Canadian canola stockpiles as of Dec. 31 were up sharply from a year earlier amid last year’s record large crop.
A Statistics Canada grain stocks report Friday pegged total nationwide canola stocks as of Dec. 31 at 15.623 million tonnes, up more than 18% from a year earlier and the largest Dec. 31 stocks level since 2019 at 16.212 million. The entire year-over-year increase in stocks was due to larger on-farm inventories, which increased 21.2% to 14.3 million tonnes – more than offsetting a 7.4% decline in commercial stocks to 1.3 million.
Compared to trade expectations, canola stocks came in a bit lower than anticipated, with the average guess at 15.75 million tonnes.
With the total canola supply for the 2025-26 marketing year estimated by Agriculture Canada at 23.501 million tonnes, the Dec. 31 stocks level infers Aug. 1- Dec. 31 canola use of 7.87 million. That’s down from usage of 9.37 million tonnes during the same period a year earlier.
Canadian canola production in 2025 amounted to 21.804 million tonnes, an increase of more than 13% from 2024.
According to StatsCan, exports of canola for the 2025-26 marketing year to Dec. 31 fell 36.1% to 2.8 million tonnes, likely because of prohibitive duties imposed by China, one of Canada's largest export markets. On the other hand, domestic use — largely for crushing — rose 3% to 5.1 million tonnes due to high supplies and ongoing expansion of domestic processing.
On-farm canola stocks as of Dec. 31 in the largest production province of Saskatchewan were estimated at 8.179 million tonnes, up about 28% or just over 1.8 million tonnes from a year earlier. At 4.172 million tonnes, on-farm canola stocks in Alberta were 21.6% above a year earlier. Meanwhile, on-farm canola stocks in Manitoba, at 1.814 million tonnes, were down marginally from 1.885 million the previous year.
