Few Surprises in Ending Stocks Report

VANCOUVER - Sep 10/09 - SNS -- The ending stocks report for Canada's 2008-09 marketing year contained few surprises, with the numbers mostly in line with industry expectations of what Statistics Canada would report.

Season ending stocks on farms were based on Statistics Canada survey of 14,600 farm operators across Canada between July 27 and August 4. Commercial stocks were based on available data from the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) and a season ending survey of handlers and agents.

Total supplies of lentils, field peas, chickpeas, sunflower, mustard and canaryseed as of July 31 were 694,000 metric tons (MT), up from 502,000 last year and 605,000 two years ago.

Specialty crops on farms in western Canada totalled 345,000 MT, up from 240,000 MT last year but down from 421,000 MT two years ago. Product in commercial hands ended the season at 349,000 MT, up from 262,000 MT last year and from 184,000 MT two years ago.

Statistics Canada reported a major increase in field pea ending stocks and a significant jump in canary and mustard seed residual supplies. By contrast, declines were registered by lentils, chickpea and sunflower. The report did not break down ending stocks by class for any specialty crop.

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