Canadian rapeseed stocks saw slight decline, 4% drop year over year

In Germany, UFOP reports that the forecasts for Canadian rapeseed and soybean sotcks have been lowered. However, both figures exceed the long-time averages. Statistics Canada recently published an estimate of its grain and oilseed stocks as at the end of the year 2019.

The statistics agency put total oilseed stocks at 18.5 million tonnes. This translates to a 4 per cent drop year over year, but is a 3.2 per cent increase compared to the average of the past five years. Rapeseed, which is the most important oilseed crop in Canada by quantity and accounts for just over three quarters of Canadian oilseed stocks, showed a similar trend. Stocks at 14.3 million tonnes are a 2.4 decrease from the previous year, but also a 4.9 surge from the five-year mean.

According to Statistics Canada, the falloff from December 2018 was attributable to a 5.9 per cent slump in on-farm stocks to 12.4 million tonnes. Despite considerably higher beginning stocks in the 2019/20 marketing year, the smaller 2019 rapeseed harvest, coupled with an increase in processing, led to reduced availability. The Canadian statistics agency estimates the country’s soybean stocks as at the end of 2019 at 3.9 million tonnes, down 9.4 per cent year over year. However, the five-year mean was exceeded by 2.7 per cent.

The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen (UFOP) e. V. has pointed out that Canadian rapeseed stocks amount to around 70 percent of the 20.1 million tonne harvest of the 2019/20 marketing year. These large stocks beat down producer prices, especially because after the trade dispute exports to China have not returned to the previous level of 4.3 million tonnes.