The Canadian canola crush slowed in April, retreating back below the 1-million tonne mark.
A Statistics Canada crush report on Monday pegged the April canola crush at 919,345 tonnes, down 10.2% from the previous month’s 1.024 million and almost 4% below the same month last year. It marked just the fourth time in the 2024-25 marketing year the monthly crush failed to top 1 million tonnes.
At 8.75 million tonnes, the cumulative 2024-25 crush was running 5.1% ahead of the previous year as of the end of April, compared to 6.2% ahead in March.
The slowdown in the April crush comes as the old-crop Canadian canola supply continues to tighten and amid increasing questions over whether Statistics Canada’s 2024 production estimate of 17.845 million tonnes is in fact too low. April also marked the first full month of China’s 100% tariffs on imports of Canadian canola oil and meal that were officially imposed on March 20.
In its April supply-demand update last week, Agriculture Canada raised its 2024-25 canola export forecast by 1 million tonnes but left its crush estimate unchanged at 11.5 million tonnes, a new record high.
With the increase in the export forecast – and projected ending stocks unchanged from last month at 1.3 million tonnes – Ag Canada dropped its feed, waste and dockage number to a negative 609,000 tonnes.
With three months left in the 2024-25 marketing year, the crush at the end of April stood at 76% of the full-year Ag Canada forecast.
The April crush yielded 390,276 tonnes of canola oil, down from 436,060 in March and 393,501 in April 2024.
