Author: Naveen Thukral and Ella Cao
SINGAPORE/BEIJING, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Chinese importers secured up to 10 Canadian canola cargoes after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Beijing earlier this month, easing supply constraints and potentially displacing Australian exports, two trade sources told Reuters.
Canadian canola is expected to be shipped between February and April, two traders with direct knowledge of the transaction said. Each shipment weighs approximately 65,000 tons.
The 10 shipments, about 650,000 tons, account for more than 10% of China’s rapeseed imports in 2024 and about 26% of last year’s total imports.
“It is easy to get Canadian canola into the Chinese market. Crushers have already booked the cargoes in advance,” said a source at an international agricultural company.
The traders asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
During Carney’s visit to Beijing, China and Canada reached a preliminary trade deal that would reduce tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in exchange for lower tariffs on Canadian canola.
Canola or rapeseed is crushed to produce cooking oil and other products. The protein-rich meal left over from the crushing process is used as livestock feed.
China’s rapeseed crushing industry stalls
China imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties on Canadian canola in August last year. It subsequently resumed purchases of Australian canola, which had been suspended after the imposition of biosecurity restrictions in 2020 derailed trade.
State-owned COFCO has purchased about 500,000 tonnes of Australian rapeseed in recent months, raising hopes among Australian farmers of buying more.
Two Australian cargoes arriving in China have yet to be processed, bringing China’s vast canola crushing industry to a standstill for the first time in years.
“We are not sure what the situation is with the Australian cargo as the first shipments arriving in China have not yet been crushed,” the source said.
(Reporting by Naveen Thukral and Ella Cao; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Barbara Lewis)
