Southern Alberta farmers concerned by U.S. and Chinese tariffs

Tariffs are set to make things harder for just about every Canadian, but for farmers, the results could be devastating.

Many farmers in southern Alberta will be planting in about a month.

An already busy and stressful time, this year it will feature more uncertainty than in years past.

The on-again-off-again nature of tariffs is making it difficult to decide what to plant.

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“Farmers are just sitting here. We don’t know what to do,” said Stephen Vandervalk, who farms outside Fort Macleod.

“We’re seeding in two weeks, in some cases to four weeks, and we don’t know what to do. Honestly, I think we were just sitting here stunned,”

It isn’t just tariffs form the United States farmers have to contend with; China recently hit Canada with a 100 per cent tariff on many Canadian exports.

Canola producers will be hit especially hard.

“We have been under threat of Chinese tariffs since November, and we’ve been very diligently trying to work with that, trying to hold off. It was a total surprise when they were announced last Friday. Very unexpected,” said Alberta Canole Producers chairperson Andre Harpe.

Canadian producers rely heavily on exporting agricultural products.

Farmers produce much more than the Canadian market would ever handle.

But making up for lost exports to the U.S. and China is nearly impossible.

“You don’t make those markets up. So big thing is we’re going to obviously try and work with the Chinese tariffs, right now, obviously. And I do think we do need to work with, United States to make sure that market stays open,” Harpe said.

Canola prices have dropped roughly sixteen per cent in recent weeks due to trade uncertainties.

While the prices of commodities are dropping, the input cost for farmers are going up.

“I think farmers have just had enough,” said Vandervalk. “It’s always double-sided. Everything that we use, all the stuff that we buy, the price goes up – but our commodity for some reason goes down. With the same reasons that they have, the price goes up, ours goes down. And so, I guess we’re fed up.”