Australia’s October-June canola exports hit 4.95Mt

Australia exported 102,064 tonnes of canola in June, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The figure is down sharply from the 659,182t shipped in May to reflect the rundown in current-crop stocks, and the likelihood that monthly exports will struggle to exceed 150,000t until November, when new-crop becomes widely available.

ABS data for the first nine months of the 2024-25 shipping year indicates exports of 4.95Mt, with Belgium on 1.41Mt and Germany on 1.08Mt the two biggest markets by far.

In June, France was Australia’s biggest-volume canola market on 60,299t, followed by Japan on 28,671t, and Bangladesh on 6363t.

Grower interest in forward selling is currently focused on canola, with hopes that China will return as a buyer of Australian product now that a tariff on Canadian seed is in place.

China has not been a volume buyer of Australian canola since 2020, based on its concerns around the blackleg disease.

The announcement last week of China’s 75.8 percent on Canadian canola has elevated hopes that China, a net importer of canola and rapeseed, will return as an Australian customer.

Speaking at the Australian Grains Industry Conference late last month, Cargill Australia trading manager Sam Napier said the issue was in the hands of the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and its China’s equivalent.

“That’s something between DAFF and CIQ to sort out that would be hugely beneficial to the canola export industry, not so much the crushers,” Mr Napier said in the Australian market review panel session.

The Australian Oilseeds Federation has this month released its initial estimate for Australia’s 2025-26 canola crop at 5.97Mt, down from 6.24Mt in 2024-25.

Tags: Australia, export, canola, France, Belgium, stocks, Germany, Bangladesh, Japan