When U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to put 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods on Jan. 29, Winkler-area potato farmer Juston Schmidt worked to ship as many potatoes to the States as possible before they came into effect Feb. 4, 2025.
“We were a little concerned at first,” the vice-president of Schmidt Farms Ltd. said. “I think the concern has faded into just coming to a conclusion of this is just the new way we’re going to do things.”
Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on Feb. 2, and the next day, President Trump suspended the tariffs for 30 days, eventually exempting CUSMA-compliant goods from the levies. For now, Schmidt’s exports to American customers are tariff-free, but he says pivoting to sell exclusively Canadian buyers would be bad for business.
“I hope that never happens,” he said. “In the fresh sector, we would have a market in Canada. It’s just, Toronto is a lot further away than the U.S.”
Schmidt adds tariffs on the agricultural sector would also harm American potato farmers.
“The fresh potatoes obviously start growing sooner in the south, so potatoes come from Florida or Missouri or Minnesota to Canada in summer sometimes. We export more in the winter months.”
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But not all potato farmers can shift their sales like Schmidt can. The Manitoba Seed Potato Growers Association issued a statement about the “dire” situation for their growers, whose product cannot be stored. The association says they estimate 15-20 per cent of this year’s yield will need to be composted or discarded.
“Unfortunately, traditional programs like crop insurance do not offer protection for market-driven losses of this nature, leaving the financial burden solely on individual farms,” the association said in a statement.
“The reduction in planted acres this spring could have far-reaching impacts on seed potato farms in Manitoba, with millions of dollars worth of product potentially left without a market.”
While Canada was spared from Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, the instability has caused stress among producers across the country.
“Our vegetable greenhouse growers in particular are very nervous where 90 to 95% of their market is south of border,” said Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) President Keith Currie. “Things like red meat, beef, and pork crosses the border several times for processing into the U.S.”
Currie says tariffs jeopardize the industry’s sustainability, even if most products are currently exempt.
“How does it affect interest rates and inflation rates for farmers? We know that there’s been some added borrowing incentives for farmers, but that just means they have to go further in debt to continue to do their business. And that’s not a long-term solution to how we get through this,” he said.
Currie adds the CFA will push whichever party forms government for more supports for the industry after the election on April 28.
For farmers like Schmidt, it’s the steel tariffs, and Canada’s counter-tariffs that could affect his operations most.
“I think that’s our biggest concern,” he said, “just with all things from farm machinery to tires to paper… our costs are a bigger concern than the tariffs of what we do export.”
Manitoba’s 2025 provincial budget includes more than $140 million for producer-government cost sharing and insurance programs, and a $90 million contingency fund should the tariffs cause significant damage to the sector.
For now, Schmidt’s operations are proceeding as usual. The third-generation potato farmer is confident they’ll be able to adapt to their unstable trade partner.
“There’s a lot of gambles and farming, and tariffs is only one of them,” he said.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Trump tariffs affect ag industry, including exempt products: CFA
