weather in canada

Western Canadian Wheat Crop May Fall to Smallest in Five Years

By Christopher Donville and Theophilos Argitis

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Farmers in western Canada may harvest their smallest wheat crop since 2002 because of reduced planted acreage and unfavorable weather, a government survey shows.

Production of all varieties of wheat by farmers in the four western provinces may be 18.7 million metric tons, 16.5 percent less than the 22.4 million tons harvested last year, Statistics Canada said today. The report is based on a survey of 17,300 farmers between July 27 and Aug. 5.

A smaller crop in Canada, the second-largest wheat exporter after the U.S., may affect global inventories and further lift prices, which reached a record yesterday on the Chicago Board of Trade. World stockpiles may fall to 114.8 million tons by the end of the marketing year May 31, the lowest since 1982, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this month.

The outlook for Canadian wheat ``ain't pretty,'' said Larry Weber, president of Weber commodities in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. ``Your primary growing area is Saskatchewan, and that area sucks. We had no rain in July, and now it's raining every day.''

World consumption may exceed production for the seventh time in eight years, the USDA said. Unfavorable weather has harmed crops in several major exporting countries, including Australia, the U.S. and Ukraine. Production in the European Union will fall 38 percent after the crop was damaged by drought followed by heavy rains.

The Canadian Wheat Board, the country's monopoly seller of wheat from western Canada, said this month it expected a wheat crop of 20 million tons.

Farmers in western Canada planted 20.9 million acres of all varieties of wheat this year, down from 22.9 million acres in 2006, according to today's report from Statistics Canada.

Most Canadian wheat is grown in the west of the country. Hard-red spring wheat, used to make breads, is grown mostly from Alberta to Manitoba and in U.S. northern Plains states such as North Dakota and is traded on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.

Farmers from across Canada expect to harvest 20.3 million metric tons of wheat this year, down from 25.3 million metric tons last year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Donville in Vancouver at cjdonville@bloomberg.net ; Theophilos Argitis in Ottawa at targitis@bloomberg.net .