Farmers in Canada, United States feeling the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs | Globalnews.ca (2025)

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have put a strain on Canadian farmers as costs continue to rise.

Essential items such as phosphate fertilizer is mainly imported from the United States, pushing the prices up and furthering market uncertainty.

Grain Growers of Canada executive director Kyle Larkin says grain farmers in both America and Canada are suffering, and costs can still rise within the next few months.

On Thursday, Larkin was in Washington, D.C. to voice his concerns for both Canadian and American grain farmers. Larkin met with members of congress and senators to push the two countries to work together to find a middle ground for farmers.

Larkin said the overall response was positive, noting that both Republicans and Democrats were in attendance.

“Our message to members of congress and senators was, ‘Let’s look work together, lets strengthen the USMCA (United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement) and let’s strengthen the North American bloc so we can trade better and grow our economies together,'” said Larkin.

Larkin said the overall response was positive, noting that both Republicans and Democrats were in attendance.

“What we heard was they understand, they’re getting calls from their farmers in their districts who are concerned about rising costs and rising costs of fertilizers for example but also lowering commodity prices,” said Larkin.

“Many of the same issues and challenges that Canadian grain farmers are facing right now are very similar to the challenges that American grain farmers are facing.”

One external factor that Canada is facing is the Tariffs imposed by China. Grain farmers are facing a 100 percent tariff on canola meal, canola oil and peas.

In Saskatoon, the Farmers Business Warehouse AgTech Centre is working hard to support Canadian farmers during these difficult times. FBN’S regional director for eastern Canada, Kevin Adair, says that the current focus is on buying Canadian.

“We’ve noticed that farmers are interested in purchasing from Canada and the fact that we are Canadian people, we are Canadian employees, we’ve noticed that it is a benefit to us having this Canadian structure and (that) we deliver from Canadian warehouses,” says Adair.

The 198,000-square-foot facility gives farmers the opportunity to order what they need online and have it straight to their doors in approximately two days or less. Some of the items the warehouse includes are seed inputs, crop protection products and biological nutrients.

Customer experience manager Sam Witherspoon shared that many farmers are stocking up now while the prices remain stable.

“With everything that is coming in and happening to us right now, it’s a lot of uncertainty and we are really managing the situation very closely,” said Witherspoon.

“Take advantage of buying now. You know what the cost is, it’s not going to go up once you’ve paid for the product.”