Canola industry responds to U.S. tariff announcement

Apr 23, 2025

As part of his announcement regarding tariff implementation in support of the U.S. economy and national security, President Donald Trump indicated that Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) compliant goods, which includes Canadian-produced canola and canola products, will not presently be subject to tariffs.

“This announcement from the President is welcome news to Canadian canola farmers and the entire Canadian canola industry,” says Chris Davison, Canola Council of Canada (CCC) President & CEO. “We have been very clear that the imposition of any tariffs on Canadian canola and canola products would have widespread and negative impact. The fact that, today, we can move forward with tariff-free trade with the U.S. is a positive development and underscores the importance of rules-based trade.”

The U.S. is Canada’s number one market for canola exports and is highly integrated with the Canadian canola industry. Total export value in 2024 reached $7.7 billion, with record high volumes including 3.3 million metric tonnes (MMT) of canola oil and 3.8 MMT of canola meal.

Canola is the single largest contributor to farm crop cash receipts – grown by nearly 40,000 farmers across the country.

“Concerns over U.S. tariffs add considerable uncertainty for farmers preparing to plant the 2025 canola crop,” says Rick White, President & CEO at Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA). “While the threat of immediate tariffs has been reduced, the risk and uncertainty of tariffs has not been eliminated. Our advocacy work to strengthen Canada-U.S. trade relations will continue.”

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Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators