Singapore/Beijing | Reuters — Chinese importers secured up to 10 Canadian canola cargoes following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Beijing earlier this month, two trade sources told Reuters, easing supply tightness and potentially displacing Australian exports.
Canadian canola is expected to be shipped between February and April, two traders with direct knowledge of the deals said. Each cargo is of around 65,000 metric tons.
Read Also
Russia targets seeds market as traditional export customers boost grains production
Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, will target global markets with its seeds and technologies as its grain markets are expected to shrink with other countries raising production, Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut said on Tuesday.
Ten cargoes, or around 650,000 metric tons, represent over 10 per cent of China’s canola imports in 2024 and about 26 per cent of its total imports last year.
“It is easy to get Canadian canola into the Chinese market. Crushers have gone ahead and booked these cargoes,” said one of the sources at an international agricultural company.
The traders asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the issue.
During Carney’s visit to Beijing, China and Canada reached an initial trade deal that would cut tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in exchange for lower levies on Canadian canola.
Canola, or rapeseed, is crushed to produce cooking oil and other products. The protein-rich meal left behind in the crushing process is used as livestock feed.
China’s canola crushing industry came to a halt
China imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties on Canadian canola in August last year. It then resumed purchases of Australian canola that were halted after it imposed biosecurity curbs that derailed trade in 2020.
State-owned COFCO bought about 500,000 tons of Australian canola in recent months, raising the hopes of Australian farmers that more purchases would follow.
The two Australian cargoes that have reached China have yet to be processed, leaving China’s vast canola crushing industry at a halt for the first time in years.
“We are not sure what is happening to Australian cargoes as the first cargo that arrived in China has yet to be crushed,” said the source.
