Cold, weird Vancouver weather, derailments delaying prairie grain to market

The extreme cold on the prairies and the bizarre snowfall in Vancover over the past several weeks is putting stress on grain shipments heading to export, says an agriculture advocacy group.

Bill Campbell of Keystone Agricultural Producers said while grain movement has improved over last year thanks to the swift legislation of Bill C-49, things slowed down again around Christmas time.

“Now we are seeing some of the consequences of Canada’s climate,” said Campbell. “We have seen quite a bit of slow down in the rail movement of the grain probably in the last six weeks … the cold weather and the bad weather in vancouver has limited the grain movement to Vancouver.”

Several derailments across the prairies over the past month haven’t helped matters, he added.

“Every time there’s a derailment it impedes the movement of rail cars. So it’s having an effect on grain movement at this particular time.”

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The result is the 2018 grain crop will head to the export markets slower than anticipated, said Cambell, and that means a drop in prices.

“We’re anticipating large carry-overs in cereals and oil seeds, and we are currently seeing a decline in our prices of eight to 10 per cent.”

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Rail movement isn’t the only thing impacting prices – tarriffs and trade wars are also having an effect, especially over the past six weeks, said Campbell.

“There does not look to be positive market signals in the next little while, so the concern that we have as Keystone Ag producers is the revenue that we are going to be able to make on our 2018 crop, and that reflects on what we do in 2019.”

As for flooding, Campbell said farmers aren’t too concerned at this point in the year.

“But I think more of the concern is what will come through the south through the red River, there may be some consequences. ”

The province of Manitoba released their flood forecast Thursday and predicted above normal flood risk along the Red River, mostly due to possible flooding from the U.S. and ice jams along the river.

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