China’s outright ban on Cdn. canola ‘devastating’

LOCAL PRODUCERS HAVE TO CONSIDER POSSIBLE RISKS OF PLANTING CROP

The news China has now blocked all Canadian shipments of canola is “devastating” for all Canadian canola farmers, says Alberta Canola vicepresident and Lethbridge County farmer Kevin Serfas.

“When your largest buyer of canola stops, it is a very large cause for concern,” he explained. “It is going to make us think a lot about what we are going to do. If this is something which can be resolved in the next two to three weeks, most farmers will get by unscathed because of this. If it does progress any further, it is definitely going to cause problems. In our area (in southern Alberta), we are about five weeks away from the window for planting canola; so we do have a little bit of time.”

Serfas had planned to plant 18,000 acres of canola this year prior to the Chinese ban on imports, a number which represents about 30 per cent of his total crop production. He is now reconsidering his options.

“It has got me thinking, and I’m sure it has most canola farmers thinking if this isn’t resolved, what’s our appetite for risk? Do we put it in anyway, and hope by the time harvest comes this is rectified? That appetite will be different on each farm.”

Switching seeding plans right now is possible, but it not necessarily easy, Serfas confirmed.

“There are a lot of other considerations that take place here,” he acknowledged. “A lot of the seed has been booked since October, November and December. There is that problem, and then there are rotation problems. The next problem is trying to find a crop that is going to potentially return what canola could return for us.”

Canola has been one of the most valuable crops grown on the Prairies over the past few decades, with reliably good returns on investment, said Serfas. According to the province, about 70 per cent all Alberta agri-food exports to China are canola-related products. The industry also adds about $7 billion to the provincial economy annually and Canadian suppliers ship about $2.7 billion worth of canola to China per year.

Serfas is hoping for a quick end to the dispute, which some allege is China’s retaliation for Canada’s impending extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to the U.S. for possible trial.

China has insisted the ban is related to phytosanitary (weed or pest) contamination. Canadian scientists have so far found no evidence of any type of contamination to support China’s claims.

“I know the government has been working on this, and the Canola Council of Canada has some very good people in Ottawa that have been working on this, with the Chinese,” said Serfas. “The hope is this gets rectified very quickly. My hope is also in the meantime they don’t start targeting other crops or products we grow, whether that is wheat, or lentils, or peas or beef or chickens, or whatever. China consumes a lot of products we produce in Canada. My hope is it stops at this and it gets fixed instead of escalating to even greater levels.”