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<\/p>\n\u201c(Farmers) don\u2019t like it, and they feel like they\u2019re being sacrificed to support eastern Canadian industries, whether that\u2019s true or not.\u201d <\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
The hit to Canada\u2019s canola industry comes more than two weeks after China hit Canadian canola seed with a 75.8 per cent tariff.<\/p>\n
Beijing\u2019s duty on canola seed was seen as a response to Canada\u2019s 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles. <\/p>\n
Penner said farmers plan on growing canola next year, but just how much will depend on market forces and their land management practices, known as crop rotations.<\/p>\n
Producers change out the crops they plant each year to manage soil nutrients and limit diseases. Prairie farmers tend to cycle their fields with oilseeds, cereals and pulses over a three-year period.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t just stop growing one of those crops wholesale because it\u2019s a complex system,\u201d Penner said. \u201cFarmers have been through low price environments before, but usually they\u2019re related to supply and demand, rather than these abrupt trade decisions. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we didn\u2019t have this China situation, farmers would be able to plan and look ahead more effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canola is considered a high source of farm revenue for Canadian producers, but it\u2019s also among the most expensive to grow. <\/p>\n
Chris Davison with the Canola Council of Canada says canola has historically been a productive and profitable crop. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re certainly going to do everything we can to help support and create the conditions that enable that to continue,\u201d Davison said. <\/p>\n
\u201cA big part of that is working to make sure that we\u2019ve got our export markets and demand for Canadian canola seed, oil and meal functioning optimally.\u201d<\/p>\n
China is Canada\u2019s second-largest importer of canola products, behind only the United States.<\/p>\n
Davison said this year\u2019s canola crop is shaping up to be more bountiful than last, which could create additional pressures should China\u2019s tariffs persist. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf harvest is larger than what is estimated, then we lose the demand signal for Canadian canola. That certainly has the real potential to make things more challenging,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe have said Ottawa should drop its 100 per cent electric vehicle tariff on Beijing. <\/p>\n
Davison said doing so should be part of discussions between China and Canada. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are political issues that require a political solution,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really important that we understand what it\u2019s going to take to resolve the issue before determining which levers we can pull.\u201d <\/p>\n
The canola industry contributed $43 billion to Canada\u2019s economy last year and employs roughly 200,000 people.<\/p>\n
The canola seed tariff came into force nearly a year after Beijing launched an anti-dumping probe into the crop. <\/p>\n
China\u2019s Ministry of Commerce has argued Canadian canola companies were dumping the product into the Chinese market, hurting its domestic canola oil market. <\/p>\n
Ottawa and farmers have denied dumping, saying exporters are following rules-based trade. <\/p>\n
Ottawa has said China has until September, when the anti-dumping investigation formally ends, to make a final decision on the duty. China can extend the deadline by six months.<\/p>\n
In 2019, China restricted canola imports from two grain companies after Canada detained Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese business executive. <\/p>\n
Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were also detained in China days after Meng\u2019s arrest. <\/p>\n
Meng and the two Canadians were released to their countries in 2021 and China lifted its ban on canola the next year.<\/p>\n
Penner said the issue this time is different, as 2019 didn\u2019t involve broad tariffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we can take from it is farmers and industry are at the mercy of politics,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is precious little they can do about it.\u201d <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n
Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201c(Farmers) don\u2019t like it, and they feel like they\u2019re being sacrificed to support eastern Canadian industries, whether that\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-113031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}