Australian canola production makes huge jump

Australia’s 2021-22 canola crop shattered the previous record.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences estimates the country produced 6.4 million tonnes of the oilseed, destroying last year’s record of 4.5 million tonnes.

“It certainly is an anomaly and quite unexpected,” Australian Oilseeds Federation executive officer Nick Goddard said in an email.

Usually when the crops in eastern Australia are good, the ones in the west are bad, or vice-versa, but crops on both sides of the country have fared “extremely well” over the last two years because of good moisture and a cool spring.

“As La Nina wanes, we can expect 2022-23 to be more of a typical year, though there is still great retained soil moisture, so crops should get off to a good start,” he said.

The cropping regions have received steady rain over the past seven days ending March 2.

Australia’s canola production hovered between one and two million tonnes in the first decade of the 2000s and then jumped to the two to four million tonne range in the second decade.

Goddard said the increase is primarily due to expanded acres. The average area planted in the 2010-20 period was 5.43 million acres compared to an average of 2.57 million acres in the 2000-10 period.

There was an average yield increase of about five bushels per acre over that same time frame.

He believes the new normal for production will be in the four to five million tonne range.

Goddard said the canola area has reached its limit because the medium to high rainfall zones are “pretty well exploited.”

“It’s too risky to move into the drier country with canola, whereas cereals are more tolerant to tough conditions,” he said.

This year’s 6.4 million tonne crop tops the 6.1 million tonne target that the canola industry hoped to achieve somewhere in the 2015-25 period.

Eighty percent of Australia’s canola is shipped to the European Union for use in the biodiesel market, with the remainder going to food markets in China, Japan, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates.

An estimated 27 percent of this year’s crop was seeded with genetically modified varieties. Australia runs two separate supply chains from farmgate to end user to ensure segregation of its GM and non-GM canola.

Goddard still anticipates firm prices in 2022-23 even if Canadian production returns to more typical levels of 20 to 23 million tonnes and Australia settles back to 4.5 million tonnes.

He attributes that forecast to strong biodiesel-renewable diesel demand in the European Union and the United States and possible disruptions to Ukraine’s supplies.

Canola is usually the first winter crop to be sown in Australia from early March through to the end of April, followed by wheat.

He suspects plantings may fall slightly this year. Growers have pushed the rotation limits for the crop, and the Ukraine-Russia conflict may lead to a shift toward more wheat area because it is already having a big impact on wheat prices.

The Western Producer

Tags: crop, yield, record, Australia, canola, Production