Canadian farmers will hold new-crop canola planted area relatively little changed, Statistics Canada’s first new-crop acreage report for the 2026 planting season showed Thursday.
The report pegged nationwide canola intentions at 21.839 million acres, up about 1% from the 21.623 million planted in 2025 and roughly in line with the five-year average. In 2024, Canadian producers planted just over 22 million acres to canola.
StatsCan suggested the small year-over-year increase may be due to strong domestic demand, “as processing capacity continues to expand.” However, the canola market has also changed markedly since StatsCan surveyed farmers about their new-crop planting intentions all the way back in the last half of December and first half of January.
Canola futures have trended strongly higher since the start of the New Year, buoyed by strength in the broader vegetable oil complex and improving export prospects for Canadian supplies. Gains in soybean oil futures in Chicago have been a key influence, lifting sentiment across oilseed markets. At the same time, trade developments have provided an additional boost to the market outlook. Effective March 1, China reduced tariffs on Canadian canola seed to a combined applied rate of about 14.9%, a significant drop from the previous level of nearly 85%. The move is expected to improve market access for Canadian exporters and could help restore shipments to one of Canada’s most important oilseed markets.
Even so, most traders and analysts were still only expecting a relatively small increase in canola intentions as farmers weigh canola against competing crops such as spring wheat and barley while also managing high input costs, particularly for fertilizer and crop protection. Profit margins remain tight overall, meaning many farmers are unlikely to stray far from established rotations. In its first new-crop supply-demand outlook in January, Agriculture Canada projected canola planted area at about 22 million acres, up almost 2% on the year.
In Saskatchewan, where most of the country's canola is grown, producers anticipate canola seeded area to rise 0.5% to 12.248 million acres, the highest for the province since 2023 when 12.4 million acres were planted.
In Alberta, farmers expect seeded area of canola to increase 0.7% to 6.253 million acres, still below the 6.385 million planted in 2024. Manitoba canola planted area is seen at 3.17 million acres, up 4.7% on the year but down from 3.336 million in 2024.
In Ontario, farmers said they intend to plant just 26,300 acres of canola in 2026. That is down sharply from 56,500 acres the previous year and the lowest since 2006 at 18,575 acres if accurate.
