Werneth farmer Zac Carty has planted canola on his farm for 15 years. This season, he’s hoping the yellow carpets across his 430 hectares will result in a decent profit befitting the months of work he’s put into the crop.
Although fertiliser and keeping pests away are expensive, Carty told the Brolga, “if you do everything right and you take a lot of care, you can actually grow a decent crop and make a lot of money out of it”.
The market can be mercurial. “Years ago, we used to get $500 a tonne for canola, and then it got to $1,000, but it's gone back to $800,” Carty said. He describes $800 as “a pretty good price” but is hopeful of it climbing back to four figures.
Based on anecdotal evidence, Carty said “everyone’s up on their canola hectares, more than normal.”
Where does it go? Once the crop is harvested, it is taken to Geelong or other “receivable sites”, and that’s the last Carty sees of it.
“It goes on a boat, we don't know where it goes after that.”
How much is exported? About 80 percent of Australia’s canola is exported overseas. Six million tonnes of canola seed was exported in the 2024-25 financial year. In that year Australia was the largest supplier of canola seed to the EU, accounting for about 46 percent of total imports.
In the 2025-26 financial year, Victoria produced about 1.6 million tonnes of canola across 625,000 hectares of crops, the fifth largest amount on record and nine percent higher than the year before.
What is canola used for? While some canola seeds produce cooking oil, a report by the CSIRO from 2023 said the European biodiesel market accounted for more than 70 percent of total exports, with a value of more than $2 billion per year.
Since the start of the US-Iran war, fuel and fertiliser availability has plummeted after Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz, driving costs up for farmers. As a result, the demand for canola, which has the ability to be converted into a type of diesel, has also gone up.
What’s biodiesel? Biodiesel is a renewable alternative to mineral diesel made by chemically altering oils like canola into fuel that can run in diesel engines, either to combine with or replace fossil fuel.
In 2023 the CSIRO found biodiesel made from Australian canola cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 65 percent compared to regular diesel.
Profits for farmers: Carty said the economics of canola now stack up against other commodities such as wheat. He expected to yield three to four tonnes of canola per hectare, at roughly $800 a tonne.
“I've got to get five and a half tonnes of wheat to break even, and some years we only get six tonnes, so we're only making money on half a tonne [each hectare]. Whereas on canola it was about 2.2 tonnes to the hectare to break even,” he said.
Fuel or food on “prime ag land”? The Coalition and One Nation are pushing for agricultural land to be preserved for food security, and use this argument against farmers choosing to host wind or solar farms in tandem with their farming operations.
For fifth-generation Wimmera grain grower and prospective wind farm host Craig Henderson, these policy positions don’t sit right, given the majority of canola crops in western Victoria is destined to be used as fuel, not food.
He argued farmers should have the opportunity to make profit and diversify their income, including growing canola or hosting renewable energy.
“It’s the farmers’ job to provide food for his family, not the whole world. If the world wants to pay for biofuel, that’s just business,” he told the Brolga.
“To turn around and say you can’t put renewables on your land but you can grow canola is hypocritical.”