The owner of a honey farm in northern Manitoba says that Canadian producers are in a difficult situation, since China’s tariffs on Canadian canola could mean less food for bees this year.
Steven Larocque and his family have operated Arctic gold honey in Thompson for about seven years, producing around 1,300 to 2,200 kilograms of honey per year.
Arctic gold honey bees do not pollinate the canola while they do their honey, but larocque says The 100 percent rate of China In Canola Canadian exports, imposed last month in response to Canada’s tasks on electric vehicles, aluminum and steel, it will paint other honey producers.
Although the Canadian honey industry has not been subject to specific tariffs, bees collect nectar, a source of primary food, and the pollen of the flowers of the Canola plant, which in turn can produce benefits for canola, according to a provincial data sheet.
But “if they impact you as a Canola farmer, and you know you can’t sell that canola, [you’re] Do not go to sow Canola in that field, “Larocque told CBC News on Wednesday.
“If they are not planting such crops, where are they going to go and do honey?”
However, Larocque said his business will feel the pinch of Canada’s commercial war with the United States in packaging materials, since it would be difficult to find other sources for the 500 cases of bottles that matter from the US. UU. Every year.
“It’s not as if you could buy them from a different supplier for cheaper,” he said. “The problem with, for example, places like Amazon is that it is not consistent. It is possible that you can get containers once, but next time, they could run out.”
Wait to store packaging materials to be able to maintain the constant prices of the shelves during the next year or two.
“At the end of the day, everything is reduced to [whether] The client will pay that price for that honey bottle, regardless of how much is imposed on different ways. “
The executive director of Canadian Honey Council says that the potential of American tariffs on Canadian honey exports is also causing anxiety among honey farmers, since tariffs “would probably decimo” their market.
Any important commercial interruption to the Canadian honey industry would “feel dramatically” in Las Praderas, said Rod Scarlett.
“If we cannot move to that market, then that production that the beekeepers have in the meadows may not be sold or that have to be sold at dramatically lower prices, which is below the cost of production, which then endangers the operation completely.”
Manitoba counted 19 percent of the 92 million pounds (Approximately 41 million kilograms) of honey produced in Canada in 2023, according to Statistics Canada.
But Manitoba exported most of the Canadian provinces of the same year, sending 38 percent of honey exports in the country, says Statistics Canada.
The two main buyers, the United States and Japan, bought an exported honey worth $ 46 million in 2023, 95 percent of Canada’s exports, according to the data.
Some markets in Southeast Asia may be interested in Canadian honey, said Scarlett, but that pivot cannot be done at any time.
Farmers also fear that Canada can introduce retaliation rates on US imports of Queen bees, sugar syrups to feed bees in spring and beekeeping team, he said.
The imports of Queen Bee from the United States allow the beekeepers to introduce them to the new hives, and start production, said Scarlett. About 260,000 of the 343,000 Queen bees That Canada imported in 2023 wine from the United States, according to Statistics Canada.
‘Cumulative effect’ on crops
Canadian honey producers also face a commercial barrier not related to tariffs when it comes to the European Union, which has strict rules Around the use and labeling of products that contain genetically modified foods, said Scarlett.
That includes the honey of the bees that came into contact with the Canola pollen, he said.
Pollination itself would become another concern if the population of Canada bees is affected by the commercial war, since they are an important blueberry pollinator, blueberries and canola, said Scarlett.
“It is a cumulative effect here,” he said. “Although we are a small industry, really, you know, attack above our heads on the impact it has on the agricultural community.”
Beekeepers often send their bees throughout the country to farmers who need them to pollinate their crops, and any blow to the population could mean a shortage of bees, according to Rob Currie, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Entomology at the University of Manitoba.
It could also have consequences throughout the world, he said, impacting “the bees available for crop pollination on a more global scale beyond Manitoba.”
Scarlett said the honey industry has been attentive to the news, since it pushes the federal government to exempt queens from any possible countermelted.
“We, as an industry, and like everyone else, more or less, in the agricultural sector, we simply have no good handling on how much depth these rates will go and how much in depth the retaliation tariffs will have to go,” said Scarlett.
But there is a positive side, says Scarlett, since Canadian honey sales have increased in parts of the country in the midst of greater interest in local products.
“That has a great impact on the ability of beekeepers to maintain an economic level above the cost of production.”
