Canadian stocks of both corn and soybeans were lower as of March 31, even as production of both crops was higher in 2023.
A Statistics Canada grain stocks report Tuesday showed total nationwide corn stockpiles as of the end of March at 8.267 million tonnes, down almost 9% from a year earlier but still above the March 31, 2022, stocks level of 8.147 million.
National soy stocks came in at 2.046 million tonnes, down 0.9% from March 31, 2023, but still up from 1.888 million two years ago.
Canadian corn output in 2023 amounted to 15.076 million tonnes, up about 3.7% on the year, while soybean production increased 6.6% to 6.981 million.
Today’s report implies corn usage between December 2023 and March 2024 at 3.03 million tonnes, up from 2.78 million during the same period a year earlier. For soybeans, December-March usage of 1.68 million tonnes was above 1.42 million the previous year.
StatsCan also noted that Canadian imports of corn were up 62.4% to 1.8 million tonnes as of March 31, 2024, compared with the same date in 2023, “likely because of increased demand for corn for grain as animal feed in Western Canada.”
National on-farm stocks of corn as of March 31 decreased 6.9% to 5.3 million tonnes, while commercial stocks fell 12.3% to 2.96 million tonnes compared with the same date in 2023.
Both on-farm stocks (-0.9% to 1.2 million tonnes) and commercial stocks (-0.9% to 893 000 tonnes) of soybeans decreased compared with the same period one year earlier.
In the largest production province of Ontario, on-farm corn stocks as of March 31 were reported at 2.695 million tonnes, down from 3.2 million a year earlier and the lowest since March 2012 at 2.5 million. At 515,000 tonnes, on-farm soybean stocks in the province were down from 619,000 on March 31 2023 and the tightest since March 2017 at 415,000.
In Manitoba, on-farm stocks of corn hit 800,000 tonnes, up from 636,000 last year and a new high. On-farm soy stocks fell to 257,000 tonnes from 300,000 a year ago but were still up from 120,000 on March 31, 2022.
