Bullish Taint in Lentil Report

PANAMA - May 6/16 - SNS -- On the surface, Canada's lentil stocks in all positions report for March 31 is amazingly bullish, pointing to a severe shortage of product until the harvest is complete.

Statistics Canada said there were only 416,000 metric tons (MT) of lentils on hand. This compares to 1.16 million last year and the previous five-year average of 818,000 MT of lentil. It is also the smallest inventory reported by farmers and the trade since 2010.

The biggest change was in the quantity of lentils reported on farms. That plunged from 1.026 million MT last year to just 288,000 MT. Not surprisingly, most on-farm stocks are located in Saskatchewan, with farmers there reporting they had 275,000 MT on hand, compared to 995,000 MT last year. Alberta farmers said they were holding 13,000 MT of lentils, down from 31,000 last year.

Only active subscribers can read all of this article.

If you are a subscriber, please log into the website.

If you are not a subscriber, click here to subscribe to this edition of the STAT website and to learn more about becoming a subscriber.