Canada, the world’s biggest canola grower and a major wheat producer, forecasts a 26 per cent drop in supplies of its main crops as drought ravages output and inventories shrink.

Grain and oilseed exports are expected to fall in the marketing year that started Aug. 1 for most crops, and inventories will drop due to low supplies, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said in a monthly report on Thursday. By the end of July, nearly three quarters of Canada’s agricultural area was abnormally dry or in a drought.

Erratic weather globally is helping push prices of staple crops including wheat to multiyear highs. The outlook for the sharp drop in Canadian supplies also comes with a forecast for the nation’s grain prices to remain high at a time that food inflation is already being felt in consumers’ wallets…read more.