With the lowest prices in years depressing canola farmers, it’s not an easy sell to get them to increase acreage.
But that’s what the Canola Council of Canada wants, setting a target of consistently producing 10 million tonnes per year by 2015.
Farmers grew about 7.7 million tonnes in 2004.
Council president Barb Isman pitched the idea to farmers at the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission meeting in Saskatoon last week.
“We need to see that kind of growth in order to have folks continuing to reinvest in the crop,” she told reporters after her speech.
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“That is really important because we are competing with many other oilseeds in the world, many of them bigger than us, and we are fighting for investment dollars, whether it is for a crush plant in South America or a new trait in the seed.”
Canada’s canola industry is a lesser player in the world oilseed market.
“We are a small player against a couple of 200 pound gorillas and that’s palm from Malaysia and soybeans,” she said.
World vegetable oil production is expected to total 106 million tonnes this crop year and is dominated by soybean and palm oil, the former producing 32.65 million tonnes this year and the latter 30.46 million.
World canola and rapeseed oil production is 15.11 million tonnes, but about 60 percent of that is produced in the European Union and China, both growers of winter rapeseed.
Canada’s crop is spring seeded and much of it is genetically altered whereas the EU produces conventional canola.
Isman said breeders and crop input suppliers serving the Canadian canola market need to get a return from far fewer acres of production than do those who supply the soybean sector, which is much more homogenous.
She conceded that the goal of consistently producing 10 million tonnes annually will be met only if farmers make a profit from the crop.
That means demand must grow to meet the increased production and that requires market development.
Traditionally, most of Canada’s crop is bought by Canadian crushers selling vegetable oil and meal domestically and by the United States, a major seed importer.
But with production increasing, a few years ago the industry started looking for new markets.
Mexico, China and Pakistan were targeted and some success has been made. In 2003-04, out of 3.7 million tonnes of seed exported, Canada shipped 1.67 million to Japan, 1.07 million to Mexico, 401,000 to China, 285,000 to the U.S. and 274,000 tonnes to Pakistan.
By 2015, the canola council wants to increase those foreign markets but hopes the biggest growth comes in North American sales. A major selling point will be new high oleic, low linolenic varieties that can be used in commercial frying operations where stability is an issue.
These varieties can be made into a solid at room temperature without the need for partial hydrogenation, the source of most trans fats blamed for causing heart disease and obesity.
Isman believes this canola class will double its seeded area this spring to about two million acres, producing around one million tonnes.
The industry will also encourage the federal government to work on getting countries such as China and India to lower tariffs on vegetable oil that favour soy oil over canola.
It will also encourage development of biodiesel production made from canola.
