Canadian wholesalers shook off a disappointing December to start the New Year with a flourish, helped in part by a price driven surge in the sale of agricultural chemicals, Statistics Canada reported today.

Sales by Canadian wholesalers rose a healthy 2.6% in January to $44.1 billion, effectively offsetting the 2.6% drop recorded in December, StatsCan said.

In January, six of the seven wholesale sectors reported higher sales, led by very strong growth in the “other products” sector, which rose 11.4%.

The growth in this sector was driven by higher sales of agricultural chemicals, which also benefited from sharply higher prices during the month, the government agency said.

Wholesalers of machinery and electronic equipment, up 2.2%, food, beverage and tobacco products, up 2.1%, and building materials, up 1.7%, were the other major contributors to January’s increase in sales.

The farm products sector, which consists primarily of livestock sales, was the only sector to register a decline in January, down 4.6%.

Sales in constant dollars, which remove the impact of price changes to provide an indicator of volume sales, increased by 3.3 % during the month.