Canadian Canola Exports to China are Back on Track

The Canadian federal government has announced that China’s three-year ban on Canadian canola is over. In a joint statement released Wednesday afternoon, Trade Minister Mary Ng and Agriculture minister Marie Claude Bibeau said the country will now resume market access for two-grain trading companies which were previously prevented from exporting their seeds to Chinese customers since March 2019.

The Canadian government is pleased to announce that they have lifted restrictions on two canola companies that were previously granted permission for exporting their product. The decision follows through with an international rules-based trade system and related dispute settlement mechanisms as well a science-based approach to resolving such issues.

In March 2019, it was reported that the Chinese government had blocked shipments of canola from Canadian companies Richardson International Ltd and Viterra Inc. by Suspending their licenses following the detection of pests in a few recent shipment tests which led them to deny all claims on behalf for safety precautions taken during production processes.

Canada has taken its canola dispute with China to the World Trade Organization, and a panel was composed in November 2021.

China was a major buyer of Canadian canola exports. Before the trade tensions, they made up 40 percent  of canola exports but now it’s fallen down to less than 10%. The decline in sales has cost our industry between $1-$2 billion from March 2019 – to August 2020. This was due to their lowered prices and lost export opportunities that this conflict created for us as Canada-China relations worsened further every day.

“This is a great step forward for Canadian canola farmers, who will once again have access to the Chinese market. We are glad that we were able to work with our partners in government and within this new administration so they could restore full trade in rights,” said Jim Everson of The Canola Council Of Canada in a release Thursday.

Canada, with its vast array of natural resources and agricultural expertise, has been one of the world’s leading producers of canola for decades. Canola currently trades at an all-time high prices due to the war maintained by Ukraine against Russia that drives up commodity costs across a variety of products.

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