Why it matters: Large supplies will aide export and domestic usage numbers but also cut into prices.

The 7.23 million tonnes delivered were the second largest for the month on record. Total wheat deliveries were up 14.0 per cent from September 2024, at 4.08 million tonnes, barley was up 86.1 per cent at 828,043 tonnes and oats were 9.1 per cent higher on the year at 356,400 tonnes.

While the grains were higher, canola deliveries were down 3.4 per cent from September 2024 at 1.92 million tonnes.

The major grains include wheat (excluding durum), durum wheat, oats, barley, rye, flaxseed and canola.

Producer deliveries capture grain that is destined for a primary elevator, feed mill, crushing plant or flour mill. This includes grain elevators that hold grain before it is exported, as well as shipments to markets in the United States that are not licensed by the Canadian Grain Commission.

StatCan warned that “the imposition of tariffs by the United States may have an impact on producer deliveries of major grains in the coming months,” adding that in 2024 Canada exported a total of 4.5 million tonnes of wheat (excluding durum), durum wheat, oats, barley, rye, flaxseed and canola to the U.S.

“Statistics Canada will continue to monitor developments on tariffs and the impact on producer deliveries,” said the government agency.

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StatCan published its major grain deliveries report for August 2025 on Sept. 25. In total, 3.588 million tonnes were delivered compared to 4.329 million in August 2024. The agency noted that tariffs placed on Canadian goods headed to the United States may have an impact on deliveries.

All wheat deliveries in August totaled 2.259 million tonnes compared to 2.321 million one year earlier. For durum, 279,584 tonnes were delivered last month, up from 244,560 tonnes in August 2024.

Canola deliveries fell below one million tonnes for the first time since August 2023, dropping to their lowest monthly total since May 2022. StatCan reported 621,555 tonnes of the oilseed were delivered in August, compared to 1.32 million tonnes in August of last year.

August barley deliveries were 379,238 tonnes, slightly more than the 375,071 tonnes delivered in August 2024. For oats, 278,097 tonnes were delivered, up from 267,271 tonnes one year earlier. Rye deliveries were up from 29,375 tonnes in August 2024 to 38,098 last month. Flaxseed deliveries were down from 15,127 tonnes in August 2024 to 11,953 tonnes a year later.

Saskatchewan provided 36.6 per cent of all deliveries, followed by Manitoba with 22.2 per cent and Alberta at 20.4 per cent.

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Total wheat deliveries of more than 3.24 million tonnes improved 34.3 per cent, while durum jumped more than 141 per cent at almost 542,000 tonnes.

Oats were also significantly higher, rising 66.3 per cent at almost 301,150 tonnes.

Canola was the second largest delivery, with 1.92 million tonnes of the oilseed delivered to commercial positions in April, up 31.9 per cent from a year ago.

At just short of 355,600 tonnes, barley incurred the only decline, down 7.2 per cent from last April.

(Source: Producer deliveries of major grains, Statistics Canada)

Grain          Apr2024     Apr2025     Up/Down

All Grains    4,468,523   5,857,662    +31.09%

Total Wheat   2,414,614   3,243,354    +34.32%

Durum Only      224,814     541,977   +141.08%

Oats            181,099     301,149    +66.29%

Barley          383,188     355,580     -7.20%

Rye              17,254      13,744    -20.34%

Flax             20,020      29,332    +45.60%

Canola        1,870,670   1,462,404    -21.82%

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Canpulse, Global Grain Canada and their parent company Globeways Canada went into receivership last Nov. 19, following the Oct. 31 suspension of their Canadian Grain Commission licenses.

Farmers subsequently made claims through the CGC’s Safeguards for Grain Farmers program, which turned up 40 eligible claims involving Canpulse, worth over $3 million, and 13 such claims on Global Grain, worth over $700,000, the commission said Tuesday.

The eligible claims were all “fully covered” by the security already posted by Mississauga-based Globeways’ two subsidiaries, the CGC said. Court approval for the sale of the two companies’ inventory was issued Jan. 4.

Under the program, CGC-licensed grain companies must tender security with the CGC to cover outstanding grain liabilities, by means such as a bond, letter of credit, letter of guarantee or payables insurance.

If a licensed company misses its payment obligations, the commission then uses the company’s posted security to compensate eligible producers.

In cases where a CGC licensee “fails to meet its obligations,” producers may seek compensation within 90 days from the date of their grain delivery or within 30 days from the date a cash purchase ticket or cheque was issued to them, whichever time period is shorter.

Global Grain, based at Plum Coulee, Man., mainly processes beans and cranberries at its plant while Canpulse Foods’ plant at Kindersley, Sask. handled mainly lentils, peas and canary seed.

Court approval was granted Feb. 9 for the sale of the Canpulse plant at Kindersley to Purely Canada, a Regina plant-based protein processor and subsidiary of processor Above Food Corp., which makes the Above Meat brand of meat alternatives.

Purely Canada, part of Above Food since October last year, announced Feb. 12 it had closed its deal for the Kindersley plant, which has processing capacity for up to 100,000 tonnes of grains and ingredients.

Globeways’ receiver, BDO Canada, filed a report in Ontario’s Superior Court on Feb. 23 seeking approval for the sale of the Global Grain plant at Plum Coulee to a Manitoba arm of pulse and specialty crop trader ETG Commodities.

Superior Court Justice Markus Koehnen approved the sale Tuesday to Mississauga-based ETG — which last year picked up four Saskatchewan processing facilities formerly owned by now-defunct pulse export firm ILTA Grain.

The sale of the Globeways head office site in Mississauga, meanwhile, was approved in December and closed later that month. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Spot feed barley bids in the Lethbridge, Alta. area have held in the $270-$275 per tonne range through November, said Jim Beusekom of Market Place Commodities in the key feedlot alley city.

Meanwhile, prices for delivery in the late winter through the spring have strengthened into the $275-$290 area.

“The end user is trying to get some coverage for that time period,” Beusekom said. Solid export demand continues to cut into supplies, and domestic feeders are paying up to secure deliveries.

“The ones who want to use barley no matter what, are going out there and paying what they have to pay so they can make sure they have the supply,” he said.

While they may be paying up for deferred delivery, feeders are generally well covered for the time being.

Beusekom noted feed wheat was trading at a $5-$10 per tonne discount to barley for both spot delivery and into the spring. While he had yet to notice a major switch, “the option is there for feeders to cut back their barley usage and include some wheat in their ration.”

Corn is currently trading at around $285 per tonne into Lethbridge, with spring prices topping $300. Feedlots will switch to corn if barley prices get out of hand, “but at this point (corn) is still too much money,” Beusekom said.

Rising canola and pulse prices have given farmers many options for cash flow, limiting their willingness to sell feed grains to some extent.

While prices are firm for now, “the market will turn when people least expect it,” Beusekom said, noting much of the general strength in the market was linked to Chinese demand for commodities.

“They’re on and they’re off. Right now they’re on, but what happens when they’re off?”

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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With consumers still limiting their trips outdoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said it would invest more to expand the pickup and delivery operation while aiming to reduce costs.

The move is part of a larger trend among Canadian retailers. Earlier this week, Walmart Canada said it plans to spend $3.5 billion over the next five years to strengthen its e-commerce business.

A 280 per cent surge in e-commerce sales lifted Loblaw’s revenue about 7.4 per cent to $11.96 billion in the second quarter ended June 13. That beat analysts’ estimates of $11.87 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv .

Adjusted net earnings fell nearly 29 per cent to $266 million, or 74 cents per share, due to employee bonuses. Analysts had expected a profit of 71 cents per share.

The company’s food retail same-stores sales rose 10 per cent in the quarter.

— Reporting for Reuters by Uday Sampath in Bangalore.

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“(The pandemic) has re-emphasized the need to get access to some of the technology that exists in other sectors and are not easily accessible in agri-food systems,” said Rozita Dara, an associate professor at the University of Guelph’s School of Computer Science.

Her comments came during a digital conference organized by the university’s Arrell Food Institute that asked various experts: What information will we need, and what will a post-lockdown life look like?

In the agri-food sector, Dara sees resulting growth in machine data, platforms to manage data, and automation.

“These technologies, what I expect to see post-COVID is a world with a lot more digital technology in agri-food systems for food production, distribution, safety, traceability,” she said.

A simple example she provided was in food processing plants: COVID-19 has driven the need for more “digital paperwork” to limit hand-to-hand contact, and expects measures such as this to continue to gain prominence.

She also predicts more e-commerce tools being made available to farmers, particularly as small-scale operations look for new ways of selling product locally.

Of these sorts of technologies, many already exist and are being piloted around the world.

“One of the culture changes that I will see in digital agriculture is employing these technologies in a real environment to test them at a large scale, and also engage the users who are using those tools and will be making decisions with these tools,” she said, adding later that the “opportunities are enormous.”

Changing behaviours

Dara was joined by Alfons Weersink, a professor in the university’s food, agriculture and resource economics (FARE) department.

He echoed colleagues who participated in a previous digital conference in saying the food system bent but did not break as a result of the pandemic.

“Initially, why did it bend? Because of the sudden change in the nature of demand, away from hospitality to the retail sector, and that meant that the whole system had to change,” he said. “In terms of what it might mean as we move forward, I think that this trend of digitization is going to be enhanced because of this.”

Farmers will look for new ways to save on labour, he added.

“They have for years, it’s not a new trend, but I think this is going to accelerate that trend, to robotic milkers, to automatic pickers of whatever crop or output it may be,” he said.

Calling the processing sector the “bottleneck” of the food system during the pandemic, Weersink suggested processors will also look to enhance technologies to reduce labour needs.

“If they have labour issues, in this case the health of the labour, then (the sector) shuts down and we have implications at the farm level in terms of lower prices and then potential shortages as we move forward.”

Weesink is also predicting some changes in consumer behaviour, saying food may skip the step of stopping at grocery stores and start moving directly from warehouses to household doorsteps. At the same time, people will demand more traceability and independence.

“I think there might be a trend to more local and more self-reliance, so that’s going to change the production system, there is going to be demand for that,” he said, adding there could be a rise in “ghost kitchens” — food establishments that don’t offer any dine-in services but are built to specialize in delivery or pick-up options.

Simon Somogyi, the Arrell Chair in the Business of Food, said the pandemic allowed the public to really see how the grocery system works, particularly the “just-in-time” supply chain, in which grocers use data about demand to ensure their supply stocks meet that demand.

“The just-in-time system was blamed by some commentators at the time, but I think that’s wrong. I think it’s far more efficient,” he said.

Amy Greer, an associate professor at the Ontario Veterinary College, said that while some businesses may have had a pandemic preparedness plan, as a whole, society may have underestimated the potential for emerging infectious diseases.

“What this has done to us is when we have an emerging infectious disease that is highly transmissible and no known vaccine, our only candidate for reducing transmission is changing our behaviour very quickly or very dramatically,” she said.

“Moving forward, how do we protect workers and people who are essential to the food we eat and require for our families and communities and be prepared to put that on the table to keep them safe as a way to protect the food chain?”

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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Companies that turn potatoes into french fries, wedges and hash browns are slowing down, because there isn’t enough space to store all the frozen product.

In Alberta and Manitoba, processors have been short potatoes because of poor harvest conditions last year — with more than 20,000 acres “being abandoned in farmers’ fields,” according to the United Potato Growers of Canada.

That had led to french fry processors in Western Canada importing potatoes from the U.S., but that’s now ceased, said the general manager of that organization.

“Customers will understand they have enough potatoes in their own storages now to get to the end of their marketing season,” Kevin MacIsaac said Tuesday.

But while french fry sales have stagnated, potato chip sales are up.

“Chip sales have been great,” he said. “Fresh potato sales were really good at the start. They’ve levelled off now as people have shopped and gotten what they need.

“We probably will expect another little bump in fresh sales at the end of Easter weekend.”

And people still have a way to get restaurant fries.

“We’re fortunate in Canada that our drive-thrus are still open,” said MacIsaac. “In Europe, some of our quick service restaurants like McDonald’s, they’ve closed the whole restaurant. That’s been real difficult for them to have no sales out of that building.”

Delivery services such as Skip the Dishes and DoorDash are also maintaining some french fry sales to restaurants, he said.

Meanwhile, his organization is trying to figure out the amount of potatoes in storage so it can forecast how much production will be needed this coming year.

“Some became unexpectedly available on the marketplace, so we’ve got to calculate those figures first from each province and figure out where that comes in.”

— Alexis Kienlen reports for Alberta Farmer from Edmonton.

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Corn futures followed wheat higher but soybean futures fell, with the benchmark January contract hitting its lowest level in more than two months.

Chicago Board of Trade December wheat settled up 15-3/4 cents at $5.31 a bushel after reaching $5.32-1/2, its highest price since Oct. 21 (all figures US$).

CBOT December corn ended up 1-3/4 cents at $3.70-1/2 a bushel while January soybeans finished down 4-1/2 cents at $8.92-1/2 a bushel after dipping to $8.92, the contract’s lowest level since Sept. 12.

Wheat futures rose on a mix of fund-driven short covering and bullish fundamentals including rising cash values for U.S. and Russian supplies, wet weather in Europe and fears of a decline in U.S. acreage.

“It started with short covering. But the cash market in (U.S.) soft wheat is on fire,” said Roy Huckabay with Linn + Associates, a Chicago brokerage.

Underscoring the strength in the domestic cash market, traders noted that zero contracts of wheat were registered for delivery against CBOT futures ahead of first notice day for December deliveries on Friday.

The absence of delivery registrations typically suggests that commercial grain handlers see the cash market as a better sale than delivering against futures.

Analysts also noted weather issues including dry conditions in Russia and excessive moisture elsewhere.

“I think you’ve got issues in Europe… with wet conditions preventing plantings,” Huckabay said. Heavy rain is expected to reduce winter cereal sowings in parts of Western Europe, the European Union’s crop monitoring unit, MARS, said on Monday.

After the CBOT close, the U.S. Department of Agriculture rated 52 per cent of the U.S. winter wheat crop in good to excellent condition, unchanged from a week earlier. Analysts surveyed by Reuters on average had expected a decline of one percentage point.

Russian wheat prices recorded a second consecutive weekly rise last week amid higher export demand and lower domestic supply caused by concerns about the 2020 crop.

Traders were monitoring a strike at Canada’s largest railroad, Canadian National Railway, which entered its seventh day. An association of Canadian exporters declared an event of delay, allowing members to avoid contract penalties due to circumstances outside their control.

CBOT soybean futures fell as uncertainty about U.S.-China trade talks and improving South American crop weather overshadowed strong weekly U.S. export inspections.

USDA reported export inspections of U.S. soybeans in the latest week at 1,942,761 tonnes, the highest weekly total in two years.

U.S. trade talks with China, a key market for U.S. agricultural goods, especially soybeans, remained in focus.

China and the United States are “moving closer to agreeing” on a “phase one” trade deal, the Global Times, a tabloid run by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, reported on Sunday. But the report noted that Washington and Beijing had not agreed on specifics or size of tariff rollbacks on Chinese goods.

“I don’t think the negotiations on the trade deal are going very well,” Huckabay said.

The delayed U.S. harvest was winding down. USDA late Monday reported harvest progress at 94 per cent for soybeans and 84 per cent for corn, lagging the respective five-year averages of 97 and 96 per cent.

— Reporting for Reuters by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.

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The world’s largest soybean importer struck deals from Aug. 9 to 15 to buy 9,589 tonnes for delivery in the current marketing year and 66,000 tonnes, approximately one cargo, for the next year, the data showed.

China’s commerce ministry said on Aug. 5 that Chinese companies stopped buying U.S. farm products in the latest escalation of the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

“You do have some buying going on,” said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for INTL FCStone. “It’s a little bit of a surprise.”

China last year imposed retaliatory tariffs that remain in place on imports of U.S. farm products including soybeans and pork. The duties have slashed exports of U.S. crops and prompted the Trump administration to compensate American farmers for losses over two years with as much as $28 billion.

China said on Thursday it hopes the United States will stop a plan to impose new tariffs, adding that any new duties would lead to a further escalation.

China has largely turned to South America for soybeans since the trade war began last year. U.S. soybean sales to China in 2018 dropped 74 per cent from the previous year.

“Compared to what they used to buy, they essentially have halted — but some have gotten through,” Suderman said.

The sales of 9,589 tonnes for delivery in the current marketing year will probably be rolled ahead to be delivered in the next year, which begins on Sept. 1, said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based broker U.S. Commodities.

The cargo sold for delivery in the next marketing year could have been in the works before Beijing said Chinese companies would suspend purchases of U.S. farm goods, said Terry Reilly, senior commodity analyst for Futures International.

“The government may have just given the green light to say, ‘Let this one go through,'” Reilly said.

“One cargo is not going to change the fact that they’re not buying millions of tons of soybeans.”

— Tom Polansek reports on agriculture and ag commodities for Reuters from Chicago.

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