It's seldom that we write about no-till and politics, but there’s a situation in Canada right now where international politics is spelling big trouble for the country’s canola growers. And with the majority of this highly popular and profitable crop in western Canada being no-tilled, it’s definitely affecting the bank accounts of growers.

The concern is that the country’s largest canola customer, China, banned Canadian imports earlier this year. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the situation had nothing to do with the quality of the canola or the price, but instead Canadian canola sales are involved in a diplomatic flap over last December’s arrest of a Chinese executive.

Canadian authorities link the canola ban to the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, which is the world’s largest supplier of telecom equipment. The U.S. government has requested her extradition from Canada for the company’s alleged violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran and security and spying concerns over its ties to the Chinese government.

Shipments Stopped

China halted Canadian canola shipments in March, indicating they had found harmful organisms in canola imports. However, Canadian regulators found no evidence of contamination and have linked the ban to the December arrest.

In China, the country's foreign ministry defended the suspension of Canadian canola import licenses as legitimate and reasonable steps to protect Chinese consumers and agricultural security. This is similar to last year when U.S. soybean growers lost their biggest foreign buyer for several months when…