China buying Australian canola as trade dispute with Canada continues

Alongside an anti-dumping probe into Canadian canola, Beijing imposed preliminary duties of 75.8% on imports of the oilseed from the country in August, bringing shipments to a virtual standstill amid a larger diplomatic and trade dispute between the two nations, the 19 September report said.

The purchases totalled around 540,000 tonnes, equivalent to about 8% of China’s total canola imports last year.

For the past few years, Canada had been China’s main canola supplier and the Australian imports demonstrated Beijing could find alternative sources of the oilseed as trade talks between the two countries continued, the report said.

However, as Australia is a smaller producer than Canada, it could struggle to match Canadian volumes, according to the report.

All shipments were scheduled to be loaded between November and January, an Australia-based broker for agricultural products with direct knowledge of the deals said.

At the time of the report, COFCO had not responded to a request for comment.

Although Australia had been excluded of the Chinese market by biosecurity rules to prevent the spread of a fungal plant disease since 2020, in July that Canberra was close to an agreement with Beijing that would allow for five trial cargoes.

China is the world’s leading canola importer, with 6.4M tonnes of purchases worth US$3.4bn last year, almost all of it from Canada, according to Chinese customs data.

Canada is the world’s biggest canola exporter and Australia is the second leading shipper.

Earlier in September, China extended its investigation into Canadian canola imports to 9 March 2026.

Tags: Market, duties, Australia, China, COFCO, canola, purchases, imports, shipments