The Canadian Canola Council of Canada is seeing very limited sales of canola seed into China right now.

Many feel China’s concerns over shipping issues with Richardson International are politically motivated and relate back to the arrest of a Huawei executive.

Jim Everson, President of the Canadian Canola Council says its clear importers in China are demonstrating an unwillingness to buy Canadian Canola.

“We have this current situation that we have to deal with but we’re very confident in the quality of canola on the international market and our ability to be a quality, reliable supplier. We would certainly hope that producers would be confident in Canola going forward.”

He says China is an important market and accounts for about 40% of all canola seed, oil, and meal exports.

 “Our seed exports to China last year were $2.7 billion dollars so it’s a strong seed market for Canada very valuable market for Canadian Canola farmers and the industry. That’s why there’s a level of concern for this issue. I’d hasten to say that we think the foundations of our trade with China are very strong.”

He says while the Federal Government has responded very quickly to Chinese concerns they want to see them intensify their efforts to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

Everson says Canadian Canola is of the highest quality because of our world-class quality assurance systems.