. It is worth noting that last year's original onfarm stocks estimate was 990,000 MT.

Inferred use since the August 1 start of the current marketing year totals 3.279 million MT or 59.2% of available supply, compared to an inferred use of 3.304 million MT or a record 67.2% of available supply in during the same eight month period in 2007-08.

Statistics Canada bases its on-farm stock estimates on telephone and internet interview of roughly 14,500 Canadian farmers, down from 16,000 last year. The interviews were done between March 24 to March 31. 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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