“This direct import of durum wheat has enriched the structure of China’s imported wheat varieties, facilitated the extension of COFCO’s products upstream and further improved COFCO’s… full industry chain model,” it said in a statement.

COFCO said the durum wheat was purchased by COFCO International and will be transferred to COFCO Haijia (Xiamen) Flour Co. Ltd. for processing.

China has already imported almost two million metric tonnes of durum wheat from Canada this year, according to Chinese customs data.

That does not match Canadian government data, however, which shows China bought no Canadian durum during the past year through September, the most recent month for which data is available.

Chinese purchases of other types of Canadian wheat were larger year-on-year during the 2022-23 crop marketing year, which ended July 31, the Canadian data showed.

The discrepancy is likely due to China’s customs agency classifying wheat differently, said Chuck Penner, a Canadian analyst at LeftField Commodity Research.

READ MORE: High pasta prices set to boil over as Canada’s wheat withers

He said Canada does not have enough durum to sell such a large volume during the year to Chinese buyers and still supply regular importers in the U.S., north Africa and Europe.

Canada accounts for around half of the global trade of durum, a type of hard wheat used to make pasta.

China has imported record volumes of wheat this year, with rain damage to its crop and worries over dry weather in exporting nations fuelling Beijing’s appetite to buy while prices are low.

The world’s largest wheat consumer has imported 10.83 million tonnes of wheat in the first 10 months of this year, a 37.7 per cent surge from a year ago, customs data showed.

— Reporting for Reuters by Mei Mei Chu; additional reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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Canada imported 91,100 tonnes of corn from the U.S. during the week ended Nov. 2, taking the marketing-year-to-date total to 221,700 tonnes, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture data. That’s nearly five times what moved during the same period the previous year.

An additional 576,200 tonnes of previously reported business are still outstanding, which compares with 102,600 tonnes at the same time in 2022.

Total Canadian corn imports are forecast to hit three million tonnes in 2023-24, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada data. That would be up from the 2.1 million tonnes imported the previous year, but still well below the 6.1 million tonnes brought up during the 2021-22 drought year.

While more U.S. corn is being imported, Canada’s own feed grain exports are down on the year. Canada exported 471,000 tonnes of barley through the first 13 weeks of the 2023-24 crop year, according to Canadian Grain Commission data. That compares with 756,300 tonnes at the same point the previous year.

Monthly Statistics Canada data through September shows that while China remained the largest customer, both malt and feed barley movement was down sharply on the year. Total Canadian malt barley exports through two months, at about 75,000 tonnes, compared with over 200,000 at the same point the previous year. Feed barley exports, of only 45,000 tonnes, were only about a quarter of what moved in August and September 2022.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin is an associate editor/analyst with MarketsFarm in Winnipeg.

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France has been among the countries worst affected by an unprecedented global spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza that has disrupted supply of poultry and eggs and sent prices rocketing in many parts of the world in the past years.

To fight the spread of the disease it started vaccinating 64 million ducks early this month, making it the first poultry exporter to do so and raising hope among foie gras producers that it would put an end to the crisis.

Producer group Cifog forecast foie gras output will rise 20 per cent in 2023 to 9,855 metric tonnes after a drop of 35 per cent in 2022, but still 26 per cent below the average of the five previous years and half the volume produced 10 years earlier.

Higher production costs, including part of vaccination, will lead to another rise in foie gras prices, pegged at five per cent this year, it said.

On the export front, France’s bird flu vaccination campaign prompted several countries to impose a ban on French poultry imports, including Japan, France’s main foie gras export market outside Europe with a share of 10 per cent in value.

Canada and the U.S. also imposed bans, Cifog added.

Although more and more governments have been looking at vaccination as a way to contain the virus, most of the world’s biggest poultry producers have resisted vaccination due to concerns it could mask the spread of bird flu and prompt trade bans.

— Sybille de La Hamaide is a Reuters commodities correspondent in Paris.

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While nearby demand is keeping the domestic market reasonably steady, more corn will likely start making its way north over the next month.

Feed barley is currently trading in the $320-$330 per tonne area in the Lethbridge area, according to an update from grain brokerage Agfinity. That compares with levels closer to $400 per tonne back in August before the harvest, but still well above bids at the same time a year ago around $240-$250 per tonne.

“Feed barley prices in Western Canada have now dropped far enough to discourage more imports of U.S. corn and should support more domestic feeding of barley,” Leftfield Commodity Research said in a report compiled for the Manitoba Crop Alliance.

The U.S. corn harvest was nearing the halfway mark in the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture crop report. Meanwhile, U.S. export data shows 741,400 tonnes of U.S. corn sales to Canada already on the books for movement during the current marketing year, which compares with only 25,200 tonnes of outstanding business at the same time the previous year. Canada has imported 45,800 tonnes of U.S. corn during the marking year that began Sept. 1, which compares with 24,700 tonnes at the same time in 2022.

Canada’s barley production was down in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to Statistics Canada data, although better-than-expected provincial yield reports indicate that the actual crop may end up above the 7.8 million tonnes currently forecast by StatCan.

Canada has exported 234,500 tonnes of barley through the first 10 weeks of the 2023-24 marketing year, roughly half of what moved during the same time the previous year.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin is an associate editor/analyst with MarketsFarm in Winnipeg.

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At the time, it hoped to extend a contract with Canadian supplier Canpotex beyond the end of September.

India is a leading fertilizer importer to support its vast agriculture sector, which employs about half of its 1.4 billion people and accounts for nearly 15 per cent of its economy.

Canada is a key supplier of potash to India. Indian companies last year signed a memorandum of understanding with Canpotex to buy up to 1.5 million tonnes of potash a year for three years, starting from 2023.

In April, Canpotex said it had agreed on a supply contract with Indian Potash for shipments through Sept. 30.

“We don’t expect any impact on our potash imports from Canada. Canpotex’s deals with Indian companies are commercial contracts. So far, it is a business as usual for us,” said Indian Potash Ltd. managing director P.S. Gahlaut.

“[The] Canadians have already signalled their willingness to extend the contract regardless of political upheavals.”

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Canpotex.

Ties between India and Canada deteriorated sharply after New Delhi and Ottawa each expelled one of the other’s diplomats in a dispute over the June murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia.

India depends entirely on imports to meet its annual need for about four million tonnes of muriate of potash (MOP), the government said in a statement last year. India also buys the nutrient from Belarus, Russia, Israel and Jordan.

Indian companies imported about 550,000 tonnes of potash between April and September this year, about the same as last year in the same period, Gahlaut said.

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced the temporary ban Tuesday, following France’s move to require mandatory vaccination against highly pathogenic avian flu (HPAI) in ducks raised for meat production starting this month.

CFIA said it has been in “close contact” with French and European Union officials on the matter since June, and received a presentation in July from France on that country’s HPAI vaccination plan.

France’s plan was announced after the European Union passed legislation in March on use of vaccination to mitigate animal disease outbreaks.

The French plan requires vaccinations of ducks for meat production. Vaccination of breeder ducks is permitted, but only for birds that will not be exported.

However, CFIA said, it’s not yet clear whether meat from vaccinated ducks will be eligible for export to other countries — nor how France plans to identify, trace and control vaccinated breeding stock.

CFIA said it’s “currently conducting” its risk assessment, and until that evaluation is complete, the suspension will be in effect.

The agency’s suspension on imports from France applies to live birds and hatching eggs; all unprocessed avian and poultry products and byproducts, including “edible or inedible” raw poultry meat, eggs, feathers, poultry manure and litter; laboratory material containing poultry products or byproducts; and any raw or unprocessed pet food containing poultry products or byproducts.

Cooked and canned or hermetically sealed, commercially sterile meat products are still eligible for import, CFIA said.

France, like Canada, the U.S. and many other countries, has seen its poultry industry hard hit by outbreaks of HPAI in the past couple of years.

CFIA reports that as of Sept. 21, Canada’s run of HPAI outbreaks since December 2021 has impacted an estimated 7.678 million domestic birds.

A lull in cases since May this year ended in September, as CFIA detected five outbreaks during the month including four premises in Alberta and one in southwestern Saskatchewan.

READ MORE: France stacks the deck against bird flu but risks issues

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Serice (APHIS) on Friday also announced such a ban, also taking effect Oct. 1.

APHIS’ ban applies on imports of poultry from France, as well as live ducks, duck eggs, and “unmitigated/untreated” duck products from the APHIS-recognized European Poultry Trade Region (EPTR) as well as Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Great Britain is not included in the EPTR ban.

The U.S. doesn’t allow poultry from countries affected with HPAI “or from flocks that have been vaccinated by HPAI,” APHIS said in a release Friday.

Vaccination of poultry against HPAI “may mask HPAI virus circulating in poultry,” APHIS said, and vaccinated birds “may not show signs of infection, which could lead to the export of infected live animals or virus-contaminated products to the United States.”

Furthermore, APHIS said, EU member states and other non-EU countries in Europe have open access to the European common market for trade in avian commodities.

“With the way poultry moves under the EPTR, we currently cannot be assured countries trading in the European common market can reliably certify that exports do not originate from European countries that vaccinate poultry for HPAI,” APHIS said.

“Accordingly, these restrictions address the risk of open trade within Europe while accounting for the higher risk with imports from France.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“They’ve dropped significantly in the past three to four weeks as harvest pressure kicked off,” he said, citing feed barley going into feedlot alley in Lethbridge at $335 per tonne delivered.

Following a growing season that saw dry conditions adversely affect Prairie crops, the more seasonable weather in July and August helped to soften the impact.

“Most farmers were pleasantly surprised their yields were better than expected,” Peterson said, noting some growers were selling off of the combine — but more recently that has changed.

“It seems like the farmer participation is starting to dry up across the Prairies. Most cereals are done… for the most part,” he continued, adding the growers were now focusing on their canola and not thinking about selling their cereals.

As for corn, its price has begun to narrow when compared to barley. That, Peterson suggested, could lead the feed grain market to become rangebound, with prices shifting a few dollars back and forth.

However, one element continuing to counter the decline in feed prices was logistics, he said. The ongoing shortage of trucks and drivers has made it difficult to move product.

“That’s putting a bottom on prices,” Peterson said.

Feed barley prices across Western Canada have been steady to lower, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire. As of Wednesday, barley lost 23 cents per bushel in Manitoba with prices at $5.25-$5.82 delivered, while those in Alberta were down 22 cents at $5.75-$7.62/bu. In Saskatchewan, prices were steady at $5.50-$5.80/bu.

Feed wheat prices were also steady to lower but they didn’t slip as much as barley. Those in Manitoba shed eight cents at $8.46/bu., and in Alberta they were down 14 cents at $7.71-$9.93/bu. In Saskatchewan prices held at $8-$9.10/bu.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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“Your guess is as good as mine,” Marcos Mosnaim of Export Packers said as to what could happen, adding “Canada has to be careful. I don’t know what India will do.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated Sept. 18 there is credible evidence collected by Canadian intelligence services pointing to the India government allegedly having a role in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Killed outside of a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C. on June 18, Nijjar was a Canadian citizen and also a Sikh separatist in support of a Khalistani state independent from India.

The Indian government, which in 2020 had deemed Nijjar to be a terrorist, stopped issuing visas in Canada soon after Trudeau’s statement last week. According to members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, however, Indian diplomats did not deny Trudeau’s claim when speaking privately about it.

By the end of July, the Canadian Grain Commission and Statistics Canada recorded exports of lentils to India for 2022-23 were 661,904 tonnes by bulk vessel and by container. That made India the largest of Canada’s lentil customers.

Mosnaim was attending the Pulse and Special Crops Convention, which runs Tuesday to Thursday in Calgary and is organized by the Canadian Pulse and Special Crops Trade Association, with buyers from India attending.

Traders might be able to suggest the fate of Canada’s lentil exports to India in the coming days, he said.

The Reuters news service on Tuesday quoted an unnamed senior Indian government official as saying India has no plans to restrict imports and Delhi has not instructed importers to refrain from purchases.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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“We’re getting some better-than-expected yields (in central Alberta), so there is some harvest pressure with guys needing to move grain for bin space,” said grain trader Jay Janzen of CorNine Commodities in Lacombe, Alta.

“It seems like (the market) will grind sideways for awhile, and then once the corn hits the market in November… I imagine it will limit the upside on things,” Janzen added.

He noted while farmers are not excited about selling at current prices, they likely won’t have much choice going forward.

Janzen estimated about three million tonnes of corn would be coming up from the U.S. during the marketing year, making up about a third of Canada’s feed demand and offsetting any losses in Canadian production.

Canada grew 7.8 million tonnes of barley in 2023, according to the latest Statistics Canada estimate. That was down by 100,000 tonnes from the August forecast and well below the nearly 10 million tonnes grown the previous year.

Meanwhile, export data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that there is already about 750,000 tonnes of U.S. corn sales to Canada on the books for movement during the 2023-24 marketing year — well above the 37,800 tonnes at the same time a year ago.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin is an associate editor/analyst with MarketsFarm in Winnipeg.

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Romania is among five eastern European Union countries along with Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia that saw a surge of Ukrainian grain imports after Russia invaded Ukraine. This distorted local markets and prompted farmer protests, leading the EU to approve curbs on Ukrainian grain imports — while still allowing grain transiting elsewhere — until Sept. 15.

Poland, Slovakia and Hungary announced their own unilateral bans on Friday, prompting Ukraine to file a complaint against the three states at the World Trade Organization.

Ukraine has proposed to the European Commission, the EU executive, and neighbouring countries an export control plan for four groups of crops — wheat, maize, sunflower and rapeseed — to protect local markets.

On Tuesday, it approved the introduction of export licences for a number of agricultural products for export to the five eastern EU states.

“Export licenses for Ukrainian companies will become operational in 30 days,” Romania’s Barbu said. “During this time, Romania will also create a clear import-licensing procedure for Romanian farmers and processors.”

Barbu added: “I am confident that this mechanism proposed by the European Commission, taken on board by Ukraine and negotiated by us in farmers’ interest, will fully function.”

Ukraine is one of the world’s biggest grain exporters and since Russia’s invasion last year, the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta has become Kyiv’s largest alternative export route, with grains arriving by road, rail or barge across the Danube.

Barbu also said Romania would only issue import licences to Romanian farmers and food processors who need to replenish stocks, not intermediaries, and that food safety inspections would be conducted on all imports.

— Reporting for Reuters by Luiza Ilie.

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