“We are proud of the relationship our two countries have built over the years, and we are committed to further expanding and strengthening Canadian pork’s partnership with Japanese retailers and consumers,” said Canadian Pork Council chair René Roy in a news release, Monday.

Japan’s top supplier

Canadian pork is the top imported pork in Japan for the first time in 40 years, the council said.

The U.S. was Japan’s largest pork supplier between 2020 and 2024 a report from the Province of Manitoba shows. It exported C$2.01 billion in pork products to Japan in 2024, with Canada second that year at $1.61 billion in pork products exported to Japan.

In the first half of 2025, Japan had already imported $3.8 billion in pork products, which represents 52.3 per cent of last year’s total imports from all origins, the Manitoba report said. Canada’s market share of Japanese pork imports through the first half of the year increased to 22.0 per cent, from 21.8 per cent.

Celebration on itinerary

Nineteen Canadian pork industry delegates will kick off this week’s trade mission in Osaka, where Canada Pork and the Canadian Pork Council will hosts events at the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 2025, including a cutting demo and pork tasting.

Delegates will then travel to Tokyo for a media conference at the Canadian embassy.

“Both events, along with other significant activities planned, will provide producers and processors an opportunity to celebrate the industry’s Japanese partners and friends,” the Canadian Pork Council said.

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The report looked to sum up the province’s current pork trade landscape and identify alternate markets the province could be selling into. It was one of several such commodity specific reports the province released this year.

WHY IT MATTERS: Trade disruption from the U.S. and China in 2025 have led to more conversations and push for diversified trade markets, both from new foreign partners and revamping internal, interprovincial trade.

Manitoba’s total pork exports reached $1.7 billion in 2024, according to the report.

Pork was also one of the province’s top-three exports in 2023, a year where total ag exports hit a whopping $9.39 billion, growing over six per cent from the year before. At the time, almost all of the $111-million annual jump in Manitoba’s meat exports were driven by pork.

Over the last five years, the province has sold over $7.5 billion worth of pork and pork products abroad, Manitoba Agriculture reported.

”Manitoba leads Canada in hog production with 8.6 million hogs and pigs sold in 2024, accounting for 29 per cent of the total Canadian production. The industry is supported by extensive infrastructure, including 595 hog farms and two major processing facilities,” report authors said.

China falls

China’s slipping footprint in the province’s pork trade emerged as one takeaway from the report. Once Manitoba’s second-largest buyer, it has now slipped to fifth place as of 2024. Pork exports from Canada to China dropped from $381.4 million in 2020 to $152.5 million in 2024. That put the compound annual growth rate at -20.48 per cent, the biggest drop of any market.

China’s 25 per cent tariffs against Canadian pork, announced in March 2025, are unlikely to improve that ranking.

According to the report, China accounted for nine per cent of the province’s pork export value in 2024.

”This downward trend is primarily attributed to a decrease in frozen pork exports, which compromised 84 per cent of Manitoba pork shipments to China,” the province noted.

As far as offal was concerned though, China was still a key buyer, and that market had remained fairly steady.

South Korea and Mexico step up

While Chinese trade has been on the wane, Manitoba found success in other markets, the province reported.

Exports to South Korea nearly quadrupled over five years, climbing from $54 million to $203 million in 2024. Mexico showed similar growth, rising from $67 million to $199 million.

“At the top of the list is the quality of the product that we sell,” said Cam Dahl, general manager of the Manitoba Pork Council, about the increases.

Japan remains the leader

Manitoba’s largest pork customer, meanwhile, has remained unchanged and, in fact, increased Manitoba’s market foothold in 2024 compared to the prior years.

Japan took in $656.5 million work of Manitoban pork last year. That’s lower than than their $673.5 million in 2020, but significantly up from the last two years, when values dove under $500 million.

Fresh pork dominates exports

Fresh pork has become the dominant product, reaching nearly $1 billion in exports last year, while frozen pork sales fell. Specialty items like prepared shoulders and pork livers also saw growth, though in smaller volumes. Salted pork, however, declined sharply.

Some of the lost Chinese demand may be difficult to replace. Products like offal have limited alternative markets. Still, the province noted opportunities exist. Countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Mexico are increasing imports of these products, while possible offal markets Japan, South Korea and Taiwan already buy Manitoba pork in significant quantities.

U.S. remains key

The U.S. also remains critical. As well as maintaining a place as Manitoba’s second-largest pork customer (a space it has held since China slipped from the spot in 2021), it is far and away the province’s top location for live animal exports.

The vast majority, 98 per cent, of Manitoba’s $233-million worth of live pig exports shipped south of the border.

However, Dahl cautioned against viewing that as dependence.

The North American swine and hog market is significantly integrated continentally.

The U.S. “is a market that is of course, high valued, and it’s here and it’s accessible, but we do have to acknowledge that there are political realities,” Dahl said.

The industry’s biggest challenge is political, not market-based, Dahl added. The Chinese tariffs were driven by political events, he argued.

China introduced the March tariffs as retaliatory measures against Canadian tariffs on Chinese products.

“They weren’t driven by market events,” Dahl said, adding that it is his view that keeping markets open should be the top agricultural priority for governments.

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Statistics Canada reported canola exports through October at 1.566 million tonnes, with China accounting for 64 per cent of the total (1.006 million tonnes). Japan and Mexico followed at 273,300 tonnes and 196,900 tonnes respectively.

China was also the largest destination at the same time the previous marketing year, but only accounted for 46 per cent of the total. Japan and Mexico were still number two and three this year, but several other countries who were also major buyers in 2022/23 have not yet shown up in the current crop year data.

Pakistan and Bangladesh have both not bought any Canadian canola in 2023/24, after accounting for just over 110,000 tonnes combined at the same time a year ago. The United Arab Emirates have cut their purchases by 33 per cent (37,400 tonnes) and the 19,200 tonnes shipped to the United States was down by 58 per cent.

European purchases are also down considerably, with only 30,700 tonnes to Belgium on the books so far and none to Germany or France. Exports to Belgium are up slightly from the 23,400 tonnes seen a year ago, but Germany and France had accounted for an additional 76,000 tonnes through three months in 2022/23.

China may be buying more canola this year, but their Canadian wheat imports (not including durum) as of October were roughly half of the 2022/23 level at the same time. China has imported 541,400 tonnes of Canadian wheat through three months, which compares to just over a million tonnes at the same point the previous year. While the Chinese business is down, other countries have picked up the slack, with total Canadian wheat exports through October of 5.453 million tonnes running 13 per cent ahead of the year ago pace.

Canada has exported 522,100 tonnes of non-durum wheat to the U.S. through October (up 74 per cent), 509,200 tonnes to Indonesia (up 143 per cent) and 495,500 tonnes to Japan (up 16 per cent).

— Phil Franz-Warkentin is an associate editor/analyst with MarketsFarm in Winnipeg.

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France has been among the countries worst affected by an unprecedented global spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza that has disrupted supply of poultry and eggs and sent prices rocketing in many parts of the world in the past years.

To fight the spread of the disease it started vaccinating 64 million ducks early this month, making it the first poultry exporter to do so and raising hope among foie gras producers that it would put an end to the crisis.

Producer group Cifog forecast foie gras output will rise 20 per cent in 2023 to 9,855 metric tonnes after a drop of 35 per cent in 2022, but still 26 per cent below the average of the five previous years and half the volume produced 10 years earlier.

Higher production costs, including part of vaccination, will lead to another rise in foie gras prices, pegged at five per cent this year, it said.

On the export front, France’s bird flu vaccination campaign prompted several countries to impose a ban on French poultry imports, including Japan, France’s main foie gras export market outside Europe with a share of 10 per cent in value.

Canada and the U.S. also imposed bans, Cifog added.

Although more and more governments have been looking at vaccination as a way to contain the virus, most of the world’s biggest poultry producers have resisted vaccination due to concerns it could mask the spread of bird flu and prompt trade bans.

— Sybille de La Hamaide is a Reuters commodities correspondent in Paris.

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Bibeau met with Canadian businesses and Japanese stakeholders in Tokyo. In Miyazaki, she discussed net zero initiatives, sustainable agriculture, resilient agriculture systems and food security at the G7 agriculture ministers’ meeting.

“The Indo-Pacific region presents tremendous economic opportunities for Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector,” Bibeau said. “This is why expanding our partnerships and trade relationships in the Indo-Pacific region is a top priority for the Government of Canada.”

Japan is Canada’s second largest market for beef, and was the third-largest market for agriculture exports in 2022.

In Singapore, Bibeau attended a bilateral meeting to discuss the country’s initiative to build its agri-food capacity and how Canada can contribute to Singapore’s food security goals, according to a May 2 press release from Bibeau’s department.

She also highlighted Canada’s exporters and national brand at the Food and Hotel Asia trade show, the release added.

Canada’s agricultural and food exports to Singapore have increased every year by 15.2 per cent since the ratification of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership between Canada and 10 other countries.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced a plan in December 2022 to open Canada’s first ever Indo-Pacific AAFC office.

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Canada’s federal agriculture department announced Monday that Japan has reopened to imports of “processed” Canadian beef — just days ahead of a significant reduction in Japan’s tariffs on imports of Canadian beef under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade pact.

“Our members view this as a critical market for their products, including processed beef and beef patties,” Chris White, CEO of the Canadian Meat Council, said in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s release Monday.

“This agreement will allow our industry to further build on the recent successes they have enjoyed in Japan since the CPTPP was ratified.”

Nathan Phinney, president of the Canadian Cattle Association, said in a separate release Monday producers are “grateful for the re-opening for processed beef in Japan, our second largest export market for beef.”

Japan’s decision concludes another plot thread in the story of Canada’s BSE crisis. Japan had closed its ports entirely to Canadian beef in 2003, upon Canada’s first finding of a domestic cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Canada in 2021 regained “negligible risk” status for BSE from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

Japan reopened to imports of Canadian beef from cattle 20 months of age or younger in 2005, to beef from cattle 30 months or younger (UTMs) in 2013, and to beef from cattle over 30 months old (OTMs) in 2019.

Under the CPTPP — in force since the end of 2018 for Canada and Japan as well as Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore, as the first six of the 11 member countries to ratify that deal — Canada has since had preferential market access to Japan that has allowed it to build its eligible beef exports up to an amount the CCA pegged at $518 million in 2022.

Japan levies a 38.5 per cent tariff on beef imports, including on primary processed beef products. For Canada, however, the beef tariff has decreased since the CPTPP came into force and, starting Saturday (April 1), drops again to 23.35 per cent, en route down to nine per cent by 2033.

Tariffs on further-processed beef products “will be reduced even more and in some cases eliminated altogether,” AAFC said Monday, reiterating that the reduction “provides Canadian exporters with a clear tariff advantage over our key competitors.”

The value of beef in Japan has also increased, rising from $6.74 per kilogram in 2020 to $7.76/kg in 2022, the CCA said Monday.

Japan, and the larger Indo-Pacific region, “hold the greatest potential for beef export diversification” for Canada, the CCA added.

The federal government late last year launched its Indo-Pacific strategy, through which it says it plans to boost economic opportunities for Canada by strengthening partnerships in the region such as with Japan.

The strategy also calls for the establishment of Canada’s first dedicated agriculture and agri-food office in the region, at an as-yet unannounced location. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Canada has exported 6.566 million tonnes of grains, oilseeds, and pulses to China as of December 2022, well ahead of No. 2 customer Japan at only 1.272 million tonnes.

While China is always a major destination for many of Canada’s crops, the country accounted for 32 per cent of the 20.5 million tonnes of grain shipped through December. That compares with 2021-22 when Chinese business through five months represented 22 per cent of the total and the five-year average of 24 per cent.

On a crop-by-crop basis, China has been the top destination in 2022-23 for Canadian wheat, canola, barley, soybeans and peas.

Canada has exported 1.74 million tonnes of wheat to China through December, marking 22 per cent of the total wheat sales. Canola business to China, at 1.756 million tonnes, represents roughly half of the total.

The 1.447 million tonnes of Canadian barley exports to China through December account for 94 per cent of the total movement to date. China accounts for 61 per cent of Canada’s pea exports through December and 40 per cent of the soybeans.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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The plan detailed in a 26-page document said Canada will tighten foreign investment rules to protect intellectual property and prevent Chinese state-owned enterprises from snapping up critical mineral supplies.

Canada is seeking to deepen ties with a fast-growing Indo-Pacific region of 40 countries accounting for almost $50 trillion in economic activity — countries including Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Singapore among others.

But the strategy’s focus is on China, which is mentioned more than 50 times, at a moment when bilateral ties are frosty.

Four cabinet ministers at a news conference in Vancouver took turns detailing the new plan, saying the strategy was crucial for Canada’s national security and climate as well as its economic goals.

“We will engage in diplomacy because we think diplomacy is a strength, at the same time we’ll be firm and that’s why we have now a very transparent plan to engage with China,” Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government wants to diversify trade and economic ties that are overwhelmingly reliant on the United States. Official data for September show bilateral trade with China accounted for under seven per cent of the total, compared to 68 per cent for the United States.

Canada’s outreach to Asian allies also comes as Washington has shown signs of becoming increasingly leery of free trade in recent years.

The document underscored Canada’s dilemma in forging ties with China, which offers significant opportunities for Canadian exporters, even as Beijing looks to shape the international order into a more “permissive environment for interests and values that increasingly depart from ours,” it added.

Challenge China

Yet, the document said co-operation with the world’s second-biggest economy was necessary to address some of the “world’s existential pressures,” including climate change, global health and nuclear proliferation.

“China is an increasingly disruptive global power,” said the strategy. “Our approach … is shaped by a realistic and clear-eyed assessment of today’s China. In areas of profound disagreement, we will challenge China.”

Tensions with China soared in late 2018 after Canadian police detained a Huawei Technologies executive and Beijing subsequently arrested two Canadians on spying charges. All three were released last year, but relations remain sour.

Canada earlier this month ordered three Chinese companies to divest their investments in Canadian critical minerals, citing national security.

The document, in a section mentioning China, said Ottawa would review and update legislation enabling it to act “decisively when investments from state-owned enterprises and other foreign entities threaten our national security, including our critical minerals supply chains.”

“Because the region is both large and diverse, one size definitely does not fit all,” Canadian Chamber of Commerce president Perrin Beatty said in a statement, adding that Canada’s priorities will need to be very nuanced both between and within countries.

The document said Canada would boost its naval presence in the region and “increase our military engagement and intelligence capacity as a means of mitigating coercive behavior and threats to regional security.”

That would include annual deployment of three frigates to the region, from two currently, as well as participation of Canadian aviators and soldiers in regional military exercises, Defense Minister Anita Anand said at a separate news conference.

Canada belongs to the Group of Seven major industrialized nations (G7), which wants significant measures in response to North Korean missile launches.

The document said Ottawa was engaging in the region with partners such as the U.S. and the European Union.

Canada needed to keep talking to nations it had fundamental disagreements with, it said, but did not name them.

Sunday’s announcement follows a related funding package laid out Nov. 18 to boost trade ties within the Indo-Pacific region, including $31.8 million over five years for a regional agriculture and agri-food office, to be set up at an as-yet-unnamed location.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren and Ismail Shakil.

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Oilseed production in India is projected to increase by one per cent at 42.1 million tonnes in 2022-23, according to FAS New Delhi. Soybean production will slightly decline 100,000 tonnes at 11.8 million, while rapeseed/canola production is slated to increase 300,000 tonnes at 11.1 million.

Those projections are based on the assumptions of near-normal yields, normal acreage for other commodities, sufficient water storage levels and the availability of fertilizers.

The total oilseed crush projected for 2022-23 is 34.7 million tonnes, a 2.2 per cent increase from the previous marketing year. FAS New Delhi also predicts ending stocks to decline 16.4 per cent at 1.2 million tonnes.

Oil meal production will also increase by two per cent to 20.7 million tonnes due to greater animal feed demand and oilseed supply. Exports of oil meal are expected to increase 13 per cent at 3.7 million tonnes, while vegetable oil imports are projected to rise six per cent at 14.5 million tonnes.

Meanwhile in Japan, the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions has caused consumer demand to shift away from canola oil and toward soyoil.

The Japanese soybean crush is projected to total 2.45 million tonnes in 2022-23, the same amount as USDA’s total for 2021-22. However, the country’s rapeseed/canola crush is expected to decline 4.8 per cent at 2.17 million tonnes. These figures are due to less people cooking at home, which increased the use of canola oil at the start of the pandemic, and more people going out to eat at hotels and restaurants where soyoil is used.

Soybean imports are projected to decline by 7,000 tonnes at 3.27 million in 2022-23, while rapeseed/canola imports are predicted to be 2.17 million tonnes, 99,000 less than USDA’s total for 2021-22. The domestic soy meal crush is expected to be 2.45 million tonnes in 2022-23, same as USDA’s 2021-22 total, while the rapeseed/canola meal crush is expected to decline 110,000 tonnes at 2.17 million.

Imports of palm oil in Japan are projected to decline 30,000 tonnes at 620,000 for 2022-23. Rising prices have made power generation from palm stearin oil unprofitable, according to the report.

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The agreement includes a new mechanism that requires three separate conditions to be reached — instead of only one — for Japan to invoke a “safeguard trigger” and impose higher duties on U.S. beef for 30 days.

“This agreement is a great win for our two countries that ensures American farmers and ranchers can continue to meet Japan’s growing demand for high-quality U.S. beef,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement.

The agreement, reached after a year of consultations between the two countries, will come into force once the text is finalized and each country has completed a few remaining steps, a senior U.S. official said.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack welcomed the agreement and said it would allow for greater market-based growth in U.S. beef exports to Japan.

In 2021 the United States was the world’s top beef exporter, with global sales of beef and beef products valued at more than US$10 billion, U.S. data shows.

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