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Cereals Canada Applauds Signing of Key Trade Agreement with Indonesia - 2024

Cereals Canada applauds the recent signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Canada and Indonesia. The agreement, which takes effect in 2026, will help to promote innovation and growth, benefitting the Canadian cereals industry and strengthening Canada’s position in the Indonesian market.

“The conclusion of the CEPA negotiations between Canada and Indonesia marks a significant milestone for Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector,” said Dean Dias, chief executive officer at Cereals Canada. “We applaud the government’s commitment to expanding market access and creating new opportunities for Canadian grain farmers and exporters.”

One of the key benefits included in the agreement is a comprehensive provision on agricultural biotechnology, a first for Indonesia in a trade agreement. The agreement also includes a broad tariff elimination for Canadian agricultural exports, including cereals, and sets guidelines for sanitary and phytosanitary regulations and other technical rules of trade.

Currently, Indonesia is Canada’s second largest market for non-durum wheat. In 2023, Indonesia purchased 2.4 million tonnes of Canadian non-durum wheat, valued at $1.1 billion CDN. Indonesia is also a market for Canadian durum.

“With our long history of supplying wheat and durum to Indonesian millers, Cereals Canada was supportive of the negotiations toward an agreement,” added Dias. “We expect this new agreement to set the stage for future growth and cooperation. The Canadian cereals sector looks forward to continuing our strong ties with Indonesia.”

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Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators