{"id":23529,"date":"2025-10-07T08:58:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T08:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?p=23529"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:04:15","slug":"a-bold-2025-26-harvest-awaits-canola-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/10\/07\/a-bold-2025-26-harvest-awaits-canola-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"A bold 2025-26 harvest awaits canola in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As the southern summer planting season in South Africa for maize, soy and sunflower gets underway, a robust 2025-26 canola harvest is nearing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This November, Western Cape where the relatively new crop thrives, will be painted a golden sepia by the ripening oilseed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to economist&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/wandile.substack.com\/p\/south-africa-is-set-to-have-a-record\"><u>Wandile Sihlobo<\/u><\/a>, production in 2025-26 could attain 311,640 tonnes, 7% above the 2024-25 season\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The estimate gains force from generally favorable growing conditions in the 2025 southern winter, albeit with a few huddles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Snail infestation in some areas which forced growers to replant accounted for a 3% downward revision of production estimates from an earlier August projection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, the earliest output estimate for the season of 311,661 tonnes or 8% up year-on-year aligns to this latest one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The figures stem from multiplying a productivity rate of 1.89 tonnes a hectare (ha) to the 2025 planted area of 164,900 ha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-rise-of-canola-in-sa\"><strong>Rise of Canola in SA<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This acreage may seem long-established but it is actually the outcome of a quite recent commercial oilseed cultivation boom in Western Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Owing to a rise in canola oil and oilcake demand amid robust&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/insights\/prices\/south-africa\/canola-oil\/\"><u>pricing<\/u><\/a>, growers converted feed grain plantations into rapeseed fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With its suitable winter rainfall, the Cape has so far proven reliable for the commercial production of the traditionally North American crop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From just&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.africanfarming.com\/2025\/05\/26\/rise-of-canola-production-in-sa-an-inspiration-for-other-value-chains\/\"><u>17,000 ha<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;in the 1998-99 pioneer season, the canola acreage in South Africa had grown tenfold in the mid-2020s.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sashares.co.za\/canola-price\/\"><u>C$669\u00a0<\/u><\/a>($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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-south-africa-canola-statistics\"><strong>South Africa Canola&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>Statistics&nbsp;<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>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&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/agbiz.co.za\/uploads\/AgbizNews16\/161201_Canola-growing-and-growing-in-Africa.pdf\"><u>17,000 hectares<\/u><\/a>, with preliminary output at 21,000 tonnes. Half a decade later, the &nbsp;annual harvest grew exponentially from 75,000 to&nbsp;<a href=\" www.nda.gov.za\/images\/Branches\/Economica Development Trade and Marketing\/marketing\"><u>93,453 tonnes<\/u><\/a>, per the government of South Africa. The&nbsp;<a href=\"#data\/QCL\"><u>FAOSTAT<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;table below extends the profile with an historical production perspective of joint rape\/colza seed in the early 2020s:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Year<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Production [tonnes]<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2023<\/td><td>236,300<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2022<\/td><td>210,000<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2021<\/td><td>198,100<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2020<\/td><td>165,200<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2019<\/td><td>95,000<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig:<em>&nbsp;combined rape\/colza seed production, South Africa, 2019-23<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Does South Africa also process edible canola oil?<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa\u2019s 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\u00a0<a href=\"#data\/QCL\"><u>52,200 tonnes.\u00a0<\/u><\/a>The below FAOSTAT data interpretation sheds more light:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Year<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Production [tonnes]<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2022<\/td><td>56,600<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2021<\/td><td>52,200<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2020<\/td><td>37,000<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2019<\/td><td>39,800<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig:<em>rapeseed oil production, South Africa, 2019-23<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How strong is rapeseed demand in SA?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/agbiz.co.za\/uploads\/AgbizNews16\/161201_Canola-growing-and-growing-in-Africa.pdf\"><u>Agbiz<\/u><\/a>. This demand also owes to imports by other countries: in 2015, Lesotho imported\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/agbiz.co.za\/uploads\/AgbizNews16\/161201_Canola-growing-and-growing-in-Africa.pdf\"><u>49%\u00a0<\/u><\/a>of SA\u2019s canola oil while Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe claimed 24% and 7%, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the southern summer planting season in South Africa for maize, soy and sunflower gets underway, a robust 2025-26 canola harvest is nearing.&nbsp; This November, Western Cape where the relatively new crop thrives, will be painted a golden sepia by the ripening oilseed. According to economist&nbsp;Wandile Sihlobo, production in 2025-26 could attain 311,640 tonnes, 7%&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v16.3 (Yoast SEO v20.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A bold 2025-26 harvest awaits canola in South Africa - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/10\/07\/a-bold-2025-26-harvest-awaits-canola-in-south-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A bold 2025-26 harvest awaits canola in South Africa - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the southern summer planting season in South Africa for maize, soy and sunflower gets underway, a robust 2025-26 canola harvest is nearing.&nbsp; This November, Western Cape where the relatively new crop thrives, will be painted a golden sepia by the ripening oilseed. 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