Cross Commodity Competition Growing in Canada
VANCOUVER - Jan 23/14 - SNS -- Commodities have always competed for the attention of farmers and consumers. This is the key reason that prices for pulses, grains and oilseeds tend to move in the same general direction.
When prices for one crop or group of crops gets out of line with the others, farmers react by increasing or decreasing land in the crop; while consumers respond by modifying how they use food ingredients and how much they buy.
Of the two, the actions of farmers are more obvious.
In 2013, western Canadian farmers pulled land out of canola and pulse crops so that they could seed an extra one million hectares of wheat. This year, land is expected to move from wheat back into oilseeds and pulses.
Initial, private surveys of farmers in the United States point to similar moves, with land in soybeans and pulses expected to increase at the expense of corn.
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