Canola groups diverge on ad hoc payment request

Jun 05, 2026

Alberta’s canola growers are seeking compensation for the temporary loss of the Chinese market, while growers in the other two Prairie provinces are not.

Alberta Canola sent a letter to federal agriculture minister Heath MacDonald and finance minister Francois-Philippe Champagne asking for compensation for federal trade actions that led to China’s retaliatory tariffs.

They claim Canada’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, steel and aluminum prompted the disruption of the Chinese market for Canadian canola.

China imposed a 100 per cent duty on Canadian canola oil and meal on March 20, 2025. That was followed by an anti-dumping duty of 75.8 per cent on canola seed as of August 14, 2025.

The 100 per cent tariff on meal was subsequently removed effective March 1, 2026 until at least the end of the calendar year.

The anti-dumping duty was reduced to 5.9 per cent effective March 1, 2026, for a period of five years. It is being added to the pre-existing nine per cent most favoured nation duty, resulting in total duties of 14.9 per cent on imports of canola seed into China.

per cent import tariff in that market.

Karla Bergstrom, executive director of Alberta Canola, said LeftField Commodity Research estimates that the brief trade spat with China cost Canada’s canola sector between $1 billion and $4 billion.

Her organization is willing to work with the federal government on what a targeted compensation program might look like.

“We’re not coming in with a prescription,” said Bergstrom.

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