A 63t load of canola delivered to CBH Group’s Geraldton Port Terminal by Yamma Holdings on September 22. Photo: CBH Group

AUSTRALIA exported 299,109 tonnes of canola in August, up 41 percent from 211,614t shipped in July, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

China on 167,500t was the biggest market by far for August-shipped canola, well ahead of France on 64,703t in second place, and Nepal on 13,364t in third.

The August 2026 figure is up from 178,175t exported in August 2025, prior to China’s return to the Australian canola market, and when the United Arab Emirates on 63,400t was the biggest market for the month.

In contrast to recent years, canola appears to be taking a back set to wheat in the first quarter of the 2026-27 shipping year which kicked off this month.

Lachstock Consulting’s latest Australian Export Vessel Line-ups report issued September 30 indicates canola accounts for only 333,024t of listed October-November shipments, well behind wheat on more than 1.5 million tonnes.

The Lachstock report indicates Western Australia and Victoria will be the source of this and next month’s canola cargoes, and that canola may have picked up some recent sales, with booked tonnage rising sharply in the last week of September.

Lachstock’s most recent canola supply-and-demand report released September 18 forecast Australia’s 2026-27 canola crop at 7.86Mt, and exports at a record 6.55Mt, including around 2.2Mt to China.

Table 1: Australian canola exports for June, July and August 2026. Source: ABS

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