Despite reports of a shortage of railcars in Western Canada for transporting a record grain crop, local grain distributions said they have had no problem sending this year's crop to market.
According to a report on the Alberta Wheat Commission's website, nearly 59 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds were produced in Western Canada this season compared to the previous record of 54.34 million tonnes in 2008.
Some estimates place the total grain tonnage harvested this year at 81 million.
Record crops are expected this year in Alberta for wheat, with increased canola production as well— although some local grain producers said they have only seen an average crop in this region this year.
As a result, Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which services the Didsbury to Innisfail corridor, reported that its grain loadings for train transport for September and October were 22 per cent higher this year than the company's five-year average for those months.
The company also bested its previous record this year for carloads of grain for September and October by 11 per cent.
With CP and Canadian National Railway shipping up to 11,000 loaded railcars weekly to export terminals and grain companies ordering up to 12,000 railcars a week, some media reports have stated there aren't enough railcars to move the crop.
But Mike Dezall, the operations director at Olds' Richardson Pioneer Farm Service Centre, said there has been “no severe impact to date” for shipping grain from the Olds grain elevator due to the record crop and the facility has received its “typical (rail) car supply” despite such high demands on CP's rail capacity.
The Olds elevator handles 250,000 tonnes of grain annually and with the exception of normal “logistical delays” due to anything from track maintenance to a locomotive failure, this season's record grain crop in the west has led to “nothing out of the ordinary” at the facility, Dezall said.
Innisfail's Central Alberta Transloading Terminal also reports business as usual, although this is the first year that terminal has shipped grain.
Susanne Pohl, the terminal's director, said the facility has shipped 25 railcars full of grain this year as of Nov. 20.
The only delays the facility has experienced, she added, have come when CP was not able to meet the terminal's full request for railcars due to the limits placed on how many railcars a locomotive can pull.
Such a delay is “fairly normal,” Pohl said, and the wait time for railcars has only been “between a week or two.”
Canadian Pacific is working with its grain customers to meet their shipping requirements “as quickly as possible,” said Ed Greenberg, a spokesman for the railway.
He added the railway has had to deal with “record volumes” this year for grain, which is the largest commodity CP transports.
“We moved more grain in Canada during the heavy harvest period of both September and October of this year than any other September and October on record for our railway,” Greenberg said.
The volume of grain coming from the Prairies to ports in Vancouver is up 16 per cent compared to a year ago, he added, but he is not aware of any problems with railcar shortages or serious delays in meeting railcar needs at grain distribution centres.
Jeff Jackson, the Alberta Wheat Commission's markets manager, blames the reports of railcar shortages in Western Canada on a misinterpretation of what's really happening with grain transportation in the region.
“The large crop and concern from farmers that a bumper crop cannot be moved, which it cannot, is being interpreted by some as a ‘shortage of cars' because it is not possible to move the entire crop,” he said in an email. “The size of this year's crop is not affecting transportation, what it does is create the impression of poor movement.
“In reality, Canada has exported 17 to 18 million metric tons of wheat per year for the last several years. This year we will do the same or more (maybe 20 million metric tons). Since we have produced about five million metric tons more than last year, growers cannot sell all that they would like to for immediate movement and a result, the thought is lack of movement.”
Large harvests in the United States and Eastern Europe have added to the abundance of grain in the world, which is also affecting how Canadian producers transport their crops to market, Jackson said.
“Growers should respond by looking at delivery opportunities as a premium of sorts, most shippers are sold out into March or later, and if a grower hasn't sold now, delivery in the near term could be scant.”
