With upward revisions in production, Agriculture Canada has raised its 2023-24 ending stocks forecasts for a number of crops, including canola.
In its final monthly supply-demand update for calendar year 2023 on Friday, the federal department pegged canola ending stocks for the current marketing year at 1.45 million tonnes. That is up 450,000 tonnes from the November estimate, although still below the previous year’s ending stocks of just over 1.5 million.
The increase in ending stocks is due to Statistics Canada’s crop production report earlier this month, which raised this year’s canola crop to 18.32 million tonnes, up about 1 million from the agency’s previous forecast made in September of 17.36 million.
Ag Canada offset some of the larger production estimate by raising the 2023-24 crush estimate by 500,000 tonnes from last month to a new high of 10.5 million – above 9.96 million a year earlier. On the other hand, projected exports held steady from November at 7.7 million tonnes, below the previous year’s 7.95 million.