Canola is delivered to GrainCorp’s Cunningar site, its closest to Port Kembla, which has played a major part in Australia’s 2020-21 export program. Photo: GrainCorp

AUSTRALIA exported 759,610 tonnes of canola in March, more than triple the 247,207t shipped in February, according to the latest export data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Belgium on 191,570t was once again the biggest market for March-shipped canola, followed by The Netherlands on 130,003t and the United Kingdom on 66,000t.

The shortage of oilseeds to crush in the Black Sea region become evident in March, with Romania and Ukraine both taking a panamax cargo for what is believed to be the first time.

In its May supply-and-demand report on canola, Lachstock Consulting said Australia was “starting to mix it up in the export destinations”, and noted 200,000t of business having been done to the United Arab Emirates, and Ukraine and Romania combined having received 120,000t to date.

“The rarity of Ukraine imports shows the dysfunction of the market this year, while the the UAE number is also impressive on top of the 1 million tonnes already done ex-Canada, creating a record import number for the UAE,” Lachstock said.

It added that EU old-crop crush rates saw March print a record for the season, and the highest March figure on record.

“Cumulative pace is ahead of the previous two years.”

Australia’s canola shipments in April are expected to come in at around 425,000t and tail off in subsequent months as stocks run down and exporters concentrate on pushing wheat out ahead of the Northern Hemisphere new crop.

Table 1: Australian canola exports for January, February and March 2021. Source: ABS