By Alice McFarlane

Fruit and vegetable growers brace for tariffs and urge government action

Apr 2, 2025 | 2:56 PM

Over three days last month, Canada’s greenhouse vegetable growers got a preview of what sweeping US tariffs would do to their industry, and they saw that the impact could be devastating.

Canada’s fruit and vegetable growers have long-known about the inadequacies in current safety net programs. In recent years, extreme weather events and a growing threat of emerging pests have hurt domestic production. The threat of US tariffs has made these vulnerabilities even more acute.

In Ontario alone, between March 4 and 7 when US President Trump’s tariffs were implemented on a range of goods covered under the Canada-US-Mexico free trade agreement (CUSMA), greenhouse growers reported losses of $2.2 million a day in sales.

With 48 per cent of total production exported to the United States, all Canadian fruit and vegetable growers are threatened by the US tariffs.

The Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada (FVGC) today released a report that spotlights the impact of US tariffs on Canada’s horticultural sector.

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FVGC Executive Director Massimo Bergamini said there is a need to quickly adapt federal and provincial safety net programs to address new and more extreme challenges.

“Canada’s fruit and vegetable sector is uniquely exposed to trade disruptions. Perishable goods can’t sit indefinitely in warehouses or be rerouted through alternative markets,” he said. “When delays or tariffs occur, crops spoil and markets are lost—sometimes permanently.“

Unlike other agricultural sectors, the fruit and vegetable industry has limited tools to manage volatility and external shocks due to the perishability of products, intensive labour requirements, and just-in-time supply chains.

Among the measures to mitigate the impact of US tariffs, FVGC recommended the creation of a dedicated emergency fund to provide direct compensation for greenhouse operators and other fruit and vegetable growers, domestic price supports to prevent market collapse during harvest periods, and regional support packages addressing unique provincial conditions.

The report also called for an overhaul of existing business risk management programs to better adapt them to changing and more extreme weather conditions, and external impacts.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @farmnewsNOW