Between April and June, Canada's agri-food exports increased by $3 billion when compared to last year — and readers might be surprised as to where these exports being sent.Most of the agri-food export increase — $2.6 billion of Canada's agri-food goods to be exact — are being sent to its closest bordering country, the US.A surprising discovery, given the current trade environment that they both have been facing.The second largest increase was to China, as reported by The Food Professor, or Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, an agri-food professor who operates an agri-food lab out of Dalhousie University, purchased $911.5 million of Canada's agri-food exports..From this data, Charlebois points out that Canada still lacks economic diversity in its agri-food export market, and is heavily reliant on the US."...The broader picture is clear: despite all the talk about trade diversification, Canadian agriculture remains overwhelmingly dependent on the American market. We are selling more — not truly diversifying," stated Charlebois.When talking about the extreme increase in exports to the US and the lower but still large amount of exports given to China, he points out they exceed all other gains in other markets, including in India, Mexico, Pakistan and Colombia, among a few others."Together, those gains exceeded the overall increase because exports to Japan, South Korea, Algeria and several other markets declined," stated Charlebois..This comes at the same time as a recent Global Affairs statement the feds put out in late August, "Diversification toward non‑US markets accelerated," it reported about 2025, though the comment refers to all Canadian goods and services."The value of exports to countries other than the US surged by 11.1%, while exports to the US fell 3.7%, pushing the non‑US share of Canadian exports to its highest level in over 4 decades (32.8%)."
