When U.S. President Donald Trump introduced his intention to place 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian items on Jan. 29, Winkler-area potato farmer Juston Schmidt labored to ship as many potatoes to the States as doable earlier than they got here into impact Feb. 4, 2025.
“We have been slightly involved at first,” the vice-president of Schmidt Farms Ltd. stated. “I believe the priority has light into simply coming to a conclusion of that is simply the brand new means we’re going to do issues.”
Canada introduced retaliatory tariffs on Feb. 2, and the following day, President Trump suspended the tariffs for 30 days, ultimately exempting CUSMA-compliant items from the levies. For now, Schmidt’s exports to American prospects are tariff-free, however he says pivoting to promote solely Canadian patrons can be unhealthy for enterprise.
“I hope that by no means occurs,” he stated. “Within the contemporary sector, we’d have a market in Canada. It’s simply, Toronto is quite a bit additional away than the U.S.”
Schmidt provides tariffs on the agricultural sector would additionally hurt American potato farmers.
“The contemporary potatoes clearly begin rising sooner within the south, so potatoes come from Florida or Missouri or Minnesota to Canada in summer time typically. We export extra within the winter months.”

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However not all potato farmers can shift their gross sales like Schmidt can. The Manitoba Seed Potato Growers Affiliation issued an announcement concerning the “dire” scenario for his or her growers, whose product can’t be saved. The affiliation says they estimate 15-20 per cent of this yr’s yield will must be composted or discarded.
“Sadly, conventional applications like crop insurance coverage don’t provide safety for market-driven losses of this nature, leaving the monetary burden solely on particular person farms,” the affiliation stated in an announcement.
“The discount in planted acres this spring might have far-reaching impacts on seed potato farms in Manitoba, with tens of millions of {dollars} value of product probably left with no market.”
Whereas Canada was spared from Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, the instability has precipitated stress amongst producers throughout the nation.
“Our vegetable greenhouse growers particularly are very nervous the place 90 to 95% of their market is south of border,” stated Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) President Keith Currie. “Issues like crimson meat, beef, and pork crosses the border a number of instances for processing into the U.S.”
Currie says tariffs jeopardize the trade’s sustainability, even when most merchandise are at the moment exempt.
“How does it have an effect on rates of interest and inflation charges for farmers? We all know that there’s been some added borrowing incentives for farmers, however that simply means they must go additional in debt to proceed to do their enterprise. And that’s not a long-term resolution to how we get by this,” he stated.
Currie provides the CFA will push whichever occasion types authorities for extra helps for the trade after the election on April 28.
For farmers like Schmidt, it’s the steel tariffs, and Canada’s counter-tariffs that might have an effect on his operations most.
“I believe that’s our largest concern,” he stated, “simply with all issues from farm equipment to tires to paper… our prices are a much bigger concern than the tariffs of what we do export.”
Manitoba’s 2025 provincial budget contains greater than $140 million for producer-government price sharing and insurance coverage applications, and a $90 million contingency fund ought to the tariffs trigger vital injury to the sector.
For now, Schmidt’s operations are continuing as standard. The third-generation potato farmer is assured they’ll have the ability to adapt to their unstable commerce accomplice.
“There’s a number of gambles and farming, and tariffs is just one of them,” he stated.
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