Feeling the brunt of COVID-19 in Canada

Canada’s produce sector felt the brunt of COVID-19 early, and a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service puts the ongoing experience into words.

Issued in late August, the report “Overview of COVID-19 Impacts on Canadian Agriculture” covers other ag sectors, of course, but we are interested in what the agency says about the fruit and vegetable sector.

The effect of COVID-19 on Canada’s immigrant labor is a big part of the story, and reduced planted acreage also a reality. From the USDA report: 

"Canada’s produce sector was among the first agricultural industries to feel the brunt of COVID-19, as flows of temporary foreign workers (TFW) halted in March. However, the Government of Canada responded quickly to facilitate TFW travel and has provided more than $65 million USD to offset costs associated with mandatory COVID-19 quarantine measures for inbound international travelers. Estimates have placed 2020 agricultural TFW entries into Canada at around 80 percent of 2019 numbers, and the growing horticulture industry had expressed that 2019 levels were not sufficient to satisfy labor demand in 2019. Widely publicized COVID-19 outbreaks among TFWs on vegetable farms further affected available labor supplies, temporarily disrupting new arrivals and resulting in greater scrutiny of on-farm conditions.

Field vegetable area planted in 2020 has been reported lower across a number of commodities, with reports of large amounts of early harvest crops, such as asparagus, being plowed under due to a lack of harvest labor. The shuttering of foodservice operations had an almost immediate impact on Canada’s potato industry, as frozen processed products quickly filled available storage and uncertainty surrounding future foodservice demand caused some 2019/20 crop year contracts to be broken and some 2020/21 crop year contract volumes to be as much as 30 percent lower. Foodservice demand has rebounded quicker than expected, but after planting decisions were made, which could result in Canada importing potatoes later in the 2020/21 crop year to meet processing demand. Potatoes aside, vegetable trade flows between the United States and Canada have been moving at levels that would have been expected absent COVID, demonstrating the resilience of the industry.

As with the vegetable sector, labor availability has affected Canadian fruit growers’ outlook for 2020,  with demand for TFWs greatest among those crops that require manual pruning and harvesting. While area in production is less likely to be affected than vegetables, due to the perennial nature of the crops, harvest workforce numbers could place an upper limit on production volumes in 2020. Trade data on

Canada’s 2020 fresh fruit crop is not yet available for major fruit crops, such as blueberries and apples, given the growing season in Canada."

TK: We are far from done with COVID-19, but the USDA’s report reveals the most telling damage has been on the labor force and the removal of normal demand expectations.

Those two truths are relevant for any country now.

Will North America see higher-trending potato markets later in the season because that contracted acreage was cut too severely?  

Here is the potato market so far this year:

Other Coronavirus related links of interest:

Gillibrand pushes for assistance for growers

COVID-19 cases still high in Fresno County

Testing mandate creates problems

More COVID-19 cases in Ontario