Australia's urgent shipment to China has frustrated Canadian farmers
Bloomberg News reported on November 4 that Australia will ship its first batch of canola seeds in five years to China, and a cargo ship carrying the trial shipment is expected to depart for Qingdao, China, within a week. On the other hand, Canadian farmers, who have had a good canola harvest, complained to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that they now hope the government can quickly resolve trade issues with China.
According to the loading plan and port schedule of Australia's largest bulk grain exporter, CBH Group, the bulk carrier "Armonia A" is scheduled to arrive at the port of Esperance in Western Australia on the 5th, where it will load about 60,000 tons of canola seeds, and then set sail for Qingdao Port in China on the 7th or 8th.
It is reported that this is one of the first trial shipments from Australia to China since 2020, when China stopped importing canola seeds from Australia due to phytosanitary requirements. At least three trial shipments have already been ordered by China, and are planned to be shipped during the fourth quarter of this year. The Australian Department of Agriculture's website states that the trial shipment standards require that the content of non-seed substances in the canola seed cargo be below 1%.
A spokesperson for the Australian Department of Agriculture said that Australia is "negotiating with all trading partners, including China, to improve agricultural product trade conditions."
Pat O'Shannassy, CEO of the Australian Grain Trade Association, also said that if the trial shipment goes smoothly, it will be an important milestone. However, "we don't want to rush, as the trial shipment still needs to meet the established standards."
Market analysts recently told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the Australian canola market is performing strongly, with increased global demand supporting domestic prices. "Production is really not keeping up," and the trade dispute between Canada and China has limited the export of canola seeds, "which has already shifted demand to Australia."
Bloomberg pointed out that this Australian trial shipment of canola seeds comes at a time when China's trade relations with Canada are tense. As the world's largest canola seed exporter, Canada previously almost monopolized the Chinese import market. In 2024, nearly all of China's 6.39 million tons of canola seed imports came from Canada.
However, last year, the Canadian government followed the United States' lead in imposing a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles and a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum products. In response, China imposed a 75.8% countervailing duty on Canadian canola seeds in August of this year.
When China announced the measures, some Canadian industry players had a侥幸心理 (optimistic expectation), believing that China could not find alternative sources in the short term. However, in September, Reuters quoted three trade sources saying that COFCO had ordered up to nine ships of Australian canola seeds, each with a capacity of 60,000 tons, planned to be loaded between November and January next year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture also stated in the same month that after imposing tariffs on Canadian canola seeds, China increased its purchases of Indian canola seeds. Additionally, Russia and Mongolia are also major sources of China's canola seed imports.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1847862325109760/
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