As Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares to meet with China\u2019s president next week, farmers in Saskatchewan are hopeful progress can be made toward removing the punishing tariffs placed on Canadian canola and peas.<\/p>\n
Both crops make up about 70 per cent of what Ryan Scragg grows on his farm 30 minutes northeast of Prince Albert. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a tough year market wise,\u201d Scragg told CTV News.<\/p>\n
In March, China imposed a 100 per cent tariff on canola oil, canola meal and peas. Canola seeds were hit with a 76 per cent tariff last August, widely seen as a response to Canada\u2019s 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles.<\/p>\n
The tariffs effectively closed the Chinese market and pulverized crop prices to the point where canola and peas are no longer profitable for farmers looking to sell last year\u2019s crops, Scragg said. \u201cIt\u2019s really a frustrating thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe grew a good crop. That should mean good profitability. Yet we\u2019re struggling to even maintain any profitability. We\u2019re basically breaking even.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scragg, who is the reeve of the Rural Municipality of Garden River, says he\u2019s happy to see the federal government standing up for producers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see them inking a trade deal or something that immediately fixes it, but I think doing anything is better than doing nothing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe markets are totally out of our hands, so when the government recognizes that they need to step in and do something, I think that\u2019s a positive thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
China is Canada\u2019s second largest export market for canola products, valued at $5 billion in 2024, according to the Canola Council of Canada. The value is expected to drop \u201csignificantly below that\u201d once final numbers are tallied for 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been very clear that our objective is to have the market reopened to a return to smoother, more predictable trade,\u201d said Canola Council president and CEO Chris Davison. <\/p>\n
Davison said the groundwork has been laid to recalibrate the trade relationship between Canada and China through conversations and trade missions over the last several months. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s now hoping that engagement translates into action during Carney\u2019s trip.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister\u2019s visit to China is scheduled from Jan. 13 to 17, when he will meet with the Chinese president to discuss trade, energy, agriculture, and international security.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are hopeful that the Prime Minister\u2019s visit next week leads to a resolution that allows Canadian peas back into the Chinese market,\u201d Pulse Canada\u2019s president Greg Cherewyk told CTV News in a statement.<\/p>\n
Peas have taken the biggest hit with markets dropping 35 to 40 per cent. Scragg\u2019s holding off on selling any more of his crops as long as he can, hoping markets improve before he\u2019s forced to sell.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point, there\u2019s just no more option of waiting. Cash flow demands and bills start to stack up and you just have to sell even it it\u2019s at a loss just to cover your costs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Scragg doesn\u2019t typically like to adjust his crop rotation based on markets, but he plans to cut back on the amount of canola he seeds this spring and grow \u201cnext to nothing for peas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, it\u2019s grow a little bit of everything and hope that something makes sense when it comes out of the ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem right now is that nothing pencils out to a profit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farmers are already halfway through the selling year for last year\u2019s crop. Trade negotiations need to happen soon, Scragg said, for farmers to have hope heading into spring seeding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares to meet with China\u2019s president next week, farmers in Saskatchewan are hopeful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[712,45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-404020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-apple-news","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}