Barley Stocks Tightened Further by Exports; Oats Down Too

Hefty exports have further eroded already tight Canadian barley stocks, while oat stocks remain down sharply from a year earlier despite a deep cutback in domestic use.

A Statistics Canada grain stocks report Tuesday estimated total national barley stockpiles as of Dec. 31, 2021 at 3.146 million tonnes, down 43.6% from the previous year and easily the lowest on record going back to 1980. In fact, Dec. 31 barley stocks were a whopping 36% below the previous low of 4.943 million notched in 2018 and a sharp contrast to the mid- to late 1990s when December barley stocks routinely touched 9 million to 10 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, total oat stocks as of Dec. 31 fell 39.1% year over year to 1.657 million tonnes, also the lowest on record going back to 1980.

Despite the supply tightness caused by last summer’s Prairie drought, StatsCan noted that barley exports rose 6.6% from a year earlier to 1.9 million tonnes, mostly destined for China. In contrast, domestic use—largely for feed—fell 39.1% to 2.7 million tonnes.

Nationwide on-farm barley stocks as of Dec. 31 were down 45.4% to 2.8 million tonnes, while commercial stocks fell 23.3% to 345,500 tonnes.

On-farm barley stocks in Alberta were pegged at 1.44 million tonnes, down almost 1 million from a year earlier. At 871,000 tonnes, on-farm barley stocks in Saskatchewan were down 58.5% from the previous year and on-farm Manitoba stocks dropped 31.8% to 300,000 tonnes.

For oats, Canadian on-farm stocks fell 43.8% to 1.4 million tonnes, and commercial stocks decreased by 2.3% to 297,600 tonnes. Domestic oat disappearance was down by 42.7% from a year earlier to 447,100 tonnes, largely because of lower feed use caused by lower supply, compared with a year earlier, StatsCan said.

Saskatchewan on-farm oat stocks were down 52% from Dec. 31, 2020 to 620,000 tonnes, while Manitoba stocks dropped 58.8% to 210,000 tonnes. Alberta on-farm oats stocks were 29% lower at 310,000 tonnes.