KENNEWICK, Wash. -More
farmers in the Mid-Columbia may plant canola this spring.
Growers attending the Washington
State University Oilseed Production and Marketing Conference are learning there
is a worldwide shortage of canola and other vegetable oils because growing Asian
countries are consuming more of it.
"People's incomes have risen
and they're doing stir frying and eating meat instead of rice," says Dennis
Roe with the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at WSU Pullman. "Plus there's
an interest in using vegetable oil for bio fuel."
Roe says Washington state farmers
will grow 30,000 acres of canola this year, double what growers harvested last
year.
The
price of canola has nearly tripled in the past five years, from eight to ten
cents to 25 to 30 cents per pound.
