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Saskatchewan canola farmers aren’t happy with the latest announcement by China to launch an anti-dumping investigation on Canadian canola.
China’s government announced the proposed sanctions on canola just days after the Canadian government said that it will be placing 100 per cent tariffs on electric vehicles coming from China.
Saskatchewan Canola farmer Keith Fournier said this isn’t the first time they’ve been hit by Chinese sanctions.
“The concern is memories go back to 2019 when we had the last conflict with China and some canola restrictions from some of the companies going in. That still weighs heavily on our mind,” he explained.
“Just even between yesterday and today, the last time I checked the market we kicked 50 cents a bushel out of this market just on the rumor.”
When they were hit with sanctions in 2018-19, the Government of Saskatchewan said in a letter penned to the federal government that Canadian canola exports to China decreased by $2 billion and $1 billion directly from Saskatchewan to China.
Saskatchewan is very concerned about China taking trade action against Canadian canola in response to Canadian government tariffs against Chinese electric vehicles.
— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) September 4, 2024
Today, Saskatchewan’s Agriculture and Trade Ministers wrote to their federal counterparts to tell them this must… pic.twitter.com/Fu54UtzTLi
Fournier said right now it’s not a good situation.
“The market is down substantially, bottom lines are really tight for farms across the province right now and the last thing we need is for something else to come up and set this market back some more,” he added.
According to Fournier, China has taken a majority of the canola seed from this province over the last couple of years.
“Hopefully with the added crush plants that are coming online, that takes some of the risk away because then we can crush within Canada and we’ll be able to export out oil,” Fournier said. “It does give us another market and reduces that risk from China, but as of right now we have all of our eggs in that China basket — so it is very concerning for the farmers.”
There isn’t much canola farmers can do right now other than wait and see what comes next.
Fournier though is annoyed that canola farmers are once again at the centre of a political battle.
“As a canola farmer it’s very frustrating that this is the second time in five years that we get caught up as the political football in something that has nothing to do with canola or agriculture and yet it’s a situation where canola is being used as a leverage tool,” he stated. “Canola farmers are having to pay the price for this, there’s a lot of frustration in this.”