Canada’s canola acreage to fall 2.5%

With an area under cultivation of about 8.7 million hectares, Canada is the world’s largest producer of canola alongside the EU. Between 1990 and 2017, Canadian canola area nearly quadrupled to 9.3 million hectares. In recent years, the area has declined slightly due to growing concerns about drought, rising production costs and pest pressure.

Statistics Canada (StatCan) expects the area under cultivation to decline by about 200,000 hectares to 8.7 million hectares in the upcoming harvest, a 2.5% decrease. In addition to ongoing drought in parts of Canada, growing uncertainty in export markets, particularly with the US and Canada, is also driving the decline in the area under cultivation. China has already imposed restrictive tariffs on Canadian canola oil and canola meal, and is threatening similar tariffs on canola. Add to that the trade conflict with the United States. Many farmers are responding by changing course, moving away from export-dependent canola and toward less risky spring wheat.

Again, Saskatchewan, which produces more than half of the world’s canola (the commercial version of rapeseed), is expected to see its canola area fall by about 0.5% to just under 4.9 million hectares. Alberta, the second-largest canola-growing region, is expected to have a canola area that is about 2.8% lower than last year, at 2.5 million hectares, according to research from the German Union for the Promotion of Oilseeds and Grains (UFOP). The trend is even more pronounced in Manitoba, where cultivation is expected to fall by 9.2% to about 1.2 million hectares.

Analysts previously raised their estimate for Canada’s 2025 canola crop to 18.8 million tonnes, which remains below last year’s 19.1 million tonnes. Canola exports are expected to fall 2 million tonnes annually to 7.3 million tonnes.

Tags: Canada, rapeseed