Canola farmers feel forgotten amid trade war, ongoing Chinese tariffs

On Margaret Rigetti's family farm near Moose Jaw, Sask., hundreds of thousands of dollars in fertilizer and seed are waiting to go in the ground for spring seeding, but there's lingering fear about what tariffs on canola will mean for this season's crop.

"There's a lot of unknowns," Rigetti said. "It really leaves us wondering if planting this canola crop is the right thing to do."

Canola producers were hit with retaliatory tariffs from China last month, in response to Canada's duties on electric vehicles, aluminum and steel. The 100 per cent tariff affects exports of canola oil and meal.

The Chinese tariffs were announced amid the ongoing threat of tariffs from the United States, causing canola prices to rapidly drop and become volatile, before picking up in recent weeks.

Rigetti, who is also a director on the board of Sask OilSeeds, said the stakes are high for an industry that was built around free trade. Canada exports 90 per cent of its canola production.

"We're glued to the news and getting whipsawed around," she said. "We seem to be in the crosshairs of two global superpowers having a trade war, and they both happen to be our biggest customers."