Bruce Burnett, a well-known market analyst working for Glacier Media says despite some notably dry regions, overall crop potential looks good in Western Canada. Unfortunately, the price outlook is not entirely rosy.
Burnett and his colleague Jerry Klassen are giving daily presentations at the Glacier Media booth at Ag in Motion. Burnett covers crops while Klassen analyses cattle markets.
Burnett expects world wheat prices will be pressured by a huge U.S. corn crop that will drop corn prices and result in more corn than usual being imported into Canada.
He is somewhat more optimistic for durum prices since durum yields will likely be lower due to the dry conditions in southwestern Saskatchewan and parts of southern Alberta. As well, Mexico has moved from being a durum exporter to a durum importer.
On canola, Burnett worries about how political decisions could influence the price.
“The fundamentals of the canola market are very positive,” says Burnett. “It looks like we’re going to have a smaller crop because of the smaller area we planted and yields probably similar to last year and we see a very strong export demand for canola. That’s positive. On the negative side though, a lot of the export demand came from China and they are still in that threatening tariff phase as well as you still have the potential for U.S. tariffs.”
Burnett is advising producers to price crops into rallies that may occur, at least until the international political outlook is more certain.
