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By Nick Nielsen

Tisdale P&H Manager Comments

Saskatchewan grain terminals seeing increase in canola sales

Feb 5, 2026 | 5:00 PM

It’s been three weeks now since Prime Minister Mark Carney and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe returned from China with a drastic reduction on Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola seed. Since then, grain elevators around the country have started to see more movement of the product, including here in Saskatchewan. 

Pat Brown is the General Manager at P & H in Tisdale, and he said that lately more train cars are leaving the terminal full of canola, and farmers are meeting the demand with canola from the 2025 harvest. 

“The on-farm stocks were fairly high at this time of year in regards to canola, and with this announcement of the tariff relief, we’ve seen the increased value in canola, and yeah, the willingness to generate some cash flow on the farm is certainly there and it’s happening.” 

Brown said that the increase in canola coming to the terminal has been noticeable in the Tisdale area, but he’s heard similar sentiments from the other terminals around the province and the rest of western Canada. 

According to data from the Government of Saskatchewan, contracts for Canadian Grade 1 Canola hit a low in mid-December of $538.82 per tonne. In mid January days before the tariffs had lifted, prices were up to $569.59 per tonne. As of today, $609.12 per tonne is the price in Saskatchewan. 

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So far, the only challenge in moving canola since the announcement of the tariff relief has been weather according to Brown. 

“Generally, we’ve seen fairly fluid movement. The rail has been pretty decent, we haven’t had a lot of disturbance throughout the mountains, and the boats are booked and arriving at the coast. So we’re seeing pretty decent movement weather-wise, getting it off the farm has been, other than that week of real bitter cold, we’ve had some pretty decent weather to haul and generate movement.” 

Prices on Canadian canola had gotten low enough that it was difficult for farmers to turn a profit, and now that price is rising quickly. Brown isn’t expecting to see a lot of farmers growing more canola this year because most are already locked into their crop rotations, but he thinks the timing of the tariff relief will be huge for farmers heading into seeding. 

“This is a big, big time of the year for generating revenue, because there’s crop input bills that are due from the previous year, there’s the FCC comes due the middle of March, and the general need for cash flow is fairly high this time of year. So it’s the timing of this event and the increase in the value that is huge for the farm.” 

Brown added that there is a ton of high quality canola coming in right now, more on the way, and now a large market that wants to buy it. He credits that to some civility on the national stage. 

“We’re dealing with a high quality crop. We’ve got a lot of number one canola in general and high quality oil in it. The world’s in need of it, right? So it’s nice to see the whole political climate kind of, in my mind, smoothing out a little bit, a little more diplomacy being deployed. So that’s a bit more settling for the general farm folks.” 

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com