The threat of tariffs from America has local producers making plans to stay ahead of the market.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he will be enacting various tariffs of 25 per cent or more on Canadian produced products starting Saturday. Local agriculture markets are waiting to see how they'll be effected.
For Robert Chapman, grain manager at Southwest Terminal and chair of the Durum Summit, that is the cause of much of the unease these days, is the waiting to see how things play out.
"We really don't know what the US administration is going to do and how they're going to leverage the tariffs on Canada," said Chapman. "What pieces of industry do they leave out? What do they include? Do they hit them all? Do they leave food alone completely? And then what do we do to retaliate? And what does that bring on?"
One thing that Chapman was certain of is that anything going into the U.S. is at risk, and anything heading up into Canada is at risk for retaliation.
For Chapman, the annual 13 to 17 per cent of the durum crop locally that heads into the U.S. is the first concern. While that is a good portion of the total crop, the roughly half a million tonnes can be shipped elsewhere in the market in order to ensure Canadian producers are getting their best value.
"That offers a challenge without a doubt," said Chapman. "It also depends on what happens in the destination countries. It's a little bit dry in North Africa at the present point in time, so you get a couple hundred thousand tonnes more from each country in there, and then the problem seems smaller."
Chapman is confident that if there ends up being a 25 per cent tariff, it will ensure that other markets will have the first pick of durum and other crops.