Harvesting canola at Cockaleechie on the Adams family’s farm on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. Photo: Alex Jaeger, Cockaleechie

AUSTRALIA exported 288,295 tonnes of canola in December, down 40 per cent from the 482,654t shipped in November, according to the latest export data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

As with November, Germany was the biggest market, and took 126,662t of December-shipment canola.

December’s other major volume markets were France on 84,807t and Belgium on 62,500t.

In its most recent canola supply-and-demand report dated January 13, Lachstock Consulting said the pricing of delivered markets suggest that Victoria and New South Wales ports have focused on buying canola and malting barley ahead of wheat and feed barley.

“So far, export pace has met the expectation of pushing canola to the front of the queue,” the report said.

“We saw some November ships roll into December, but we will need to see that stem stay full at least through April-May to give confidence that the canola crop is getting cleared.

“It suggests that the elevations will continue to heavily favour canola through the coming months.”

Lachstock said the same was expected in Western Australia and South Australia.

Most of Australia’s canola goes into the EU biodiesel market, and Lachstock said there was limited concern around the Omicron COVID variant impacting demand.

“Integrated margins remain excellent and the EU crush pace is reflecting that.”

ABARES in December forecast the 2021-22 Australian canola crop at 5.7 million tonnes (Mt), but upward revision is widely expected at the next Australian Crop Report due March 1.

IKON Commodities is forecasting the crop at 6.8Mt, while Lachstock is sitting on 6.4Mt.

Table 1: Australian canola exports for July to December, 2021. Source: ABS

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