The FDA order to foodmakers to phase out artificial trans fats “will create opportunities for Canada’s canola sector, especially high oleic varieties,” says Commodity News Service Canada. Although U.S. food-sector use of partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) is much smaller than a decade ago, Dave Dzisiak of Dow AgroSciences in Calgary told CNS that an estimated 2 billion pounds of PHOs were still being used annually, “a figure that would represent roughly 2.5 million acres of canola.” Soy oil is the most widely used vegetable oil in the U.S. food sector and canola is second. The United States is the largest buyer of Canadian-grown canola oil.
High-oleic canola is a good alternative to PHOs for maintaining taste, texture and shelf-life of food products, said Dzisiak. Because of those features, high-oleic canola sells at a premium. About 10-15 percent of canola plantings are high oleic varieties at present, so growers have the prospect of larger overall demand and devoting more of their canola land to high-oleic varieties, said CNS.
Canada is the world’s largest grower of canola, which yields an oil that is very low in saturated fat. The oilseed is grown mostly in the Prairie provinces. Early this year, farmers said they intended to plant 19.4 million acres of canola, down 4.5 percent from 2014, said Statistics Canada. Canola is a minor oilseed crop in the United States and is grown in the Plains and Pacific Northwest. The USDA estimates canola plantings at 1.55 million acres this year, down 9 percent from 2014. By comparison, U.S. farmers intended to plant a record 84.6 million acres of soybeans, up 1 percent.