FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops and Shortages 06/02 - CANADA (3 June)
Latest information confirms earlier expectations of a decline in the overall wheat area for the 2002 harvest. The latest official forecast puts the wheat area to be harvested later this year at 10.4 million hectares, about 6 percent down from the previous year. The average yield expected is currently put at nearly 2.2 tonnes per hectare, somewhat less then earlier forecast following some extremely dry conditions in Saskatchewan in Western Canada, but still well above the previous year’s reduced level. The country’s aggregate wheat output is now forecast at just over 23 million tonnes, about 1.7 million tonnes up from 2001. For coarse grains, latest indications continue to point to an increase in area. The barley area is expected to increase by 15 percent to about 5 million hectares, that of oats, by almost 21 percent, to some 1.6 million hectares, and that of maize, by 5 percent to 1.3 million hectares. Yield prospects for coarse grains are also more favourable than in the previous year, and the aggregate coarse grain output is forecast at 28.4 million tonnes, 24 percent up from last year.