Leduc, a fourth-generation producer who grows more than 10,000 acres of wheat, durum, mustard, canola, peas and lentils in an area dominated by grazing cattle, thinks that the long-awaited technological improvement, a plant that produces canola-like oil, could help him eke out a few more dollars per acre.

“All I’m trying to do is improve the bottom line of our farm,” he said.

WHY IT MATTERS: Mustard growers worry BASF’s InVigor Gold hybrid will destroy Canada’s condiment mustard industry. BASF says the oilseed could be grown safely in arid regions where canola routinely fails.

But Trent Dewar, who farms elsewhere in the Canadian semi-desert known as Palliser’s Triangle, fears the new GMO mustard plant will ruin the pure mustard he grows for the premium Dijon bottlers in France, the United States and Japan, as well as other specialty mustards. The industry is worth about $150 million (C$209 million) in exports annually — only a fraction of the $8.9 billion (C$12.4 billion) canola exports market. But in a geography where canola fails more often than it flourishes, mustard has been the lifeblood of many farms since growers started planting it 90 years ago.

“Everybody I’ve talked to personally is quite shell-shocked that this would even be considered,” he said.

Mustard is a tiny crop in Canada, with usually less than 200,000 metric tons of mustard produced by a few hundred farmers. Mustard production soars and sags with volatile world prices and local weather, like other specialty crops. Canadian canola growers, by contrast, usually plant more than 20 million acres of their crop, which produces upwards of 19 million metric tons. That makes canola Canada’s biggest source of crop income by far.

That’s why so many are excited about the drought-resistant GMO mustard plant. Global agricultural giant BASF hopes to win approval from Canadian and U.S. agencies for commercialization as soon as next year in the U.S. and a couple of years later in Canada.

It’s not without risk, however. The GMO plant looks nearly identical to a traditional mustard plant. Neighboring fields could be contaminated with seeds and pollen carried on the wind or by bees. Both traditional brown and oriental mustards and the new mustard canola are brassica junceas, so they can breed, with pollen from one type fertilizing the other.

“It has the potential of wrecking a whole industry,” said farmer Norm Hall, the chair of SaskMustard, which represents Saskatchewan’s mustard growers. The group is lobbying the government in Ottawa to keep the crop out of Canada.

Brent Collins, head of BASF’s seeds and traits division in Canada, said the crop was an “innovation” that would “truly unlock new canola acres, helping meet market demand.”

The French connection

France, which sources about half its mustard supplies from Canada, has a strict non-GMO standard. Other large global buyers are similarly stringent. Many Canadian mustard growers and sellers fear the door could slam shut if traces of the hybrid mustard-canola were detected.

“They look at it like a razor blade that shows up in a bag of rice,” said Peter Gorski of Broadgrain, a company that sells Canadian specialty crops like mustard to buyers around the world.

Foreign buyers have not said how they will respond if GMO traces appear. Most contracts contain a commitment to be non-GMO, and two contracts shared with Reuters contained that specification. A French law limits the presence of GMOs in the food supply, but the threshold of acceptable traces is mostly left to the buyer.

Christophe Planes, sales and marketing director for French mustard processor Reine de Dijon, said the GMO plant could spell trouble for Canadian exports.

About half of the company’s seeds are sourced from Canada, he said, adding: “We’re clearly committed to a non-GMO policy.”

“Since France is quite strict regarding GMOs we systematically check all our supplies to ensure that there are no traces, or very few traces,” Planes said.

Since Canada’s crippling drought of 2021, which hampered mustard production and triggered panic in French shoppers finding grocery store shelves bare of the condiment, France has boosted its own domestic supplies. There are other sources for mustard seed, such as Argentina, Germany and Ukraine, but Canadian mustard is both high quality and cheap, Planes said. Switching could affect quality and raise prices.

A flax grower’s nightmare, revisited

Canadian mustard growers are haunted by a historical precedent: tainted flax. Canada lost a well-paying and steady European market for flax when traces of a GMO variety called Triffid were found in European food products in 2009. Exports plunged and never recovered.

Mustard is an ancient crop, its seeds found in stone-age settlements of the Near East, in ancient Sumerian texts, and even in the tomb of Egypt’s Pharaoh Tutankhamun. In the Bible, Jesus of Nazareth told a parable about the mustard seed.

By contrast, the mustard-canola hybrid is a 21st-century scientific marvel, employing decades of traditional plant breeding and later GMO methods to produce a mustard plant that produces a version of canola oil, and that survives a herbicide controlling the plague of tumbleweeds in western North America. Many farmers in the mustard-growing region have been eagerly awaiting this new crop since the 1990s, but it has been a tortuous scientific development process. Canola is a cool-weather crop that thrives in northern latitudes like Canada, but climate change’s bouts of extreme heat and drought are expected to make it more challenging to grow.

Some of the original research into using a mustard plant to produce canola-like seed was done by scientists working for a farmers’ cooperative in the 1990s, as well as by university researchers. Now global agriculture giant BASF has brought what it calls InVigor Gold to the cusp of commercialization.

Traditional clashes with bold and new

From discussions with mustard and canola industry key players, it is clear that the two camps have sharply different assessments of whether the GMO mustard can flourish alongside traditional mustard.

“We know we can’t co-exist,” said Rick Mitzel, executive director of Sask Mustard.

BASF, however, thinks two million acres of its mustard-canola could be grown in arid areas of Canada and the U.S., with safeguards against pollen flow and seed spread between mustard and canola fields.

“We understand the areas that mustard growers are concerned about and it’s our responsibility to be able to explain what exactly we’re doing to be able to appease some of these concerns,” said Collins.

The two sides have sporadically met in recent years, but as the widespread release of the crop approaches, mustard growers and the mustard industry have grown desperate.

At an industry meeting this winter, mustard growers and merchants called for their representatives to take legal and political action to block the introduction of InVigor Gold. But Hall told them it would be an “uphill battle” because BASF is following the usual crop development protocols, and market impact is not considered during the Canadian crop approval processes.

Kacy Gehring of Mountain States Oilseeds, a U.S. mustard merchant in American Falls, Idaho, said the concern about GMO contamination destroying markets could trigger farmers to just stop growing mustard. That wouldn’t just be a problem for companies like hers, but also bad for world culinary culture, she said.

Farmer Leduc understands the worries of his mustard-growing neighbors, but doesn’t apologize for wanting to get InVigor Gold into his fields as soon as possible. Farming in an arid region isn’t easy, but it’s where his great-grandfather settled. He needs every survival tool he can get.

“I wish I was in a wetter part of the province,” he said.

— Additional reporting by Sybille de la Hamaide and Gus Trompiz in France.

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Up a penny, down a penny

“Oriental (mustard) dropped a little bit in the last few days, less than one per cent,” said Hall, who farms near Wynyard, Sask. “They’re just moving around a little bit here and there, up a cent or down a cent per pound.”

Prairie Ag Hotwire reported that as of Feb, yellow mustard tacked on one cent at 40 to 42 cents/lb. delivered. Oriental was up a penny as well at 46 to 47 cents/lb. while brown was down a penny at 31 to 35 cents.

Hall said Saskatchewan farmers are still dealing with a large harvest from 2024.

Nearly 140,000 tonnes harvested

Statistics Canada placed mustard production for that year at 192,300 tonnes, followed by this year’s crop of 139,800 tonnes. In Saskatchewan, mustard growers gleaned around 89,700 tonnes, down from 136,100 the previous year. Alberta is the only other province that produces enough reportable amounts of the oilseed.

“The majority of Saskatchewan mustard is grown in the Palliser Triangle,” Hall said. “Depending on when (farmers) seeded … there were some rains that the later crops benefited from. They got some handsome yields. Then there were others who got virtually nothing.”

Hall cited a private report that deemed this year’s mustard crop to be average overall.

With StatCan production figures, the five-year average for the total mustard output is a little more than 137,000 tonnes and about 98,000 tonnes for Saskatchewan.

Looking for more planted area

As spring approaches, Hall is hopeful that mustard prices climb higher as that should lead to more planted area.

In Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s January supply and demand estimates, its initial mustard projection for planted area was 175,000 hectares in 2026/27 compared to 146,200 this year. AAFC predicted harvested area to be 170,000 hectares versus 144,700 in 2025/26. However, the agency forecast the yield to drop from 0.97 t/ha. down to 0.79 t/ha.

AAFC estimated next year’s mustard exports to hold at 95,000 tonnes and domestic use to bump up to 54,000 tonnes. Ending stocks are to step back from 145,000 tonnes to 140,000.

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The federal agency issued its principal field crop area report on June 27, estimating farmers planted nearly 21.46 million acres of canola. That’s a dip of almost 0.9 per cent from its March estimate, down 2.5 per cent of what was sown in 2024/25, and about 1.2 per cent under the five-year average.

There was a feeling in the trade that more canola would be planted due to an upswing in canola prices, but StatCan noted concerns about the growing conditions on the Prairies and especially ongoing trade issues are possibly reasons why there’s a dip in canola acres.

Also, StatCan revised its estimate on 2024/25 canola production, raising it from 17.4 million tonnes to now 19.2 million.

Meanwhile, StatCan’s call on flax acres did an about face with the agency now saying more was seeded in 2025/26 rather than less. StatCan placed flax acres just short of 620,000 compared to the 448,000 estimated in March and the 503,000 planted last year.

Mustard as well had a turnaround, up 19.6 per cent from March, but at almost 360,000 acres it will still be well short of 606,000 sown a year ago.

As for all wheat, at 26.93 million acres StatCan said slightly more was planted this year than the 26.65 million previous year. However, the latest call is down two per cent from March.

Spring wheat acres of almost 18.81 million are down 3.2 per cent from earlier but a pinch below the 18.94 million planted last year.

Those for durum are up 2.5 per cent from March at 6.53 million, and 2.6 per cent more from 2024/25.

Winter wheat acres increased to 1.58 million from 1.34 million last year.

1 acre = 0.405 hectares

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Statistics Canada reported in March that projected planted acres for the seed this year in the province is to be 212,000, a far cry from the 409,700 acres planted in 2024. Supply won’t be an issue as the 2024-25 carryout is expected to be 150,000 tonnes, compared to 88,000 in 2023-24.

The 212,000 acres of Saskatchewan mustard would be the third-lowest seeded area this decade, but Rick Mitzel, executive director of SaskMustard said it’s likely there could be even fewer acres seeded this spring due to dry conditions.

“Initially, (growers) started off with OK moisture because of the amount of snowfall that was there in the winter,” Mitzel said. “But as we moved to spring, the warmer weather moved in and the wind picked up and dried things out very quickly on us. I think we did have some growers switch to other crops that can seed deeper and get into the moisture.

“If growers were thinking about 290,000 to 300,000 acres (nationally), it’s a (very good) chance it’ll be less than that. Maybe as low as 250,000.”

The high-delivered bids for mustard on the Prairies were 46 cents per pound for yellow and 35 cents for the brown and Oriental varieties. All of them are down eight cents/lb. from the previous year as of May 28, Prairie Ag Hotwire reported.

Current market prices for mustard are “kind of common” compared to past years, Mitzel added. However, he believes one variety has yet to tap into its upside.

“On the brown side, there’s lots of supply right now. Demand for the grower’s product isn’t as strong as it could be. Once that brown mustard works its way through the system, I think we’ll be back towards more normal pricing on that,” Mitzel said.

Despite the lower prices, he said that growers still want mustard in their rotations and in certain areas such as southwest Saskatchewan, it can be more profitable than canola.

SaskMustard will spread the good word about the crop at various events later this year, including Ag in Motion in Langham, Sask. from July 15 to 17. There will also be an annual field tour around Swift Current on July 17 in conjunction with the Wheatland Conservation Area.

SaskMustard is also continuing its collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in developing new varieties of mustard. Some have been widely accepted by mustard growers despite not seeing higher yields due to dry conditions.

“We launched a hybrid brown a couple of years ago and a composite yellow seed variety came out of that as well. Those are the two big ones that have made a big difference in growing mustard and helping growers produce more seed,” Mitzel said, adding that researchers will also work on varieties that are more resistant to damage and disease.

“We’re hoping for some moisture so we can have a more productive season for growing mustard.”

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StatCan issued its stocks of principal field crops as of Dec.31, 2024, which showed total canola stocks at 11.38 million tonnes. That’s down from 14.09 million tonnes a year ago and it’s the tightest level since the drought year of 2021. The agency pointed to increased exports and domestic use of the oilseed for the decline.

A survey by Reuters ranged total canola stocks from 10.80 million to 13.2 million tonnes.

“This is a step further towards confirming tight canola stocks this year,” commented MarketsFarm Pro analyst Mike Jubinville.

In the breakdown of stocks, StatCan pegged on-farm canola at 9.89 million tonnes, compared to 12.92 million a year ago. However, commercial stocks bumped up to almost 1.50 million tonnes from 1.17 million.

As for all wheat, StatCan estimated total stocks at 24.48 million tonnes and the year-ago at 24.25 million. On-farm stocks were estimated at 20.94 million tonnes versus 20.24 million the previous Dec. 31. Commercial levels slipped to 3.54 million tonnes from 4.01 million. The federal agency said increased production in 2024/25 led to the larger stocks.

Of the wheat, total durum stocks accounted for 3.62 million tonnes, up from 3.19 million last year. That comprised of 3.02 million tonnes on-farm compared 2.58 million and commercial stocks of 600,000 tonnes, dipping from 610,000 tonnes.

The Reuters survey slotted total all wheat stocks at 22.50 million to 23.50 million, with durum at 1.70 million to 3.70 million tonnes.

Canada’s total corn stocks of 11.32 million were virtually unchanged from the 11.30 million the previous Dec. 31. Also, barley stocks of 4.96 million tonnes pulled back from 5.46 million, while soybeans increased to 4.15 million tonnes from 3.74 million. Oat stocks of 2.19 million tonnes slipped from 2.29 million a year ago.

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“It is really disappointing.”

Production of brown and Oriental mustard was down, Penner said, while that of yellow mustard was up about 70 per cent, according to Statistics Canada numbers at the end of the year.

These numbers worked together to balance out carryover supplies from last year, Penner says.

“We have some adequate, comfortable supplies of all three classes this year,” he said, estimating total production from last year of around 200,000 tonnes and current supplies of around 265,000 tonnes.

In terms of demand, he said production in the United States was down about one-quarter from the previous year, at 47,000 tonnes, but with a decent sized carryover, he isn’t sure how this will affect global trade.

“Our guesstimate at that they’re looking at a slight contraction in supplies in the U.S. but not adequate for what they’ve done in the past. So, they’re going to still need imports.”

He says there’s also the major question of how trade between the two countries could be affected by a potential tariff.

“Are those imports going to move freely or at an extra price? We’ll maybe see something next week,” he said Jan. 16.

Russia, which produced about 183,000 tonnes of mustard in 2022, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, will likely be a less significant competitor this year due to decreased production and yields last year, Penner said.

At the same time, Ukraine is becoming a more significant player, with increased exports last year and likely even more this year.

“I do know from contacts in Ukraine that there has been more interest in growing niche crops like mustard because of all the uncertainty,” Penner said.

“They’re looking for crops specifically that they can export directly into the EU.”

In light of all this, Penner said he’s hoping to see Canada export about 105,000 tonnes of mustard this year, compared to about 90,000 tonnes last year.

“I’m trying to be really optimistic, but it’s not going to be a stellar year for exports.”

Longer term, he says the outlook isn’t much better.

“When you have lows in the mustard market, they’re long lows. I think we’re setting the stage for that same kind of scenario.”

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One of the most notable numbers in the December outlook for principal field crops was AAFC holding its call on canola exports for 2024/25 at 7.50 million tonnes, despite StatCan cutting production to 17.85 million from 18.98 million. The AAFC’s report explained the department did so because “…the impact of China’s announced anti-dumping investigation on Canadian canola remaining unknown at this time.”

As well, AAFC listed five factors for the canola market needs to keep an eye on: the strength of China’s buying; farmer delivery pace; crush pace; possible tariff and non-tariffs barriers for seed, oil and meal; and the size of the soybean crops in Brazil and Argentina.

AAFC reduced its domestic use projection for 2024/25 canola to 11.94 million tonnes from 12.13 million in November. Combined with smaller production, that led the department to drop canola ending stocks to 1.25 million tonnes from 2.20 million.

With 2024/25 all wheat production being nudged higher by StatCan to 34.96 million tonnes from 34.29 million, AAFC upped exports to 26.15 million tonnes versus November’s 25.70 million. Also, domestic use rose to 9.10 million tonnes from 8.73 million. Ending stocks were eased back to 4.45 million tonnes from 4.60 million.

Among the lentils, AAFC lowered ending stocks for dry peas to 325,000 from November’s 450,000 tonnes. Lentils were cut as well, with the December figure at 350,000 tonnes from 475,000 the previous month.

– With files from Phil Franz-Warkentin, Glacier Farm Media

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The department bumped up all wheat exports for 2024/25 to 25.70 million tonnes from 25.40 million last month. As well those for durum are now at 4.90 million tonnes, tacking on 100,000 tonnes. AAFC pointed to this year’s wheat and durum exports improving over those from the same time in 2023/24.

That led to Canadian all wheat ending stocks for 2024/25 being reduced to 4.60 million tonnes from 4.90 million in October. Durum slipped to 800,000 tonnes from last month’s 900,000.

This is the final AAFC report using Statistic Canada’s principal field crop report from September. StatCan is scheduled to release its next report on Dec. 5 with the AAFC report set for Dec. 19.

November estimates for Canadian major crops supply and demand: in million metric tonnes. Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

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On Sept. 17, Bayer announced that its Buteo start seed treatment has been registered for mustard in Western Canada.

“The damage caused by flea beetles at the start of the season impacts crop development long-term and can lead to significant yield loss,” Bryan Bryson, Bayer marketing portfolio lead for traits and licensing, said in a release.

The Group 4D, flupyradifurone-based product reached the Canadian market in 2020. Its label now covers early season control of flea beetles in canola, as well as soybean aphid and bean leaf beetle in soybeans, although promotional materials from the company heavily market the insecticide for its canola applications.

The company pitches the product for control of striped and crucifer flea beetles. Fact sheets published by the company cite canola trials done in 2019 in flea beetle-infested areas. Those trials found that a combination of Buteo start and the seed treatment ProsperEverGol (which is also registered for mustard), showed significantly less leaf damage from three to 17 days post-emergence, quicker crop progression and a thicker stand.

The insecticide “delivers rapid uptake and systemic translocation from cotyledon to leaf margins, enabling a quicker-growing canopy and uniform flowering, even in dry conditions where flea beetles thrive,” the Sept. 17 release said.

Mustard growers face many of the same agronomic challenges as canola growers do, the company noted, and that includes flea beetles.

The insects have been a perennial problem for canola growers. Several years of difficult spring conditions led to stalled stands while plants were vulnerable. Significant and sometimes repeated applications of foliar spray were needed once seed treatments wore off.

According to the Canola Council of Canada, heavy flea beetle infestation can cause a 10 per cent yield reduction even when insecticides are applied.

“A yield reduction of one per cent per acre results in a total crop loss of about 25 million to 35 million dollars,” the council’s website states. “Annual crop losses in North America from flea beetles potentially exceed 300 million dollars.”

According to the manual put out by the Saskatchewan Mustard Development Commission, “damage is most severe when the beetles attack the growing point of the plant. In cool moist conditions, scouting should include observing the underside of cotyledons for pitting and the stem for notching or girdling. Feeding on pods can result in premature shattering and grade loss.”

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That’s slightly more than the 2022/23 crop, which the New Delhi desk placed at 11.83 million tonnes compared to the USDA’s official number of 11.30 million. The report noted favourable cold weather during the rabi crop season proved to be beneficial to the 2023/24 crop while harvested area and yields were relatively steady.

The New Delhi desk projected the 2023/24 crush at 10.40 million tonnes, while the USDA was 200,000 tonnes less. Total domestic consumption was pegged at 11.80 million tonnes by the attaché with the USDA lower at 11.55 million.

There was a wide disparity in 2023/24 ending stocks, with the attaché at 850,000 tonnes compared to the USDA’s 574,000.

The report noted India neither imports nor exports rapeseed-mustard seeds. Due to high volumes of domestic use, the country exports small amounts of oil and meal.

India’s rapeseed oil production for 2023/24 was estimated by the attaché at 3.95 million tonnes with the USDA at 4.29 million. Exports were placed at 15,000 tonnes by the attaché and 10,000 by the department, with domestic use taking up the rest.

The oil’s ending stocks for 2023/24 were projected by the New Delhi desk at 340,000 tonnes with the USDA higher at 397,000.

Rapeseed meal production for 2023/24 was set at 6.15 million tonnes by the attaché with the USDA at 6.07 million. Exports are much larger than oil, with the attaché at 1.90 million tonnes and the USDA at 1.10 million. The rest is for feed with the New Delhi desk at 4.30 million tonnes and the department at 4.75 million.

Ending vary widely, with the attaché at 134,000 tonnes compared to the department at 417,000.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg. 

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