The Canaryseed Development Commission of Saskatchewan held its AGM last week in Saskatoon.

The Canaryseed Market which is mainly birdseed has stayed fairly neutral over the last few years.

Chuck Penner, a market analyst with Leftfield Commodity Research, told producers that pricewise he expects to see prices in the 20 to 25 cent range.

He says with supplies that are comfortable for the market he thinks we could see a slight drop in acreage

"Maybe around 250,000 acres is a possible scenario this year. That will keep the market basically supplied. It won't produce an abundance, and of course that's based on average yields - that's what we're guessing at this point. It'll produce enough crop for the export market," he said.

In the meantime, Canaryseed Commission Chair David Nobbs thinks we could see an increase in acreage due to the disease impact in other crops.

Nobbs says overall when we talk about exports of Canaryseed, Mexico is still the largest market, however currency is causing some issues.

"For instance, the peso is approximately 21 pesos per US Dollar. It's never ever been that low. Through most of my career, the peso was maybe 13 or 14 per US Dollar. It really impacts some of these countries' abilities to buy product," he said.

He notes the Canadian dollar being down is helping but it’s still not off-setting enough and people are just buying very hand to mouth as they need it.

He adds while we’ve got approval for novel food use for dehulled canaryseed we don’t have the commercial quantities available or the processing in place here at home.

He notes the company he works for CanPulse is looking at putting in a dehulling process at their plant at Zealandia this fall.