Canadian Farmers Cut Canola Plantings Amid China Dispute

June 27th, 2019

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Category: Oilseeds

(NASDAQ) – Canadian farmers trimmed their canola plantings from spring intentions amid a diplomatic dispute with top export market China, in line with expectations, Statistics Canada data showed on Wednesday.

Canola plantings fell to 21 million acres, down from their plans for 21.3 million as of April and off 8% from last year, according to Statscan, which based the estimates on a farmer survey. The estimate, Statscan’s lowest in three years, fell within a range of prior trade guesses, which averaged 20.7 million acres.

“It’s tough to get bullish on canola,” he said on a conference call organized by Minneapolis Grain Exchange.

ICE Canada November canola futures slipped 0.7%.

Relations between China and Canada nosedived in December after Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co was detained in Vancouver on a U.S. arrest warrant. In March, China halted virtually all Canadian canola imports, saying the action was due to finding pests in shipments.

Statscan pegged the all-wheat area at 24.6 million acres, down slightly from last year’s 24.7 million and well below the average trade expectation of 25.7 million acres.

Within that category, spring wheat area rose 8.4% to 18.8 million acres but plantings of durum, used to make pasta, fell 21% year over year to 4.9 million.

Minneapolis September spring wheat futures /MWEU9 edged up 0.4%.

Canada is one of the world’s largest wheat exporters and the biggest shipper of canola, a cousin of rapeseed used largely to produce vegetable oil.

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