Tariffs and trade are front and centre these days from dominating news headlines and influencing election discussions to figuring prominently in government, business, organizational and even personal decisions nation-wide.
Our agriculture, food and agribusiness sector, a key pillar of the provincial economy, is no different. Canada-wide, we export a large part of our agricultural production around the world and overall, approximately 60 percent of those exports go to the United States. For some individual sectors of agriculture, like greenhouse and field vegetables or flowers, those U.S. export figures are even higher.
Earlier this month, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) and 22 other commodity and agricultural organizations and businesses jointly wrote to Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness Trevor Jones, and federal minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Kody Blois about the threats the current trade and tariff uncertainty pose to our sector and how government can help.
These include developing targeted support programs for farmers, investing in agriculture’s productive capacity, supporting buy local initiatives, expanding export markets and supporting homegrown solutions.
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