(Richardson International video screengrab via YouTube)

Lethbridge canola crusher workers reject contract offer

UFCW to seek mediation

Unionized workers at Richardson International’s oilseed crush plant at Lethbridge, Alta. plan to seek mediation after voting to reject the company’s contract offer. United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401, which represents about 140 workers at the Lethbridge plant, said Monday its members had voted 79 per cent to reject the offer. The workers’ […] Read more


ICE March 2022 canola (candlesticks) with November 2022 canola (yellow line, left column). (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Holiday canola trading is anyone’s guess

MarketsFarm — The canola trading week starting Tuesday (Dec. 28) will be a short one and Keith Ferley of RBC Dominion Securities said anything can happen. “I don’t know if we’re going to see that with computer trading. Volumes usually lighten up, but nothing is normal in this COVID world,” he cautioned. Canadian markets, including […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

AAFC adjusts grain, oilseed balance sheets slightly

MarketsFarm –– Updated supply and demand tables from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), released late Friday, included only minor adjustments to balance sheets for the country’s major crops. The department’s projected ending stocks for wheat and canola were left unchanged from the previous month. Factoring in the official estimates from Statistics Canada, released Dec. 3, […] Read more



A wheat crop in 2018. Spring wheat production fell in 2021, but not nearly as much as in other difficult growing years.

2021 was a bad crop year, but not 2002 bad

Reading Time: < 1 minute It was the worst year in a generation but production in Alberta was still considerably better than 2002. For example, spring wheat production this year fell to 5.71 million tonnes (according to the latest StatCan estimates). But that’s more than double the 2.59 million tonnes in 2002. On a per-seeded-acre basis, it was 35.9 bushels per […] Read more


A sunflower crop north of St. Adolphe, Man. on Sept. 19, 2021. (Dave Bedard photo)

USDA expects canola, sunflowers elsewhere to offset Canada’s shortfalls

MarketsFarm –– Good canola and rapeseed crops in Australia and a number of other parts of the world along with large world sunflower seed production should help offset Canada’s smaller-than-expected production somewhat, according to the December oil crops outlook from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Total global canola/rapeseed production is now forecast by USDA at […] Read more

ICE March 2022 canola (candlesticks) with Bollinger bands (20,2). (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Canola futures still well supported

MarketsFarm — The ICE Futures canola market was showing signs of running into resistance to the upside during the week ended Wednesday, as speculators booked profits on some of their large long positions. The general uptrend, however, remains intact despite the minor correction. While bouts of consolidation were not unexpected, “the trends are still upward […] Read more


Dominic Barton. (Video screengrab from McKinsey.com)

Ambassador to China to leave post after helping free detainees

Canola, 5G access, other issues remain

Ottawa | Reuters –– Canada’s ambassador to China said on Monday he would soon leave his post after a two-year assignment where he helped secure the freedom of two Canadian detainees despite icy relations between Beijing and Ottawa. Dominic Barton’s departure, which will take effect Dec. 31, leaves a crucial diplomatic post open at a […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Canola declines, durum drops in new StatsCan estimates

Soybean, oats estimates raised

MarketsFarm — There were very few surprises in Statistics Canada’s latest principal field crop production estimates released Friday — the first in 2021-22 to use a survey of producers. Nevertheless, they quantified just how severe last summer’s drought was in Western Canada. Canola production for the 2021-22 marketing year was estimated to be 12.595 million […] Read more