Canola delivers returns for growers as strong prices meet strong yields
Canola has emerged as this season’s standout cash crop with prices hitting $800 a tonne and yields exceeding expectations despite challenging growing conditions.
Canola is shaping up as the season’s cash-crop winner, with prices at $770 to $800 a tonne and growers reporting better-than-expected yields despite tough seasonal conditions.
Southern NSW farmer Ben Langtry said from a gross margin perspective, canola was the best performer in his cropping operation this year.
“We finished harvesting canola two days ago and yields were better than we thought,” the Marrar farmer said.
He attributed the cool spring finish to the outcome. Yields ranged from 2 to 2.5 tonnes a hectare, and at another nearby property the range was 1.2 to 1.5 tonnes a hectare.
“We didn’t get any more seed than we usually do but we got bigger seed, and that has added to the weight,” he said.
“It had been a tough year for canola, but it is going to end up as probably the best gross margin we have made this year when you combine price and yield. I think barley will be behind canola.”
Mr Langtry said he forward sold a small portion of the canola crop in November and was selling the rest “along the way”.
Market Check chief executive officer Nick Crundall said anecdotally there were reports from farmers that canola yields were better than expected despite difficult seasonal conditions.
He said there was trading activity in November with buyers choosing to sell and the price at the time was good.
But it had since dropped by about $20 a tonne.
“There was a strong buyer appetite to secure tonnes in November and that was met with quite an aggressive selling program from farmers,” he said.
“A lot of canola has been transacted over the last four or five weeks.”
Mr Crundall said lower lentil prices, and flat returns for both wheat and barley meant canola was emerging as the cash crop of the year.
He said prices were about $800 a tonne port equivalent, and had since come back slightly as the market started to cool off.
Mr Crundall said sales were primarily new-crop canola and nearly all of the previous season’s crop had already been sold.
Current Melbourne prices are $807 a tonne for canola, $358 a tonne for wheat, and $640 a tonne for lentils.
The latest Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences crop report reinforced the sentiment for canola, forecasting the crop’s value to rise 18 per cent to $5.7bn in 2025–26 on stronger production and firm prices.
While export value is expected to ease 6 per cent to $4.6bn, it will remain 38 per cent above the 10-year average, with marketing-year shipments projected to lift.
Melbourne port-delivered prices were forecast to average $793 a tonne, supported by growing global demand as oilseed production rises only modestly.
Global canola output was expected to reach a record 92 million tonnes, up 7 per cent, aided by favourable conditions in Canada, Europe, and Australia.
