Oat exports to Mexico remain strong

The Manitoba Oat Growers Association (MOGA) held its AGM this week.

Executive Director Shawna Mathieson gave a report on oat exports.

"Throughout the year, the Mexican marketing program has produced very good results. Due to the poor oat crop...it has resulted in Australia filling some of that Mexican demand. Exports were quite slow at the beginning of the year. They doubled exports in the third quarter of 2021, shipping almost the same quantity as the previous six months. Canada still has more than 75 per cent of the market for this year and while we don't expect the same numbers that we saw in 2020 in terms of exports, we do believe we'll be the largest exporter still to Mexico and we feel very fortunate that with the relationships we've been able to build in Mexico and confident that that demand will remain strong in 2022, when hopefully we all have a stellar crop."

Mathieson updated producers on the situation with China.

"Unfortunately due to the political situation between Canada and China, efforts to secure Canadian raw oat access into China is still on hold. We've reached out to the federal government to see if its advisable to begin work on this again, but we've told it's not likely to be successful at this time. China is still the largest growing importer of oats in world, so we'll continue to pursue that market, whenever its possible."