A panamax cargo of canola bound for Europe loads at Bunbury in Western Australia. Photo: Bunge WA

AUSTRALIA exported 451,588 tonnes of canola in April, down per 40 cent from the 749,563t shipped in March, according to the latest export data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

As was the case in November and December, practically the opening months of Australia’s current shipping year, Germany was the major destination, and took 275,788t, or 61pc, of the April total.

Belgium, the biggest-volume market in March, was the second-biggest market for April-shipped canola with 121,305t, while Poland on 30,000t was in third place.

April is expected to start the downtrend in Australia’s monthly canola export numbers until new-crop rolls around in November.

However, Lachstock Consulting said in its latest canola supply-and-demand report that Western Australia was expected to ship 100,000t plus per month in the back half of the year.

The oilseed has taken precedence on shipping stems to get to Europe ahead of its new-crop becoming available, and Australian shipping stems are now dominated by wheat, as large parcels of canola and barley become harder to accumulate.

ABS data indicates Australia has exported 2.46 million tonnes (Mt) of canola between November 1 and April 30.

Lachstock has Australia’s 2020-21 (Oct-Sep) canola exports pegged at 3.3Mt, behind only 2012-13 and 2016-17, which were both just under 3.5Mt.