Canadian Special Crop Stocks Rise

VANCOUVER - May 10/10 - SNS -- Available supplies of specialty crops in Canada on March 31 pulled ahead of year earlier levels for the second year in a row, rising 254,000 metric tons (MT) over last year's combined inventory and 394,400 above the recent average.

By contrast, Statistics Canada said total stocks of principal field crops such as canola, wheat excluding durum, barley and oats were lower compared with the same date in 2009. Stocks fell mostly as a result of reduced crop production in 2009. Total soybean stocks were above levels observed one year earlier because of a production increase in 2009.

Total stocks of canola stood at 5.4 million MT, down 11.6% or 711,000 MT from March 31, 2009. Canola supplies were down as a result of a 6.5% production decline in 2009. Total on-farm stocks were down by 9.8% to 4.5 million MT, while commercial stocks declined 19.1% to 932,000 MT.

Total stocks of wheat excluding durum fell by 11.5% to 11.1 million MT, the result of an 8.6% drop in production in the fall of 2009. On-farm stocks decreased by 20.6% to 7.3 million MT compared with March 31, 2009, while commercial stocks rose by 13.3% to 3.8 million MT.

Total stocks of soybeans reached 1.4 million MT, up 14.5% from March 31, 2009. The increase in stocks was due to a record 3.5 million MT production in 2009.

In Ontario, on-farm stocks of soybeans rose 34.6% to 525,000 MT, while Quebec stocks decreased 7.4% to 125,000 MT.

As for specialty crops, growers and companies reported having 2.782 million MT of peas, lentils, chickpeas, canary, mustard and sunflower seed in inventory this year, compared to last year's revised total of 2.528 million MT and the 1.611 million MT on hand on March 31 of 2008.