With strong demand, high input costs and volatile global market conditions swirling in the background, the prices received by Alberta farmers for key products ticked down in January, but remained above last year’s levels.

At $871 per metric tonne, the price of canola (including rapeseed) in Alberta and BC fell 1.0% in January. This was the first monthly decline observed for canola prices since September 2022, but the price was still 2.4% higher relative to January 2022.

It was a similar story for wheat (excluding durum) prices as they declined 1.2% from the month prior, but stood 9.3% above last year’s level.

We also saw Alberta’s barley prices, among the highest in the country, continue to appreciate for the fourth straight month in January.

Meanwhile, prices for lentils and dry peas across the Prairie provinces were down significantly from last year when drought caused prices to surge.

We expect the overall story to be largely unchanged in next month’s report.

Answer to the previous trivia question: The annual number of housing starts in Alberta went from 38,470 1981 to just 7,295 in 1984.

Today’s trivia question: Green is associated with St. Patrick’s Day, but what colour—according to historians— was originally linked to St. Patrick?