The Canadian durum exports within the ten months ended on May 31 with a 17% surge, a year sooner amid lackluster conditions regarding crops of North Africa and Europe. Despite the significant markets suffering a downfall, corona pandemic has caused many shoppers to buy different varieties of staples including; pasta, bread, and cereals to cooking at home, due to the fear of being contaminated by the virus.

The global COVID-19 might result in a rise of grain export as grain is a product, used within manufacturing various food items such as; pasta, cereals, bread, oats, and tortillas. Canada is currently the largest durum exporter that processes into semolina flour to develop spaghetti. As per the rise in pasta’s demand, it may seem a good year for Canada. Neil Townsend (chief market analyst at “FarmLink” in Winnipeg), mentioned; “Ultimately, it would’ve been a good year still, but that extra pasta sold at the supermarkets is helping.” He further told Bloomberg; “People are buying a bit more flour and they are buying a bit more pasta.”

Italy is the world’s biggest pasta consumer. However, adverse weather may cause durum output to restrain while drought in other countries, for example, Morocco to cut yield forecasts. According to Mr Townsend, Canada often exports durum for livestock fields; however, this time, the case was different as most of the shipments made, were for “human consumption.” It’s because people are now focusing on stocking food items for emergency pantry during the pandemic crisis. Also, Neilson data showed a massive rise of about 54% in pasta sales of the US in just 16 weeks, ended on June 20. The durum exports of Canada surged the highest in April within a year as per the data shown by the “Canadian Grain Commission.” The sales boosted, as shipments tripled to Nigeria and Turkey and doubled to Italy from August to May. Apart from this, Saskatchewan prices are also exchanging near a “three-year-high” as per reports of Farmers Advanced Risk Management Co.

The European countries also began purchasing rather than producing since durum demand is high. Their harvests are low, said by “Jim Meyer”, treasurer of the “National Pasta Association” in Washington and President of Italgrani USA. Mr Meyer continued; Durum acres in the year 2020, are ready to grow in North America. As their continuity in growth, “will certainly help in the current situation where pasta is being consumed a lot by the general public.”

The Canadian farmers as per their government, planted about 2.3 million hectares of durum in 2020, up to 16% more from 2019. The yield in the US is also estimated to rise by about 3.7%, as indicated by the Department of Agriculture. StoneX risk management consultant, Mr Michael O’Dea mentioned that people are eating a lot more at home meaning, they are consuming more pasta. Therefore, Canada is shipping large volumes to Italy that’s approaching levels before the trade obstructs due to rules labelled by the country-of-origin. If supplies began to decrease in other countries, transactions from North America would continue to rise, said by Cam Dahl, president of Cereals Canada.