With the prolonged disruptions at Canada-US border crossings, Canada’s agriculture and food industry issued a joint statement calling for an immediate conclusion of the blockades and for all levels of government to work collaboratively towards action to reinstate integral transport and trade corridors.

Transport of fruits and vegetables, meat, food packaging, feed supplies, livestock shipments, transport equipment, and integral inputs for agriculture and food processing have already been seriously impacted by the blockades. These blockades are impacting the livelihoods of Canadian farm families, the further businesses they are connected to and the timely supply and delivery of essential goods, said the statement.

Canada and the US have the largest two-way trade of essential goods and each day the blockades continue further strains these integral supply chains and the Canadian economy, said the farm groups. In 2020, Canada and the US traded CDN$50 billion in agricultural products and food for an average of $137 million per day. Key trade routes include crossings at Coutts, Alberta; Emerson, Manitoba; and the Ambassador bridge.