As the southern summer planting season in South Africa for maize, soy and sunflower gets underway, a robust 2025-26 canola harvest is nearing.
This November, Western Cape where the relatively new crop thrives, will be painted a golden sepia by the ripening oilseed.
According to economist Wandile Sihlobo, production in 2025-26 could attain 311,640 tonnes, 7% above the 2024-25 season’s.
The estimate gains force from generally favorable growing conditions in the 2025 southern winter, albeit with a few huddles.
Snail infestation in some areas which forced growers to replant accounted for a 3% downward revision of production estimates from an earlier August projection.
Still, the earliest output estimate for the season of 311,661 tonnes or 8% up year-on-year aligns to this latest one.
The figures stem from multiplying a productivity rate of 1.89 tonnes a hectare (ha) to the 2025 planted area of 164,900 ha.
Rise of Canola in SA
This acreage may seem long-established but it is actually the outcome of a quite recent commercial oilseed cultivation boom in Western Cape.
Owing to a rise in canola oil and oilcake demand amid robust pricing, growers converted feed grain plantations into rapeseed fields.
With its suitable winter rainfall, the Cape has so far proven reliable for the commercial production of the traditionally North American crop.
From just 17,000 ha in the 1998-99 pioneer season, the canola acreage in South Africa had grown tenfold in the mid-2020s.
A part of this improvement has reaped price stability pegged to oilseed product demand. As of October 8, 2025, futures in Canada applicable to South Africa stood firm at C$669 ($474.99)/t. And as the following data shows, the profitability of canola in South Africa owes to rising production and strong local/international demand.
South Africa Canola Statistics
Canola or rapeseed is a new world crop that first enjoyed commercial cultivation in North America in as recently as the 1970s. In South Africa, cultivation started in 1998 at 17,000 hectares, with preliminary output at 21,000 tonnes. Half a decade later, the annual harvest grew exponentially from 75,000 to 93,453 tonnes, per the government of South Africa. The FAOSTAT table below extends the profile with an historical production perspective of joint rape/colza seed in the early 2020s:
| Year | Production [tonnes] |
| 2023 | 236,300 |
| 2022 | 210,000 |
| 2021 | 198,100 |
| 2020 | 165,200 |
| 2019 | 95,000 |
Does South Africa also process edible canola oil?
South Africa’s rapeseed oil processing accounts for 98% of the production utility. Between 2020 and 2023, for example, the processed total increased by 15,200 tonnes, to 52,200 tonnes. The below FAOSTAT data interpretation sheds more light:
| Year | Production [tonnes] |
| 2022 | 56,600 |
| 2021 | 52,200 |
| 2020 | 37,000 |
| 2019 | 39,800 |
How strong is rapeseed demand in SA?
Strong demand has informed canola demand in South Africa since cultivation infancy. In 1998, volume-based demand was at 16,200 tonnes (equal to the production capacity of 17,000 tonnes). By 2016, the demand had hiked to 108,800 tonnes, 98% of which for oil/oil cake processing, according ot Agbiz. This demand also owes to imports by other countries: in 2015, Lesotho imported 49% of SA’s canola oil while Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe claimed 24% and 7%, respectively.