VICTORIA – They set a goal of seven by seven and met it. Will the Canadian canola industry be able to meet its new goal of 15 by 15?
That depends on what number ends up in farmers’ pockets, said Alberta farmer Greg Porozni about the Canola Council of Canada’s official target to consistently produce 15 million tonnes of canola per year by 2015.
“What we need to make it work is market signals,” said Porozni.
“We’re all in this business. We’re businesspeople like everyone else. We’ve got to have those signals.”
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With the previous target of seven million tonnes by 2007 met, the canola council’s new target relies on increasing acreage by about 30 percent and boosting yields by 35 percent, an amount that canola agronomists and breeding companies say is possible with new hybrid varieties being developed.
But the goal comes at a time when canola acres are being attacked by other crops, which are seeing excellent prices offered for next fall. While canola acres are expected to increase this spring from last year, many analysts think there will be an acreage dogfight in the future as demand for corn for ethanol and soybeans for biodiesel creates unsettled price signals.
Canola council president Barb Isman urged farmers to commit to growing canola to capture the high value food market that is now begging for canola oil to replace trans fats.
“We got all those big companies to sign on to our little crop up in Canada. The most important thing that we have to do now is not let them down,” said Isman.
“If we let them down, the McDonalds, the KFCs, the Taco Bells, (then canola opens the door to high oleic soybean oil to fill the market). We have to make sure that we supply the market in ample quantity.”
Both Isman and Cargill’s Canadian president urged farmers to focus their hopes for canola on the high value food market rather than the fuel market. Fuel will always be a secondary market.
“The future premium value will be in the food sector, in our opinion,” said Len Penner of Cargill.
“Food demand is sustainable. … Biodiesel, on the other hand, is driven by government interventions, which may or may not be around in the future.
“We don’t want to lose the hard-fought ground we have gained in the past. We should be spending a lot of energy on leveraging our current position in that food sector to spring forward.”
At last year’s canola council convention in New York City, the focus was locked on the food industry and canola oil’s healthy benefits. But at this year’s convention the food value of canola seemed to be out of fashion, as speaker after speaker was dragged into discussing biodiesel, biofuel and the food versus fuel debate.
Isman urged farmers and others to keep focused on canola as a high value food product.
“Please, please don’t get waylaid by all this biodiesel attention,” said Isman, who has worked hard to build canola’s market profile in the United States and has lobbied for biodiesel mandates in Canada.
“The bottom line is that high stability canola is our future because it isn’t something that will shift with the wind of government.”
In three of the last four years, canola has been the Prairies’ No. 1 income generator for farmers so she hopes they stick with the crop.
She urged the industry to show farmers better production results to keep them committed.
“This isn’t some little crop. This is the lifeblood of farmers. We have to get this right,” said Isman.
