Tariffs on Canadian canola will be a further burden on family farms throughout the Prairies, a national agricultural organization says.
The concerns come as China has imposes heavy tariffs on Canadian canola oil and meal — to the tune of 100 per cent — in addition to 25 per cent duty on products like seafood and pork.
The move is in response to Canada’s own tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, as well as aluminum and steel products.
Grain Growers of Canada executive director Kyle Larkin told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg that family farms are already struggling due to issues ranging from increased costs for fertilizer and pesticides, as well as more taxation and regulations from the government.
“When grain farming is impacted, the whole sector is impacted and that means the entire Canadian economy is impacted,” Larkin said.
“Your regular family in Winnipeg may be thinking, ‘Why does a 100 per cent tariff on canola… impact me? It’s only impacting grain farmers.’ Well, it’s impacting the entire Canadian economy.”
Larkin said while some farmers do have the option to change their crops, it’s not that easy — they still have to consider issues like crop rotation, as well as the demand for canola.
Having a trade war on two fronts — with tariffs on various products coming from the United States as well as those imposed by China — is putting stress on the agriculture industry, he said.
“What we know is uncertainty always lowers the price farmers get when they sell their crops — when they sell their canola or peas or barley, etc. So that’s what farmers are facing right now.”
The Manitoba Canola Growers Association says the crop has already dropped in price, causing concern throughout the industry.
“It’s kind of a unique crop in that farmers use it for cash flow in the fall — they’ll sell it and use it to finance their operations, that’s been a long tradition,” Warren Ellis told 680 CJOB’s The Start.
“It’s a very important part of our economy of farmers… but also our agricultural economy and Canadian economy.”
According to Statistics Canada, Manitoba farmers were planning on seeding 3.1 million acres of canola this year.
Although the tariffs only came into place Thursday, Ellis said local farmers are already feeling the pinch.
“The immediate thing is we’ve seen a two-dollar a bushel drop in the price, which is about $80 to $100 an acre (of) lost revenue.”
