Audio Script:

Hi, I’m Jess Kirkpatrick from CHS Broadbent, and today I’m going to give you some information around what’s been happening in the canola market in recent weeks.

I’m sure you’ve seen that this canola market has really popped in the last fortnight with some continued volatility.

We’ve seen site prices near $800 site at Lakaput and Lake Bolac for example.

So, what’s been happening?

In Canada, we’re continuing to see harvest progress well, however slightly behind where they typically would be.

Some of the yield reports out of various areas a slightly below what was expected, however production is still nearing 19 or 20 million tonnes.

They’re seeing good crush margins in Canada itself, and continued exports out of Canada into China.

But what about on a more local level?

The Australian crop a few months ago was forecasted by the Australian Oilseeds Federation to be 5.5 million tonnes, and recently ABARES just increased this to 6.6 million with some of the trade suggesting it may be nearer to 7 million.

3.8 million tonnes of this crop is located in WA and what’s unique at the moment is the WA canola value is depressed compared to east coast values.

As we continue to see demand out of Europe, it’s important to remember this is slightly slower compared to this time last year, and that’s fed off near by supplies of oilseeds such as sunflowers out of Ukraine.

The other big question this year will be, when does the local grower decide to sell?

We’re seeing growers fairly well undersold compared to this time last year.

So, will the grower sell as we near some of these high 700 numbers? Or will they continue to hold out until harvest with some uncertainty around the spring here and harvest conditions with La Nina?

There is a lot to play out over the coming weeks as we head into windrowing and harvest for our canola crop. So please keep in touch with your local CHS Broadbent merchant and we can give you some up to date information as to what’s happening in the market and the forward contracting opportunities for you.

We hope everything is going well at your place, and here are the prices for today.