Last week, Cereals Canada released a Global Markets for Canadian Wheat: Key Insights Report, highlighting five markets that were part of the 2024 New Wheat Crop Trade and Technical Missions and the United States. Cereals Canada released this report alongside a webinar, explaining the report and the highlights from it to wheat producers, researchers, and industry members. Leif Carlson, Director of Market Intelligence and Trade Policy with Cereals Canada, explains the importance of the report, and the importance of Canadian wheat exported to other countries.
“The releases gives us an opportunity to talk to our members in Canada and internationally to highlight some of the aspects of our Canadian wheat. Certainly for Canada, a big part of what we rely on is exports because we're able to grow a lot more food in Canada than we need for our domestic consumption and I think right now with so much discussion around trade with the U.S., people are thinking more about trade, and we want to make sure that people can understand some of the work that happens in the wheat sector.”
According to Cereals Canada 2024 New Wheat Crop Report; in 2024, Canadian wheat producers grew almost 35 million tonnes of wheat and are expected to export 26.3 million tonnes of wheat to over 80 countries. Canada primarily grows 4 types of cereals: Wheat, Durum, Oats and Barley. Carlson explains the economic impact that these four crops have on the Canadian economy.
“We publish a study showing that the economic impact in Canada is $68.8 billion every year. That incorporates certainly the farming activities, but (also) the transportation activities, the truckers and railroad workers, as well as people that are processing those cereals into food and feed. Looking at that from a Saskatchewan perspective, the total economic impact from those four cereal grains is over $17 billion every year. I think these are all good reasons why Canadians should be proud of our Ag sector and why we're proud to do the work that we do at Cereals Canada."
This produces jobs throughout the value chain and allows Canada to be the third largest exporter of wheat, and the top exporter of high quality, high protein wheat in the world for the second year in a row.
You can read the full report by clicking HERE, or by visiting their website at www.cerealscanada.ca.