Dry summer seen curbing Canada wheat, canola crops

Canada is on track to produce less wheat and slightly less canola than traders had estimated after a dry spring and summer curbed production, according to the national statistics agency's first crop output report of the year. Statistics Canada on Friday pegged the all-wheat crop at 24.63 million tonnes, the smallest in five years and down 16 percent from last year. It also missed the average trade expectation of 25.6 million tonnes.
Canola production looked set to reach 13.34 million tonnes, the lowest since 2010 and down 14 percent from 2014. The estimate narrowly missed the average trade guess of 13.6 million tonnes. Canada is one of the world's biggest wheat exporters and the biggest shipper of canola, a cousin of rapeseed used largely to produce vegetable oil. Farmers replanted many canola fields in Manitoba after damaging May frosts, while hot, dry conditions in Saskatchewan and Alberta stunted growth of canola, durum and spring wheat.