“We kept hearing anecdotally that these Californian honeybees were surviving with way fewer treatments. I wanted to test them rigorously and understand the driving force behind what the beekeepers were seeing,” said Genesis Chong-Echavez, a UCR graduate student and lead author of the study, in an article from the university.

WHY IT MATTERS: Varroa mites can devastate Canadian beekeepers’ hives, and go-to control methods have become less effective, leading producers to look for new methods to protect honeybees.

Varroa mites are an invasive parasite that has plagued North American beekeepers since the late 1980s. The mites weaken the bees by feeding on their fat stores, and also can carry viruses. Varroa mites are a consistent contender among the top four causes of winter bee loss in Canada, as noted by the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists.

Chong-Echavez’s team found bee colonies led by locally-raised Californian hybrid honeybee queens had about 68 per cent fewer mites, on average, than hives with commercial queens.

While these populations were not entirely varroa mite-free, they were more than five times less likely to hit the threshold at which chemical treatment is necessary.

Local bee larvae attract fewer mites

The resistant bees came from a genetically-mixed population established in southern California — often from “feral” colonies living in trees, the UC Riverside article said. They were found to have mixed ancestry steming from African, eastern European, Middle Eastern and western European genetics.

Varroa mites must enter bee brood cells to reproduce. In lab experiments with developing honeybee larvae, researchers found mites were less attracted to the locally-adapted bees than commercial bees.

“What surprised me most was the differences showed up even at the larval stage,” Chong-Echavez said. “This suggests the resistance mechanism may go deeper than some kind of behaviour and may be genetically built into the bees themselves.”

The research team next intends to investigate the signals that may make the locally-adapted larvae less attractive to mites.

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Carl Potts, executive director of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, said farmers are looking forward to seeding despite lower crop prices and higher input costs, despite the war in Iran affecting fuel and fertilizer shipments.

“There is a mix of seasonal optimism as we head into spring, as well as some concern over the impacts of the broader geopolitical impacts that have been going on,” Potts said.

• For daily market updates, visit The Western Producer Markets Desk

Most lentil varieties lost 22 to 34 cents per pound since last year, Prairie Ag Hotwire reported. Chickpeas declined four to 12 cents per pound, green peas fell $5.75/bu. and yellow peas dipped $1.34/bu. He said lower prices have kept demand strong, with China re-entering the market for Canadian peas and India remaining one of Canada’s top buyers.

“(Lower prices) really have to (keep demand strong) because we produced a large crop last year in red and especially in green lentils. I think demand is quite good and quite strong but we have a significant inventory, particularly in lentils, that the market will have to move to,” Potts said.

Last month, Statistics Canada projected a 6.3 per cent increase in chickpea acres nationwide for 2026-27 compared to last, as well as a 5.5 per cent decline in lentil acres and a 12.3 per cent drop in pea acres.

Pulses’ appeal grows with fertilizer costs

However, the data was collected before China suspended its tariffs on Canadian peas. Along with the war in Iran, growing pulses is now more appealing due to their lower fertilizer needs. Potts said small shifts in acres could be possible this spring.

“Most farmers would have fertilizer and fuel supplies relatively secured, but in cases where people didn’t have all their nitrogen fertilizer booked and they’re concerned about price or availability, then moving to something like peas or lentils or chickpeas … could be a factor,” he said, adding that farmers will largely stick to their crop rotations.

Potts added that SaskPulse will continue to work on field-based, in-season initiatives such as showcasing and testing their in-house research projects. The organization will also host a series of field days in July.

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“We share, as a sector, all the same attributes as the rest of the farming sectors from genetics to raising animals in pens and dealing with animal welfare issues and animal health issues,” said Tim Kennedy, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance.

WHY IT MATTERS: The aquaculture industry says demand is there for Canadian seafood but without sufficient support, its seeing more imported product moving into grocery stores.

The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance and seven provincial aquaculture organizations wrote a letter to the federal, provincial and territorial governments. They called on them to use Canada’s Next Policy Framework for Agriculture to help their sector grow — and to class the industry under Agriculture Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).

“Our lead department has been the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is a habitat protection and fisheries management department. They deal with the wild capture sector,” Kennedy said.

Aquaculture is the farming of fish and seafood.

Aquaculture as agriculture for growth

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans isn’t growth oriented. AAFC is, Kennedy said.

“We have flat lined in Canadian production for aquaculture for 20 years, and we have the largest coastline in the world.”

The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance has been asking to be classed under AAFC for the past ten years. The aquaculture industry could then be classed as agricultural and reap some of the same benefits as agricultural industries. For example, aquaculture farmers would have access to the AgriInnovate program.

The aquaculture sector would also like a collaborative insurance program for shellfish farmers and freshwater producers.

Aquaculture is a $5 billion sector in terms of economic activity — the equivalent of 1.4 per cent of farm gate sales in Canada.

“In terms of a relative comparison to the rest of the ag sector, that’s small,” said Kennedy. “One thing people should know is we’ve only been around as a commercial sector for 45 years. We’re young. Salmon production started 50 years ago.”

The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance has about 65 members. Members include people who raise fish such as salmon, rainbow trout, Artic char, mussels and oysters.

Aquaculture farmers also grow a small amount of seaweed, which is largely used for animal feed.

Atlantic salmon farming biggest growth area

Atlantic salmon make up 80 per cent of the aquaculture sector. They’re farmed in British Columbia, New Brunswick, and the other Atlantic provinces. There is some rainbow trout production in Ontario and on the Prairies.

“Atlantic salmon is the most popular seafood product in North America and increasingly in Europe and around the world,” Kennedy said. “It’s like the rest of the farming sector, when you have an animal, a breed that is particularly good for production, like Holsteins or Herefords. Atlantic salmon are good to raise as farmed animals.”

Atlantic salmon are easy to raise in pens, unlike Pacific salmon, which are much harder to farm.

The demand for seafood is there, especially for salmon.

“I think because of the lack of overall support for the aquaculture sector, we’ve seen some declines,” Kennedy said.

There have also been some government-mandated shutdowns in British Columbia.

In 2024, the federal government announced it would ban open net-pen salmon farming by June 2029 and would require farms to transition to closed containment or other aquaculture systems.

“What we’re seeing is more product coming from other countries, especially Chile, into Canadian grocery stores. Canadians can’t buy the Canadian salmon they want to buy. This has been a real problem,” Kennedy said.

A deeper partnership between Agriculture and Agri-food Canada and aquaculture would produce a lot more salmon in Canada, for Canadians.

“I’d say globally as well. Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production sector in the world. There is an increasing demand for high quality animal protein. We’re low carbon footprint. We’re a very efficient product,” he said. “For instance, in the salmon sector, we’re basically about one kilogram of feed is producing 1 kilogram of fish.”

Benefits for the rest of the farming sector

In the letter, the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance and the seven provincial groups highlighted value-added opportunities for the rest of the farm sector. When the sector first started, a lot of the fish was fed entirely marine based products. Now the Canadian sector only uses about 20 per cent marine based ingredients. About 80 per cent of the ingredients are from land-based farms.

The aquaculture sector is using oils, grains and ingredients like chicken offal, that would otherwise be put in waste products.

“If we can increase production, we’re going to increase the value add in Canada for other farmers,” said Kennedy.

The Next Policy Framework will be completed by 2028. Earlier this year, the federal government it was starting consultations across the country.

The next federal, provincial, territorial meeting will be held in Halifax in July. Kennedy said the areas of focus and decisions of what sectors are included under the Department of Agriculture and Agri-food could be announced by then.

“We’re still a couple of years away, but now is the time for all of the considerations and planning,” he said. “This is a very important time for us.”

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“It didn’t do much at all for the market reaction. Some slight adjustments, but overall a nothing burger,” said John Weyer, vice-president of Walsh Commercial Hedging Services in Chicago, Ill.

“To steal a quote from my office manager, they released the report and didn’t tell anyone,” Weyer quipped.

Few changes in U.S. crops

Among the trio of main commodities, there were no changes to U.S. production of soybeans, corn and wheat for the 2025-26 marketing year.

• For daily market updates, visit The Western Producer Markets Desk

As for 2025-26 U.S. exports and ending stocks, the only differences compared to the USDA’s March report were that soybean exports were trimmed to 1.54 billion bushels from 1.58 billion, and the wheat carryover was bumped up to 938 million bushels from 931 million.

Global adjustments

However, Walsh said the change in global ending stocks for wheat did see a five to six cent drop in the North American futures. The carryout rose to 283.12 million tonnes in the April report from 276.96 million last month.

As well, world wheat production for 2025-26 was upped to 844.15 million tonnes, based on increased output for Argentina, the European Union and Russia.

For corn, the USDA kept Argentina and Brazil at 52 million and 132 million tonnes, respectively. Also with soybeans, with Argentina at 48 million tonnes and Brazil held at 180 million.

Crude oil

With such a mundane report, Walsh said crude oil will continue to guide the commodity futures over the next 30 days.

“That’s the driver of the bus right now,” Walsh said.

While recent talk of a ceasefire between U.S. and Israel with Iran generated sharp declines in crude oil and the agricultural commodities, fears of the war escalating pushed prices higher on April 9.

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in an email on April 8 that new admissibility requirements for commodities originating from Greece have been set up in CFIA’s Automated Import Reference System (AIRS).

WHY IT MATTERS: Data from Greece’s tourism industry show over 300,000 arrivals in that country from Canada in 2024 alone.

According to the World Organization for Animal Health, Greece began reporting cases of foot-and-mouth disease on March 15 with nine infected cattle at a farm on the island of Lesvos, marking the country’s first such cases since 1994. Its most recent cases, in sheep and one cow on the same island, were reported March 29.

Greece’s cases so far have all occurred on farms in the northern regions of that island, in the Aegean Sea off the west coast of Turkey. So far, 438 animals in total have been confirmed infected.

The findings make Greece the fifth European Union member country currently under foot-and-mouth restrictions from Canada. Hungary, Slovakia and Cyprus all reported cases last year, while Bulgaria is the lone EU member country “not usually considered free” of foot-and-mouth disease.

Germany regained disease-free status last month, while CFIA’s restrictions on Austria were lifted last September.

While findings of the disease in Greece are so far limited to Lesvos, Canada’s new restrictions apply to the entire country, unlike certain other nations such as Brazil, Argentina and Peru in which CFIA classifies some but not all provinces or states as free of foot-and-mouth disease.

What products are prohibited?

At-risk commodities covered by Canada’s import ban include live animals and germplasm; animal products and byproducts; uncooked meat and meat products; raw milk and milk products made from raw milk, such as unpasteurized cheese; unprocessed manure; laboratory material; blood products; livestock feed and equipment that has been in contact with affected animals; raw or unprocessed pet foods; raw hides, skins, wool, antlers, horns, hooves; and any other non-heat-treated products or byproducts from vulnerable animal species.

Species vulnerable to foot-and-mouth disease include hogs, cattle, bison, sheep, goats, camelids (llamas, alpacas) and cervids (deer, elk, moose) among others.

CFIA’s restrictions apply to any at-risk products dating as far back as 28 days before the first symptoms were detected in an affected country.

Foot-and-mouth disease, according to CFIA, is a viral disease characterized by symptoms including blister-like sores on the tongue and lips, in the mouth, on the teats and between the hooves; foot lesions, accompanied by acute lameness and reluctance to move; and loss of appetite or milk production. The virus can spread between animals through direct, indirect or airborne transmission.

Canada is free of the disease and has not reported any cases of the disease in livestock since 1952, when an outbreak in southeastern Saskatchewan is believed to have originated with a visitor from an infected farm in Germany, carrying the virus either on clothes or an infected sausage.

Advice for farmers visiting Greece

Canadians are still free to travel to Greece, but CFIA recommends they avoid visiting farms when doing so. Travellers who do visit farms should make sure clothes and footwear worn during those visits are free from soil or manure. Footwear should be cleaned and disinfected, and dry-cleaning of the clothes worn is recommended.

Travellers should also avoid contact with susceptible animals, including farm and zoo animals and wildlife, for 14 days after returning to Canada.

For farmers who travel to Greece, contact with farm animals is not recommended for five days upon return to Canada, when “strict personal decontamination measures” are applied to clothes and footwear, CFIA says.

Travellers also must declare all food products upon arrival in Canada. Generally, CFIA says, meat and dairy products from foot-and-mouth infected countries won’t be allowed, but foods that are “cooked, shelf-stable, commercially prepared and hermetically sealed” may be.

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“Artificial intelligence supports earlier detection of weather-related events, as well as enhance the reliability and accuracy of forecasts,” said Julie Dabrusin, minister of environment, climate change and nature, in a news release.

ECCC will create a new hybrid weather forecasting model, combining the predictive abilities of AI and traditional physics-based meteorology and the department’s knowledge of local factors for wind, temperature and precipitation.

• More weather coverage: El Niño risk building, U.S. forecaster says

The new forecasting model would enhance public safety, improve emergency readiness and give more Canadians time to act when severe weather is expected, the department said.

The hybrid model is also expected to improve the accuracy of short and long-term forecasts. It claims the six-day forecast would be as accurate as the traditional model’s current five-day forecast and would predict major weather systems from eight to 24 hours earlier.

ECCC said it has tested the hybrid model over the past year to compare its performance with the traditional models. They found that the hybrid model predicted extreme weather more effectively, while the traditional model was better at small-scale details.

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El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) neutral conditions emerged last month. The U.S. Climate Prediction Center said on Thursday that El Niño has a 61 per cent chance of developing between May and June 2026 and is expected to persist through at least the end of 2026.

“El Niño is likely because of increasing subsurface temperature anomalies and recent westerly wind anomalies over the western Pacific Ocean,” the CPC added.

WHY IT MATTERS: On the Prairies, a strong El Niño typically translates into reduced impacts from Arctic air, meaning above-average temperatures — particularly in deep winter. El Niño winters often see increased cloud cover and more frequent light precipitation.

El Niño is a warming of the ocean surface, or above-average sea surface temperatures, in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

El Niño results in unusually warmer water temperatures, increasing the chance of floods and drought, which can impact crops. When ENSO is neutral, water temperatures stay around the average level, leading to more stable weather and potentially better crop yields.

Donald Keeney, agricultural meteorologist at Vaisala Weather, said a strong El Niño is possible, resulting in cooler and wetter conditions in the U.S. Midwest this summer, which would be favorable for corn and soybeans.

“It would also equate to wetter conditions in southern Brazil and Argentina, which would be favorable for corn and soybeans there next season,” Keeney said.

“Indonesia should be drier than usual as El Niño develops. Also, a cooling of water temperatures off western Indonesia, in the southeast tropical Indian Ocean, will contribute to drier conditions this spring and summer,” said Jason Nicholls, lead international forecaster at AccuWeather.

India is expected to receive below-normal monsoon rainfall in 2026, private weather forecaster Skymet said on Tuesday, citing El Niño-driven declines in precipitation in the latter half of the June–September rainy season.

Sucafina’s weather strategist Greg Oddo said that a potential impact from unfavorable weather to tropical crops such as coffee and cocoa is likely in first quarter of 2027.

— Reporting by Sarah Qureshi

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May canola settled at C$704.90 per tonne on April 8, falling out of the sideways trading range it had held for the previous three weeks.

• For daily market updates, visit The Western Producer Markets Desk

From a technical standpoint, May canola had been creating a coiling pattern over the past month, with the break lower opening up significant room to the downside, said analyst Mike Jubinville. Looking at a chart, the next support comes in at C$700 per tonne and then around C$680.

However, seasonal price trends at this time of year generally point higher, said Jubinville.

While old crop canola supplies remain more than sufficient to meet demand, he added that reduced fertilizer applications due to high costs could be supportive in the longer term.

With the bearish technical signals on one side and supportive seasonals on the other, “the markets will just trade the war,” added Western Producer markets desk analyst Bruce Burnett.

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In a joint statement issued after a meeting on the war, the leaders of the global institutions said the burden would fall most heavily on the world’s most vulnerable populations, particularly in low-income, import-dependent economies.

They said their institutions would continue to monitor developments closely and “coordinate the use of all available tools to support those impacted by the crisis.”

Increases in oil, gas, fertilizer prices

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a two-week ceasefire deal between the United States and Iran, but relief over the truce quickly gave way to alarm that fighting was still raging across the region, with Israeli strikes on Lebanon and Iranian attacks on Gulf oil facilities.

“The Middle East war is upending lives and livelihoods in the region and beyond. It has already triggered one of the largest disruptions to global energy markets in modern history,” the joint statement said.

“Sharp increases in oil, gas, and fertilizer prices, together with transport bottlenecks, will inevitably lead to rising food prices and food insecurity.”

The statement said spikes in fuel prices and potential sharp increases in food prices were especially concerning in countries already facing fiscal constraints and high debt burdens, which would limit their ability to protect vulnerable households.

Institutions vow support

The leaders of the three institutions vowed to provide support in accordance with their mandates, and to lay the foundations for a resilient recovery.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told Reuters on Monday the IMF was also engaging with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization on food security.

The World Food Programme said in mid-March that millions of people will face acute hunger if the war continues into June. Georgieva said the IMF did not see a food crisis yet, but that could happen if the delivery of fertilizers was impaired.

— Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Daphne Psaledakis

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“Projects like this are essential as we work together to lower greenhouse gas emissions and build a stronger, more resilient agriculture sector for Canadians,” said Heath MacDonald, federal minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food in a news release.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced April 7 that Anodyne Chemistries Inc. will receive up to$1,236,310 through Ottawa’s AgriScience Program – Projects Component under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

Anodyne describes itself as a Canadian chemical startup on its website. It plans to use the funds to develop a bio-electric process to convert carbon dioxide and water into hydrogen peroxide and formic acid.

Hydrogen peroxide disinfects and sanitizes equipment, while formic acid’s uses include as a preservative for animal feed.

The processes to make these products would reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as the ag sector’s reliance on petrochemical feedstocks.

“We’re proud to work alongside AAFC to build the foundation for a domestic, decarbonized agrichemical supply chain in Canada,” said Anodyne chief executive Iain Evans.

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