A canola bunker fills in late November in NSW’s Port Kembla zone. Photo: Stefan Meyer, StoneX

AUSTRALIA exported 883,885 tonnes of canola in December to set a new new monthly record by surpassing the 854,950t shipped in March 2022, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The December figure is up 16 percent from the 761,772t shipped in November, with Belgium on 241,577t the biggest market, followed by Germany on 183,671t and The Netherlands on 129,449t.

In its canola supply-and-demand report released January 27, Lachstock Consulting said 753,000t was on the stem for January.

“This represents an impressive start to the 2022-23 marketing year, with the export pace to date 56pc than the same time last year,” the report said.

Lachstock’s reports echo the sentiments coming through from growers, agronomists and organisations that the upcoming winter crop is expected to see a drop in area.

“Our early forecast for 2023-24 is for lower planted area compared to 2022-23.

“We are assuming that the area planted to canola will be down 5-15pc across the board with lower prices, high input costs and the increased chance that we are heading into a drier year all contributing factors.”

Table 1: Australian canola exports for October, November and December 2022. Source: ABS