The Canada-U.S. trade war will have mixed impacts on B.C.’s varied agricultural commodities, but for Jennifer Woike, it’s inevitable that the effects will trickle right down to the consumer level.
“We had some time to anticipate this coming – I don’t think that made the blow any easier when it arrived,” the president of the BC Agriculture Council said Tuesday, the same day the U.S. imposed wide-reaching tariffs on Canada. “We had all hoped that maybe there could be some negotiation.”
The BCAC represents 29 different commodities in B.C. – everything from horses to honey, and from bees to cattle.
According to the B.C. Statistics agency, the province exported around $3.6 billion worth of agriculture and food (other than fish) to the U.S. in 2024. Exports south of the border make up 74 per cent of the total exports in those sectors, said Woike.
When it comes to U.S. imports, a map by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada showed that B.C. imported around $4.9 billion worth of goods from the U.S., as of 2023.
Out of these imports, the province is particularly reliant on American fruits and vegetables.
Canada Food Flows, a research project based at the University of B.C., said that in 2022, 81 per cent of spinach, 70 per cent of lettuce and 31 per cent of tomatoes in the province came from the U.S.
Seventy-five per cent of onions and 92 per cent of strawberries come from the U.S. and Mexico, according to Canada Food Flows.
Although grocery prices will increase across the board, these vegetables and fruits could see particular upticks in prices at the grocery store, said Woike.
“Fruits and nuts, strawberries, avocados … all of those things that we can't grow here,” she said.
Eggs could also see a potential increase, mainly because some feed additives, bird immunizations and chicks come from hatcheries in Washington state.
“Our cost of production is a very intricate equation that goes into place to ensure that the farmer gets paid a fair amount of money for their dozen eggs,” said Woike.
However, like for most commodities, there is no control over what happens once those eggs go to grocery or retail, she said.
Woike says B.C.’s top exported products are farmed Atlantic salmon and blueberries, and these too could suffer the repercussions of tariffs on Canadian goods.
“We export 350,000 [heads of beef] to be processed in Washington state. If there's going to be an additional 25 per cent tariff on those exports, there's no place to have them processed in B.C. and Alberta,” she said, adding pork exports are also a concern.
Woike says reducing the barriers of interprovincial trade could be a significant course of action for mitigating the impacts of tariffs.
“That is one message that I have been touting to anyone who will listen in government – that will help,” she said.
B.C. doesn’t have federally inspected facilities to manage the capacity of animal agriculture, meaning those products can’t be exported to other provinces. For example, meat and chicken that is processed in a provincially licensed facility can only be sold in British Columbia, Woike said.
“I'm hopeful that we can all play nice in this arena, and that includes grocery and retail — the store shelves may look a little bit different if we're not,” said Woike. “Maybe we have to go back to seasonal eating, maybe we have to look at this as an opportunity to support those farmers and ranchers within our own countries.”
