{"id":147826,"date":"2025-09-11T01:18:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T01:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/147826\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T01:18:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T01:18:18","slug":"u-s-market-cant-easily-be-replaced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/147826\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. market can\u2019t easily be replaced"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHISTLER, B.C. \u2014 The deputy chief economist of Farm Credit Canada has some surprising statistics to share about trade with the United States.<\/p>\n

Des Sobool told delegates attending the 2025 Pulse & Special Crops Convention<\/a> that 92 per cent of Canada\u2019s total exports to the U.S. went into the country duty-free in June.<\/p>\n

That compares to 79 per cent in January before U.S. President Donald Trump began his tariff war with the world and later proudly showed off his \u201cLiberation Day\u201d tariff chart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t<\/p>\n

Read Also<\/p>\n

\"From<\/p>\n

Agriculture ministers commit to enhancing competitiveness<\/p>\n

Canadian ag ministers said they want to ensure farmers, ranchers and processors are competitive through ongoing regulatory reform and business risk management programs that work. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Sobool said it would seem counterintuitive that more of Canada\u2019s exports are now entering that market tariff-free. A staggering 97.5 per cent of Canada\u2019s agri-food exports to the U.S. faced no duty crossing the border in June.<\/p>\n

He called it a \u201creally good news story.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the bad news is that total trade volumes to the U.S. are down 21 per cent between January and July.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not like the rest of the world has absorbed those lost sales. Trade to all other countries is down 16 per cent over that time.<\/p>\n

Agriculture exports to the U.S. have fared better, falling only seven per cent, while food and beverage exports have remained flat.<\/p>\n

Sobool had a warning for those who think Canada simply needs to diversify away from the U.S. market, shifting from a north-south trade flow to an east-west flow utilizing Canada\u2019s ports to access overseas markets.<\/p>\n

He noted that 76 per cent of Canada\u2019s agri-food exports typically flow to the U.S. with a total value of $35 billion.<\/p>\n

There have been suggestions that Canada should decrease that reliance to 50 per cent, or $23 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d have to find other markets for that $12 billion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Canada could find the rail and truck capacity to get that volume of product to port position there would need to be a huge expansion in the already strained port infrastructure and capacity to ship the product overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving away from the U.S. is going to be tough,\u201d said Sobool.<\/p>\n

He noted that the North American agri-food supply chain is intertwined and would be difficult to unravel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to ride out the storm,\u201d Sobool told delegates.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Canada needs to focus on improving its agricultural productivity, which plateaued in the 1991-2000 period and has been on a steady decline ever since.<\/p>\n

Productivity for the 2021-2030 period is expected to slump to 1970s levels.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has eight times the population of Canada, but its investment in agriculture technology is 23 times as much.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are lagging behind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If Canada\u2019s agricultural productivity got back to 1991-2000 levels it would boost net farm income by $3 billion per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a huge amount to add to your margins,\u201d said Sobool.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why FCC has committed to investing $2 billion in AgTech companies by 2030.<\/p>\n

Sobool said improving productivity could be the \u201cgolden ticket\u201d to helping improve economics in the agriculture sector.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Breaking ag news stories and commodities markets snapshots delivered daily right to your inbox!<\/p>\n

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