COVID 19 Impact On The Wheat Market

Apr 09, 2020

Brennan Turner, CEO of FarmLead says the wheat market increased when we saw a very quick spike in demand for major food staples like flour and bread, but its settling back now.

He says on the Hard Red Spring Wheat Market we've seen a pullback at under $7 a bushel. Turner notes there's also a record amount of wheat in the world, and we expect to see acres increase in Western Canada.

"Globally pretty much everyone is expecting a record crop of wheat this year. So the point is that as we start to see some of the weather premiums built in the market you might see a little bit of an inch up in prices and these should not be ignored. So, you know, as we get close to $7 for hard red spring wheat. I think we should be taking advantage of those."

He also says durum producers should definitely be watching what's happening in the market.

According to Turner current spot market prices for durum are trading well above $8 a bushel or close to it in a lot of areas.

"Frankly put we saw a couple of these opportunities in January and November. But really as a whole across Western Canada, we haven't seen these levels basically since August 2017 when there were drought concerns, not only in Southern Saskatchewan but also in North Dakota and Montana."

He's not advocating to sell everything but maybe a truckload or two to just preserve some cash flow at these levels, which for most people are profitable and should never be ignored.

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