Canola’s direct economic impact on the Canadian economy is $9.55 billion a year, says to a new report.
“Canola has become a powerful engine in Canada’s economy,” Canola Council of Canada president Patti Miller said in a news release.
The economic estimates in the report prepared by LMC International were based on the average of data collected from three crop years: 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.
The biggest impact was on the farm, where growers were responsible for $6.89 billion, or 72 percent, of the total direct economic activity.
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The transportation sector was the next biggest generator of canola-related revenue at $623 million, followed by the crushing industry at $446 million and primary grain elevators at $221 million.
Canada’s canola industry is responsible for employing 72,302 people, including 51,512 farmers.
Terry Boehm, president of the National Farmers Union, said the canola industry shouldn’t go too overboard patting itself on the back.
“If those acres weren’t in canola they’d be in something else and that obviously would have an impact on the Canadian economy as well,” he said. “It has been a little bit higher value crop, but those acres would be planted to something else.”
Boehm, who grows non-genetically modified canola on his farm near Allan, Sask., said there is a less flattering story to tell about the sector.
“Where it is really having a negative impact is the price of seed and the model that has been established that doesn’t allow farmers to save and reuse seed,” he said.
“I would say that farmers are paying probably three times more at a minimum than they should be for seed, plus they’re buying it every year.”
The economic impact numbers blossom when the study was expanded to include the indirect benefit from associated economic activities and the induced benefit from household spending of the income earned from the canola sector.
The total economic impact on the Canadian economy rises to $19.3 billion per year and 249,000 jobs when the indirect and induced factors are taken into account.
Those are the numbers on which the council wants to focus.
“This report shows how those fields of yellow are creating more opportunity for people all across Canada,” said Miller.
The council plans to use the report to foster support for the industry among the general public, the farm community and government.
“One of the most important things for us is to really show how important trade is to all of Canada, not just the canola industry,” Miller said in an interview.
The canola industry exports 85 percent of the seed, oil and meal produced in Canada.
“(The study) shows the importance of all of the efforts on market access and on trade deals and trade negotiations,” she said.
