Grainswest - Fall 2025

Fall 2025 Grains West 26 C anadian cereals are a hot commodity south of the border, where the $3 billion U.S. market for this country’s cereals-based products is highly integrated. Despite the current trade climate in which tariff uncertainty has become the norm, this demand remains strong for a range of reasons. “The U.S. is a key export market for Canadian cereals,” said Mark Walker, vice-president of markets and trade with Cereals Canada. “It is our fifth- largest market for wheat, second largest for barley and the No. 1 importer of Canadian oats.” The U.S. numbers on barley are informative, but they don’t tell the whole story. “In 2022-23, the U.S. grew 3.7 million tonnes of barley and imported 500,000 tonnes from Canada,” said Jon Driedger, vice-president of LeftField Commodity Research in Winnipeg, MB. How Canada feeds a U.S. need “The majority of barley that they buy from us is for malting. The next year, those numbers were four million tonnes and 300,000 tonnes, respectively. What we sell them is a small piece of their total, but it obviously fills a need.” THE APPEAL OF WHEAT On the wheat side, Canadian exports to the U.S. are more substantial. “Canada supplies 98 per cent of all wheat imports into the U.S, underscoring how American millers need Canadian wheat to meet rising domestic and international demand for wheat-based products,” according to Alberta Grains. “We sold them 1.25 million tonnes of wheat, mostly hard red spring, in 2022-23, 1.48 million tonnes in 2023- 24, and 1.72 million tonnes [as of late August] this year,” said Driedger. “That said, Canada exported about 19 million tonnes of wheat to all countries in Southbound cereals BY GEOFF GEDDES • PHOTO COURTESY OF PASCALE SIMARD FEATURE