The Canadian canola crush declined in February, falling below 1 million tonnes for the first time in five months.
A Statistics Canada crush report on Friday pegged the February canola crush at 882,610 tonnes, down 12.6% from January and the first sub-1-million tonne monthly crush since September. Last month’s crush also fell 1.6% below the same month last year.
However, the cumulative 2024-25 crush (August-February) is still running 6.2% ahead of the previous year, totalling 6.81 million tonnes. That is 59% of Agriculture Canada’s full-year crush forecast of 11.5 million tonnes, potentially a new record high.
Although western Canadian canola crush capacity has expanded in the past couple of years, the canola industry is now facing trade wars on two fronts. On March 20, China officially imposed 100% tariffs on imports of Canadian canola oil and canola meal. According to the Canola Council of Canada, total canola exports to China in 2024 were valued at almost $5 billion and included 2 million tonnes of canola meal, valued at $918 million and 15,351 tonnes of canola oil, valued at $20.6 million.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has been threatening tariffs on US imports of most Canadian goods, including grain and grain products, since he took office in January. The White House has said it will impose reciprocal tariffs on all US trade partners April 2, but how Canada may be impacted remains unclear.
The February crush yielded 373,427 tonnes of canola oil, down from 423,802 in January and 382,013 in February 2024.
Canola meal production in February was 518,594 tonnes, compared to 591,256 in January and 554,201 in February last year.
