Last fall, Canadian farmers harvested their largest crop of canola, ever. But strong domestic crushing demand and larger than expected exports have eaten through most of Canada’s canola inventories despite that record harvest.
The bulk of the canola was delivered to domestic crushing plants, as crush capacity on the Prairies continues to grow. Canola processing capacity is projected to reach 15 million tonnes this year. Grain market analysts say crushers are offering increasingly competitive prices to secure remaining supplies, indicating tight availability ahead of the new harvest.

Louis Dreyfus expanded its plant in Yorkton, doubling the site’s canola crushing capacity to more than two million tonnes annually. Not to be outdone, Richardson International also doubled the size of its Yorkton crush plant, raising its annual processing capacity to 2.5 million metric tonnes. Cargill are also getting in on the act after opening their new crush plant in Regina this past spring, which has a capacity of one million tonnes per year.

Canola exports were also strong this past crop year, with industry experts predicting exports in 2025-26 could wind up at nine million tonnes. The Canadian Grain Commission estimates sales at 8.73 million tonnes as of week 50 (July 12-19). That is well above the six million tonnes analysts were initially forecasting at the start of the year.