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Keller is now left with a storage room full of unsold, unpriced canola. With only a handful of canola distributors to sell to, he said he’s left with a single contingency plan — hope the Canadian government can come to a quick resolution before he’s forced to sell below market value.

“You’re almost forced to sell by the time next harvest starts,” said Keller. “You can’t hold forever, canola will go bad in the bin. It’s not like holding a piece of stock where you can sit on it indefinitely until the market turns around.”

John Guelly, a canola farmer in Westlock and chairman of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission, said Keller’s situation is common across the 45,000 Canadian canola farmers currently waiting for a solution.

“Are we going to see no canola seeded in Alberta? Definitely not, but there may not be as much as we’ve had the last couple years,” said Guelly. “Unless you have a market you can sell your canola into the U.S. or something there’s really no other choices rather than to keep jamming the pipeline full.”

Guelly said if a solution can be reached between the two countries the stoppage could be viewed as a hiccup. If the stoppage lasts through the summer however, Guelly said seeds, oil and crops will continue to fill the supply chain and force farmers to sit on their harvest, which could eventually affect the export of other crops.

“The cash crop that we have can no longer be delivered for cash,” said Guelly. “It’s not a good situation whatsoever. We have a lot of canola at port now, we have a lot of it on railcars headed that way and we have a lot of it in storage.”

In the meantime, Guelly said the commission is going to look to increase exports to other countries as they continue to work with the government to push for progress with China.

The commission issued a statement over the weekend reconfirming its confidence in the quality of canola exported from Alberta.

dshort@postmedia.com

@dylanshort_