South and eastern Australian canola exports have slowed after a big harvest and fast-paced exports to April. Photo: West Wimmera farmer John Bennett
AUSTRALIA exported 558,780 tonnes of canola in March, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The figure is down 37 percent from the 881,777t shipped in February, and compares with 904,178t shipped in March 2025.
Latest ABS export figures point to the impact of the Iran-US conflict in closing the Persian Gulf to shipping in March on regular customer the United Arab Emirates.
Australia shipped no canola to the UAE in March 2026, compared with 95,559t in March 2025, and 65,526t in March 2024.
Belgium on 201,088 tonnes was the biggest market for Australian canola shipped in March 2026, with Germany on 123,630t and France on 60,336t in second and third place.
Additional demand from western Europe came from the Netherlands on 45,725t, and rarely seen customer Denmark on 40,000t.
Following the reopening of the market late last year, China appears to have stabilised as a regular market, and was shipped 53,101t of Australian canola in March.
Australia’s canola exports are expected to continue at similar levels into May, with shipping stems indicating that Western Australia is the only state still executing full cargoes to primarily Europe destinations.
| CANOLA | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar | Total |
| Bangladesh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 769 | 8348 | 9116 |
| Belgium | 0 | 62541 | 183624 | 63760 | 190062 | 201088 | 701076 |
| Brazil | 2004 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2004 |
| Canada | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| China | 0 | 64378 | 59930 | 60387 | 123550 | 53101 | 361346 |
| Denmark | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40000 | 40000 |
| France | 0 | 60092 | 0 | 124518 | 123450 | 60336 | 368395 |
| Germany | 0 | 106356 | 87080 | 120151 | 123640 | 123630 | 560856 |
| Greece | 0 | 0 | 59000 | 0 | 60405 | 0 | 119405 |
| Indonesia | 0 | 220 | 188 | 142 | 0 | 100 | 649 |
| Japan | 57487 | 76892 | 1244 | 60257 | 31715 | 1164 | 228760 |
| Malaysia | 1431 | 0 | 1301 | 780 | 2113 | 4864 | 10490 |
| Nepal | 1477 | 5987 | 11434 | 18923 | 15584 | 17465 | 70870 |
| Netherlands | 0 | 59849 | 131853 | 60097 | 144696 | 45725 | 442220 |
| New Zealand | 400 | 397 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 797 |
| South Africa | 0 | 0 | 51 | 99 | 84 | 59 | 293 |
| Sri Lanka | 1379 | 2136 | 2188 | 2861 | 1474 | 2891 | 12928 |
| UAE | 0 | 189060 | 63705 | 57940 | 64236 | 0 | 374942 |
| Uruguay | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 8 | 30 |
| TOTAL | 64179 | 627908 | 601596 | 569938 | 881777 | 558780 | 3304179 |
Table 1: Australian canola exports from October 2025 to March 2026. Source: ABS
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