The area planted to both crops is expected to increase compared to a year earlier, but Agriculture Canada has soybean acres rising more than corn in 2022.
In its first supply-demand estimates for the upcoming 2022-23 marketing year on Friday, Ag Canada pegged new-crop nationwide corn area at 3.5 million acres, up a minor 0.5% on the year. On the other hand, soybean area in 2022 is seen climbing 7% to 5.68 million acres, potentially the highest since 5.71 million acres were seeded in 2019.
High prices should help boost soybean acres, Ag Canada said, suggesting that planted area this year might have been even higher if not for concerns over dry soil conditions in portions of Western Canada. Despite the expected small increase in 2022 corn acres, planted area would still be 2% lower than the previous five-year average.
With the uptick in seeded area and assuming five-year average yields, new-crop national soybean production is forecast by Ag Canada at 6.6 million tonnes, versus 6.3 million in 2021-22 and 6.4 million in 2020-21. Exports are projected to increase by 7% to 4.5 million tonnes, with the domestic crush forecast up slightly to 1.9 million tonnes compared to last year.