Canadian farmers plan to slash canola plantings by 7 percent this year because of a trade clash with China and to greatly expand their sowings of spring wheat, said Statistics Canada on Wednesday. The report was based on the agency’s March survey of 11,500 growers. “Record-high year-end stocks for the 2018 calendar year, coupled with concerns regarding limited access to China’s canola market, possibly affected anticipated [canola] seeding area,” said the report.
“These factors have contributed to lower-than-average prices, which may have some farmers considering seeding fewer acres of canola or other crops. However, resolution of trade concerns or increased canola prices would alter final seeding decisions.” Statistics Canada will report in June on actual plantings.
China ordinarily buys 40 percent of Canada’s canola exports, but Beijing has curtailed imports, saying it has found “harmful organisms” and insects in shipments. Some analysts say the squeeze on canola, an oilseed, is linked to Canada’s detention, at U.S. request, of the chief financial officer of Huawei, a telecommunications company.
Statistics Canada estimated that 17.3 million acres will be sown to canola, down 1.5 million acres from 2018, while spring wheat plantings would surge to 19.4 million acres, up 2.1 million acres from last year. Plantings of durum and winter wheat would decline so that overall wheat sowings would be 25.7 million acres, up 4 percent from 2018.
Canola and wheat, Canada’s two major field crops, are grown mainly in the country’s west, in the prairie provinces. Like the United States, Canada is one of the world’s largest wheat exporters. Canola is a minor crop in the United States, where soybeans are by far the leading oilseed.
To see a table of estimated plantings in Canada, click here.