Farm Credit Canada’s Agricultural Export Report shows Canada exported $33.9 billion dollars of agricultural commodities in 2018.

The Report "Diversifying Canada's agriculture exports: Opportunities and challenges in Wheat, Canola, Soy and Pulses"  looks at where our exports are going and what potential we have to expand our markets.

FCC’s Chief Economist JP Gervais says when it comes to wheat Canada’s share in the world wheat market is at about 15%.

“There are some options to diversify further in the European markets for example. The good news there is that we have a trade agreement with Europe, that's about two or three years old.  We’re still you know working some of the issues there getting access to the European market, but I do believe that there's potential there to export more wheat to Europe than what we've done historically.”

He sees Egypt, Spain, Philippines, and the Netherlands as potential growth markets for Canadian Wheat. 

The report also shows Canadian pulses are exported to about 84% of all markets and Saskatchewan is a key player in that.

Gervais says our key importer in Pulses is India but there are other potential markets where we could increase our reach.

“Asia, again in Europe as well as some opportunities to diversify away from India, and sell a bit more pulses into Europe.  Sell some more pulses to some very specific destinations in Asia. There’s potential there to diversify, but we’re already quite diversified to begin with.”

Gervais says when it comes to Canola, Canada has always been the world’s largest exporter for human consumption.

He says market diversification may not happen as easily since canola oil competes directly with palm oil.

The full report is available here.