Story Posted: February 24, 2011

Canola hits record high for farm cash receipts

Statistics Canada has released the farm cash receipt totals for 2010 and canola remains at the top. In 2010, canola put $5.598 billion in farmers' wallets - a record for Canada's golden crop and a 10 percent increase from canola farm cash receipt totals for 2009.

Canola was the number one crop for farm cash receipts, followed by wheat (including durum) at $3.54 billion, corn at $1.44 billion and soybeans at $1.42 billion. Overall crop farm cash receipts for 2010 were $21.871 billion, down 6.3 percent from 2009.

In Saskatchewan, the largest producer of canola in Canada, canola farm cash receipts increased by 16 percent from 2009 to $2.72 billion.

The numbers were up in the other top canola growing provinces as well; Manitoba's 2010 canola receipts were $1.12 billion and Alberta's were $1.71 billion.

"Farmers are business people and they make decisions based on profitability," says JoAnne Buth, Canola Council of Canada president. "Canada's 43,000 canola growers choose canola because it's resilient and it delivers profit, year after year."

Canadian canola production was 11.9 million tonnes in 2010. The canola industry has a target of 15 million tonnes of sustainable canola production in Canada by 2015. "Without growers' investments in canola we don't have a canola industry," Buth says. "If they don't grow canola, the industry doesn't grow."

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