As you know, Canada is a very big country and we have many prosperous and valuable crops. To make money, farmers send these crops to stores and shopping centres for distribution. But they don’t just relay on that to earn money. Other parts of the world that cannot produce the same crops we can, whether for climate or economic reasons, will want our crops in some way, and for us to get it to them, we must use export services.
Canada produces a lot of farm products and crops, and some of them are very valuable, and need to be shipped or flown over to other countries in need of such products. Canada’s major export is grain and wheat products. Red meats, cereal and oil seeds are also major Canadian agricultural exports. In the late 80’s, 7% of all of Canada’s exports were agricultural, and that has definitely increased today. When things are exported, they must go somewhere, Canada’s major export market countries are, U.S, Japan, Pacific Rim countries, Europe, and many Asian countries. Out of everything we export to these countries, wheat is the most important of them all, for Canada grows some of the best wheat in the world. Wheat compiles up to 40% of all agricultural exports, which is nearly half of all crops we export. Right now, Canada is the sixth largest producers, and the second largest exporters, of course residing the U.S. Canada also makes a ton of money from agricultural products as we export more then 90% of everything we grow in this country. To show how much we export, Canola (major export) reached about 1.6 million tons of export in the past years to countries around the world, and if that was big, think how much grain would amount to. Canada is also leading exporters in a variety of crops such as grain, Flaxseed and Linseed. We also export red meats, fresh or frozen beef, pork, and horse, and processed meat products. Some other minor exports are: honey, potato seeds, alfalfa pallets, cattle for breeding, furs, maple products, and wide variety of processed foods including frozen french-fried potatoes, cookies and baked goods.
Below, is a graph showing the exports of Canada from 95 to 99. You can compare the agricultural gains with other exports to give you an idea of our agricultural export status.
1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | |
$ millions | |||||
Exports | 265,333.9 | 280,079.3 | 301,544.3 | 322,517.0 | 360,608.8 |
Agricultural and fishing products | 20,966.1 | 23,167.7 | 24,963.0 | 25,202.3 | 25,567.7 |
Wheat | 4,325.2 | 4,658.6 | 5,093.6 | 3,677.3 | 3,406.8 |
Other agricultural and fishing products | 16,640.9 | 18,509.1 | 19,869.4 | 21,525.0 | 22,160.9 |
Energy products | 20,393.1 | 26,053.1 | 27,125.7 | 23,765.7 | 29,722.4 |
Crude petroleum | 8,263.5 | 10,497.2 | 10,371.2 | 7,834.1 | 11,015.4 |
Natural gas | 5,649.1 | 7,432.8 | 8,625.6 | 8,967.1 | 10,951.4 |
Other energy products | 6,480.5 | 8,123.1 | 8,128.9 | 6,964.5 | 7,755.6 |
Forestry products | 36,745.5 | 34,528.4 | 34,847.8 | 35,173.2 | 39,116.5 |
Lumber and sawmill products | 13,993.1 | 15,802.7 | 16,803.8 | 16,563.1 | 19,659.5 |
Wood pulp and other wood products | 9,657.7 | 6,480.6 | 6,505.1 | 6,226.0 | 6,961.9 |
Newsprint and other paper and paperboard products | 13,094.7 | 12,245.1 | 11,538.9 | 12,384.1 | 12,495.1 |
Industrial goods and materials | 50,899.3 | 52,332.7 | 56,067.1 | 57,580.1 | 57,429.3 |
Metals and metal ores | 5,863.1 | 5,915.8 | 5,960.5 | 5,420.5 | 5,081.7 |
Chemicals, plastics and fertilizers | 15,135.1 | 15,358.0 | 17,096.6 | 17,529.0 | 18,518.1 |
Metals and alloys | 19,427.3 | 19,711.2 | 20,048.5 | 19,752.9 | 18,292.6 |
Other industrial goods and materials | 10,473.8 | 11,347.7 | 12,961.5 | 14,877.7 | 15,536.9 |
Machinery and equipment | 56,031.6 | 61,935.4 | 68,265.4 | 78,947.1 | 85,985.3 |
Industrial and agricultural machinery | 12,239.9 | 13,220.8 | 14,811.2 | 16,597.0 | 16,591.0 |
Aircraft and other transportation equipment | 10,680.0 | 12,467.4 | 12,961.1 | 16,381.5 | 17,852.9 |
Other machinery and equipment | 33,111.7 | 36,247.2 | 40,493.1 | 45,968.6 | 51,541.4 |
Automotive products | 62,917.4 | 63,369.7 | 69,095.2 | 77,381.1 | 95,493.8 |
Passenger autos and chassis | 34,090.3 | 33,737.9 | 35,685.2 | 41,840.2 | 51,054.6 |
Trucks and other motor vehicles | 12,901.9 | 12,467.8 | 14,422.2 | 13,988.7 | 19,375.7 |
Motor vehicle parts | 15,925.2 | 17,164.0 | 18,987.8 | 21,552.2 | 25,063.5 |
Other consumer goods | 8,315.6 | 9,501.5 | 10,667.4 | 12,400.8 | 13,470.7 |
Special transactions trade | 2,865.1 | 3,154.5 | 4,074.5 | 5,563.4 | 7,348.4 |
Unallocated adjustments | 6,200.3 | 6,036.2 | 6,438.1 | 6,503.4 | 6,474.8 |
Source: Statistics Canadawww.statcan.ca. |
As well as exports, Canada receives a lot of imports. We receive imports from more countries then we export to because of all our needs, especially in agriculture. Agricultural imports are really hard to narrow down, for it expands to all cultures and customs, such as Chinese agricultural products, African, Japanese, Indian etc… It would all depend on what specifics are you looking for. But below, is a chart showing the imports of Canada from 95 to 99. You can compare the agricultural imports with the other imports and it will give you a better understanding of our agricultural export status.
1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | |
$ millions | |||||
Imports | 229,936.5 | 237,688.6 | 277,751.1 | 303,420.4 | 326,820.9 |
Agricultural and fishing products | 13,375.1 | 14,137.9 | 15,655.3 | 17,264.5 | 17,643.4 |
Fruits and vegetables | 3,905.8 | 4,012.2 | 4,353.8 | 4,715.6 | 4,931.3 |
Other agricultural and fishing products | 9,469.3 | 10,125.6 | 11,301.4 | 12,548.9 | 12,712.1 |
Energy products | 7,237.1 | 9,605.4 | 10,627.6 | 8,624.2 | 10,708.7 |
Crude petroleum | 4,833.2 | 6,707.8 | 7,189.4 | 5,217.6 | 7,160.3 |
Other energy products | 2,403.9 | 2,897.6 | 3,438.2 | 3,406.6 | 3,548.4 |
Forestry products | 2,038.3 | 1,913.7 | 2,386.1 | 2,500.8 | 2,740.8 |
Industrial goods and materials | 45,569.1 | 46,484.2 | 54,560.3 | 60,292.1 | 62,130.9 |
Metals and metal ores | 12,175.8 | 11,751.9 | 14,393.9 | 15,328.3 | 14,086.7 |
Chemicals and plastics | 16,307.8 | 17,378.5 | 19,610.1 | 21,521.1 | 22,675.8 |
Other industrial goods and materials | 17,085.5 | 17,353.8 | 20,556.3 | 23,442.7 | 25,368.4 |
Machinery and equipment | 75,699.8 | 76,384.2 | 91,346.8 | 101,126.1 | 108,168.2 |
Industrial and agricultural machinery | 20,558.0 | 19,995.5 | 25,625.5 | 28,234.4 | 27,768.2 |
Aircraft and other transportation equipment | 7,609.9 | 8,212.7 | 10,988.1 | 12,488.3 | 13,226.0 |
Office machines and equipment | 12,859.8 | 13,149.5 | 14,881.0 | 15,741.7 | 16,908.1 |
Other machinery and equipment | 34,672.1 | 35,026.5 | 39,852.2 | 44,661.7 | 50,265.9 |
Automotive products | 50,085.8 | 51,106.6 | 60,825.7 | 66,785.9 | 75,916.1 |
Passenger autos and chassis | 13,056.6 | 13,538.2 | 17,688.8 | 17,630.0 | 19,587.3 |
Trucks and other motor vehicles | 6,768.9 | 7,092.4 | 8,598.5 | 9,652.6 | 10,644.6 |
Motor vehicle parts | 30,260.3 | 30,476.0 | 34,538.4 | 39,503.3 | 45,684.2 |
Other consumer goods | 25,546.3 | 25,839.7 | 29,733.3 | 34,578.6 | 36,954.2 |
Apparel and footwear | 5,143.3 | 4,869.2 | 5,818.3 | 6,618.8 | 6,844.7 |
Miscellaneous consumer goods | 20,403.0 | 20,970.5 | 23,915.0 | 27,959.8 | 30,109.5 |
Special transactions trade | 5,441.4 | 7,075.9 | 6,954.4 | 6,326.1 | 6,325.3 |
Unallocated adjustments | 4,944.0 | 5,140.8 | 5,661.6 | 5,922.4 | 6,233.4 |
Source: Statistics Canadawww.statcan.ca. |