{"id":159702,"date":"2025-09-21T17:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/159702\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T17:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:45:09","slug":"canola-farmers-feel-the-pinch-as-tariffs-threaten-profits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/159702\/","title":{"rendered":"Canola farmers feel the pinch as tariffs threaten profits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canola farmers across the Prairies are on track to harvest a strong crop, but fear they might not see a big profit\u00a0\u2014 if any\u00a0\u2014\u00a0as tight margins are further squeezed by China’s tariffs.<\/p>\n

“It’s a nice tidy surprise, I think, to see canola production come through as well as it has this year in spite of its challenges,” said Rob Stone, who farms\u00a0near Davidson, Sask., between Saskatoon and Regina.<\/p>\n

“Not a gangbuster, but it’s certainly not as disappointing as the crops of [20]21, ’22 or ’23.”<\/p>\n

However, Stone said the success in the field may not mean much for his\u00a0pocketbook.<\/p>\n

When it comes to cash revenue from crops, canola is typically among the most profitable.\u00a0But that’s\u00a0taken a big hit this year.<\/p>\n

China, which slapped a 75.8 per cent duty on Canadian canola seed last month, is Canada’s largest canola seed importer. Canada exported\u00a0$4.9 billion in\u00a0canola product to China in 2024,\u00a0the vast majority of which \u2014 $4 billion<\/a> \u2014 was canola seed, according to the Canola Council of Canada.<\/p>\n

China’s tariff on canola seed, coupled with 100 per cent tariffs<\/a> on Canadian canola oil and canola meal imposed by China in March, is the cause of much concern among producers across Western Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"RobRob Stone is a canola farmer near Davidson, Sask. This year, tariffs could spell ‘the difference between profit, break-even or maybe a loss,’ he says. (Pratyush Dayal\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Canola prices dropped about $30 to $50\u00a0per tonne almost immediately after the Chinese tariffs were announced,\u00a0said Derek Brewin, an agricultural economist at the University of Manitoba.\u00a0The lower price means it could cost more to grow canola\u00a0than producers are able to sell it for.<\/p>\n

“They’re in a tight situation. The thing that has been paying the bills is barely making any money, and so they might be looking at alternatives in the spring.”<\/p>\n

Times are tough, said Davidson farmer Stone.<\/p>\n

“Say a 45-bushel canola crop \u2014 if you’re expecting a dollar or two per bushel to be taken over by the tariffs, that means $45 to $90\u00a0an acre on our farm, and so that really is the difference between profit, break-even or maybe a loss.”<\/p>\n

Some relief from feds\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Ottawa announced $370 million in new support<\/a> for Canadian canola producers facing the massive tariffs from China.\u00a0The incentive is meant to address “immediate competitiveness challenges,” the federal government said.<\/p>\n

It also increased interest-free loan limits for canola producers to $500,000, but those loans will need to be repaid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The measures are appreciated\u00a0but fall short, said Rick White, who is president of the\u00a0Canadian Canola Growers Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We just didn’t think it went far enough, and we didn’t think it reflected the gravity of the situation,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We want to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best, but the announcement is certainly going to help in the short term, so we do appreciate that \u2014 but it all depends on how long China has us locked out of their market.”<\/p>\n

Stone agrees that the government must look to the future.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t match up. You’re dealing with a long-term tariff issue with some short-term support,” Stone said. “It’s a program that helps provide some cash flow to our farm, but I have larger concerns about: how do we pay this debt back?”<\/p>\n

White and Stone are\u00a0hopeful politicians can negotiate the problem away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We want the market back. We don’t want support, and if we can get that market back in the short term, then we’re not so worried. But if this thing drags out, farmers are going to need to be supported somehow to get them through this,” White said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stone understands it’s a complicated problem, but his message for the federal government is simple.<\/p>\n

“Fix it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of things that don’t have a simple fix. And I guess it’s my job, and I guess my opportunity as a farmer, to just say, well, fix it,” said Stone.<\/p>\n

“It creates a lot of issues for the farm economy, for the Canadian economy and everything in between.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canola farmers across the Prairies are on track to harvest a strong crop, but fear they might not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-159702","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\/159702","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=159702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}