“For over 50 years, there has been almost no genetic improvement of saskatoons, no systematic streamlined breeding that has been successfully done because saskatoon berry cultivars … won’t successfully cross,” said Anže Švara in an online article from the university.

WHY IT MATTERS: New varieties of saskatoon berries are historically difficult to develop.

Švara is an associate professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s plant science department. He is helping to lead a new project that will categorize saskatoon berry varieties to better understand their traits. The hope is this will identify characteristics that can potentially be selected for future new varieties.

The university houses around 2,000 saskatoon berry varieties collected over the decades.

“We have two key questions: can certain saskatoon berry plants breed with other saskatoon berry plants? And is there diversity that can be utilized to develop new varieties with improved traits?” said Švara in the article.

The university said it hopes the project will contribute to future innovative breeding projects and help berry growers.

Saskatoon berries present a particular challenge in breeding because some historically successful cultivars have four sets of chromosomes instead of two. Plants produce seedlings nearly identical to the parent plants, but it’s difficult to breed those plants with others to develop specific traits.

The project is funded through the federally-supported Agriculture Development Fund and by the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers Association.

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The report was full of predictions that came true, as well as a few surprises. This year’s report was the 16th annual.

Food prices were driven higher in 2025 by meat, said Sylvain Charlebois, the lead of Canada’s Food Price Report. Charlebois is the Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. He leads Canada’s Food Price Report, but the report was developed by a collective of scholars.

“In fact, we claimed last year that meat would be driving food inflation, and we underestimated how significantly meat prices would go up. That was really the big story in 2025,” he said.

Meat prices to stay high

Unfortunately, the group expects meat prices will remain a huge factor for 2026.

“Beef is an issue, of course, it’s been an issue for a while now, and we don’t see how the situation will normalize itself before at least mid-year 2027,” he said. “Ranchers are leaving the industry. It’s difficult for ranchers across North America.”

The high prices of beef are encouraging people to change to other types of meat, like chicken.

“We’re short on chicken because of higher beef prices. The situation with beef is really a major issue for meat counter economics in general,” he said.

Chicken raised in Canada is under supply management.

“Supply shouldn’t be a problem, but it is a problem right now, because we’re importing more chicken from abroad. But I don’t think that is going to last. I do think the chicken industry will recover eventually. It’s kind of awkward to have supply management and import more chicken from the United States right now,” he said.

Fruit and vegetable inflation down

Vegetables and fruits had their inflation rates go down in 2025 compared to 2024.

“We were expecting increases to be in the positive, but the increases didn’t accelerate as much as we expected,” he said.

The group thought the “Buy Canadian” movement and the entire American boycott would put a lot of pressure on grocers to source products that are cheaper or the same price in America.

“But we were spared, and I think that’s due to the Canadian dollar. I think the Canadian dollar remained a non-issue. That came as a surprise, I would say,” said Charlebois.

Food affordability is a top concern for consumers. A quarter of Canadian households are considered food insecure, and nearly 2.2 million people visited food banks in Canada monthly this year.

Charlebois said there are numerous factors that affect food prices including geopolitics, global weather events, policy enactment, consumer behaviour and changes in retail models. Energy costs, climate change, interest rates, labour costs, the level of consolidation in a sector, and consumer demand, including whether consumers have more money or less money to spend on food.

“These are the things that impact food prices over time. But the bottom line is that not one node of the growth of the food supply chain totally controls food prices,” he said.

Trade wars affect food prices

In 2025, food prices were affected by the trade dispute between Canada and the United States and subsequent policy changes. Consumer-led movements also altered the economic retail landscape, impacting food price inflation.

Charlebois said farmers would say there’s a weak correlation between protein prices, and retail prices, and they’re correct to say so.

“So even though there is a weak correlation between the two, production does have an impact on how food is sourced to supply grocery stores in general,” he said.

When people spend more money at the grocery store, the farmer gets a bigger proportion of the farm bill. With retail, 13 to 15 per cent of the money spent at the grocery store goes back to the farmer compared to food service, where about four per cent to five percent goes back to the farmer from food service.

“Right now, there is a strong movement towards staying retail for consumers, because they’re trying to save as much money as possible, and they’re avoiding restaurants, so that could actually be a positive for farmers in general,” said Charlebois.

Temporary foreign workers

Temporary foreign workers are widely used along the food supply chain. In 2024, Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program brought in over 78,000 workers into the agricultural industry. The Canadian government is revisiting its immigration policy and has announced plans to reduce the share of temporary residents in Canada to less than five per cent of the population by 2027, to encourage more domestic labour and improve youth employment rates. Agriculture is exempt from this cap.

The current population of temporary foreign workers is at seven per cent.

There are concerns that shifts with temporary workers could lead to a major labour shortage in agriculture, disrupting the supply chain and costing businesses already operate on tight margins. The costs would be passed down to the consumer.

Charlebois said the research team is concerned about the temporary foreign worker problem.

“It’s a very important program to support our farmers,” he said. The information about temporary foreign workers was added to Canada’s Food Price Report, to send a clear signal to government that the temporary foreign worker program in agriculture should not be compromised, he said.

Food bill to rise “a lot”

The report also contains predictions for 2026.

“We’re expecting the average family (of four) to see their food bill increased by $1,000, so we’re expecting an increase of four to six per cent, so that’s a lot. I believe it’s the highest we’ve ever seen in 16 years. That’s going to be pushed by two categories; meat and the centre of the store. That’s pantry goods and dry goods. This is not going to help consumers,” he said.

“We think it’s going to push inflation higher,” he said.

The ongoing trade dispute with the United States will continue to affect prices next year. The inflationary aspects of the tariffs and counter-tariffs will continue in 2026 as trade tensions reshape the economic landscape. Canada is strengthening its relationships with other international trading partners to build resilience and competitiveness.

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Nielsen’s experience in public policy, trade and global development spans two decades and includes positions with Export Development Canada, food aid non-profit Nutrition International and Global Affairs Canada.

Nielsen, in the newly-created role, will lead policy development and research initiatives and engage governments and other stakeholders on the interests of the Canadian fruit and vegetable sector.

Nielsen’s “talent for forging strategic partnerships, will be pivotal as FVGC intensifies its efforts to deliver results for Canadian growers” said Fruit and Vegetable Growers executive director Massimo Bergamini in a news release.

“As the voice of Canadian fruit and vegetable growers, FVGC must ensure their priorities and concerns are heard and acted on,” said Bergamini.

After assuming the role mid-August, Nielsen will reach out to FVGC members to gain more insight into the sector.

“I’m excited to work alongside such a dedicated team to advance policies that strengthen the sector and ensure Canadians continue to have access to healthy, sustainable food,” Nielsen said in the release.

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Exports of greenhouse-grown cucumbers also equal or exceed imports.

“Canada continues to rely heavily in imported fruits and vegetables, especially during its long winters,” wrote FCC senior economist Amanda Norris in a May 28 report.

“Different types of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) are gaining momentum to overcome this problem.”

While greenhouses are the most recognized form of controlled environment agriculture, the category also includes insect farming, aquaculture, lab-grown meat, and vertical farming, Norris added.

Opportunities

Due to their extended growing season and ability to stack crops vertically to reduce footprint, greenhouse-grown crops tend to yield more per acre than the same fruits and vegetables grown outdoors.

Canadian greenhouses can typically operate for nine months out of the year.

“The advantage is striking, ranging from five times more pounds per acre for tomatoes to an impressive 30 times more for herbs,” said Norris.

Along with growth in peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes, greenhouse-grown strawberries have also gained ground in Canada. Production went from neglible in 2020 to 16.5 million pounds in 2024.

Canada has also added 70 new operations and 19 per cent more greenhouse area since 2013 outside of Ontario, the hotspot for greenhouse ag.

Lettuce, herbs and strawberries represent areas for further expansion.

“To realize this opportunity, Canada must invest in practices to boost productivity through labour and resource saving technologies, research and development for new crops, and explore ways to bring CEA to more regions,” Norris wrote.

Downsides

Most fruits and vegetables Canadians eat come from outdoor farms or imports because many crops aren’t suited to indoor environments. Potatoes, for instance, require deep, loose soil.

Controlled environment agriculture—like much of agriculture—requires a lot of capital to set up due to the many systems and technology involved.

Operating expenses are also rising—up six per cent annually on average over the last decade. Sales rose by 6.4 per cent over the same period, which kept margins a bit above break-even.

Greenhouse agriculture also faces a labour crunch. The number of workers under age 60 has shrunk an average of eight per cent annually for the past five years.

Greenhouses also find themselves competing for limited municipal infrastructure like energy, water and waste services. This makes building or expanding more challenging.

“Investment and the adoption of technology will be crucial to overcoming high operational costs, address labour and infrastructure constraints, and allow the sector to reach its full potential,” Norris said.

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Inside the domes, researchers are growing pears in a controlled environment that simulates how climate change will affect the region in 2040. Their aim is to see what global warming has in store for Europe’s fruit growers.

“We expect more heatwaves and less even precipitation, so more droughts and floods as well. And overall, slightly higher temperatures,” Francois Rineau, associate professor at the University of Hasselt, said of the simulated climate inside the domes.

Early results from the scientists’ first harvest in 2023 suggest Belgian pears may be spared some of the worst impacts of climate change – which scientists expect to cut some crop yields and hike growers’ costs for irrigation to combat drought.

“The effect of climate change at the 2040 horizon on the quality of pears was very minor. However, we found a difference in how the ecosystem was functioning,” Rineau said, noting that an earlier growing season in the 2040 simulation appeared to result in the ecosystem absorbing more CO2.

Year-to-year variability means that one year alone cannot capture intermittent extreme weather and other changes in the climate which can wreak havoc on crops. The three-year experiment will cover three harvests.

This year’s harvest of 2040-era pears is being studied at the Flanders Centre of Postharvest Technology (VCBT), to check the fruits’ size, firmness and sugar content – and compare them to pears grown in domes simulating today’s climate.

“If we have a higher temperature on the trees, pears tend to be less firm and have more sugar,” VCBT researcher Dorien Vanhees said.

That’s bad news for growers. Less-firm fruit survives a shorter period in storage, reducing the quantity of pears growers can sell.

Floods, hail and drought have already affected European pear growers in recent years, as climate change begins to leave fingerprints on growing patterns.

Belgium’s pear production is expected to plunge by 27 per cent this year, according to the World Apple and Pear Association, owing to factors including an unusually early bloom and unusually late frost.

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The company, owned by private equity firm Paine Schwartz Partners, has about $679 million in debt, and plans to sell its business in bankruptcy, according to bankruptcy court documents (all figures US$).

Prima grows peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots on its 18,000 acres of farmland in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Prima has struggled under its high debt load, and it has also faced significant setbacks since 2020, including a salmonella outbreak that led to a recall of peaches in the U.S. and the 2020 Creek Fire in California, which damaged orchards and reduced crop yields and quality.

Prima will try to find a buyer for its assets by November, hoping to avoid an upcoming cash crunch between its profitable harvest seasons. Prima has about $26 million in cash, and it could run out of money by January 2024 if it doesn’t find a buyer before next year’s harvest season begins in May, according to court documents.

If no buyer emerges, Prima will pivot to a debt restructuring or a liquidation of its business, according to court documents.

The company was formed from a 2019 merger of Gerawan Farming Inc. and Wawona Packing Company. The company had over $300 million in sales revenue in 2022, with 60 per cent of that coming from sale of peaches, according to court documents.

— Dietrich Knauth reports on U.S. bankruptcy and product liability law for Reuters from New York City.

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Contracts for frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) at ICE hit a high of $3.292/lb. during the session, the second highest price ever, just shy of the record of $3.3175/lb. seen on Aug. 17 (all figures US$).

Florida’s orange crop this year was already on the way to being small, only around half the size it produced just two years ago, due to diseases and erratic weather. The hurricane will exacerbate the situation.

“There is little hope for a bigger crop next year,” said commodities analyst Judith Ganes.

Fields in Florida were still recovering from the impact of hurricane Ian in 2019, while also suffering from a bacterial disease known as greening.

Authorities in Florida have yet to evaluate damage to infrastructure and agricultural production as the storm moved over to Georgia.

Also on Wednesday, Brazilian industry group CitrusBR said in a statement that stocks of orange juice at the end of the 2022-23 season (July-June) fell 40 per cent to 84,745 metric tonnes, the lowest level since the group started to collect the data 12 years ago.

CitrusBR said the fall is a result of a smaller-than-expected crop in the world’s largest orange juice producer and exporter, as well as falling juice yields from the fruits.

— Reporting for Reuters by Marcelo Teixeira.

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Precise information on losses for citrus producers in top grower Florida will take days to be released, analysts said, as people in the area deal with power outages and flooding makes it difficult to check on farms. Orange juice futures jumped in the last three sessions.

Florida orange production was already expected to be poor, as planted areas have been falling yearly due to real estate expansion and the spread of the greening fungus disease.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. orange production was estimated to fall 13 per cent to the lowest in over 55 years at 3.5 million tons before the storm.

“Some of the growers that are still investing in citrus production in Florida, battling the disease with new varieties, will be hard hit by this storm,” said soft commodities analyst Judy Ganes.

She said that the strong winds have likely “transported” the greening fungus from abandoned orange farms to renovated ones, wasting the work and investment.

Ian’s aftermath would be bad for the juice industry.

Although imports from Brazil and Mexico currently make up for most of the orange juice consumed in the U.S., Florida’s production was important to the industry since it is mostly the not from concentrate (NFC) variety, which has gained popularity among consumers compared to the older style, frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ).

Foreign suppliers prefer to export FCOJ since it takes less space in vessels and is easier to handle.

Ganes said that if there is a shortage of NFC juice in the market, or if prices for that skyrocket, the industry could further lose share for other beverages.

— Reporting for Reuters by Marcelo Teixeira.

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Pakistan’s 220 million people are already facing rampant inflation, with consumer prices up 24.9 per cent year-on-year in July. The economy is in turmoil, with fast-depleting foreign reserves and a record depreciation of the rupee against the U.S. dollar.

That leaves the country particularly vulnerable as it counts the cost of extreme monsoon rains through August that have killed more than 1,100 people.

Damage to homes and infrastructure will run into billions of dollars, while losses in the key farming sector have yet to be fully assessed.

In the eastern city of Lahore, close to the border with India and far from the worst floods in Sindh province, prices of some vegetables have tripled.

“Last week, I sold onions for 90 rupees a kilogram and today the government price is 300 [C$1.80] per kg,” said vegetable seller Ahmad Ali. The Pakistani government sets prices for some fresh produce, although traders often ignore the guidelines.

Tomatoes and onions are among the most common ingredients in Pakistani cooking, and tens of thousands of tonnes of each are consumed each month.

“The supply of vegetables and fruit to Lahore is getting lower day by day because of the flood, rains and destruction to roads,” said Malik Salim Awan, a supplier at Lahore’s fruit and vegetable market.

“Before the current scenario, we were receiving over 100 trucks (of fresh produce) daily. Now, we receive 10 to 15 trucks only,” Awan said.

Officials say that more than two million acres (809,371 hectares) of agricultural land have been flooded, destroying most standing crops and preventing farmers from sowing new ones.

Warehouses emptying

Hundreds of kilometres from Lahore, people must clear up flooded homes at the same time as worry about where the next meal will come from.

“Tomatoes were 60 rupees/kg, and now they are more than 200 … even the price of flour is double now,” said Sain Bukash Husain, 20, whose home in the village of Garhi Yasin in the southern province of Sindh has been badly damaged.

“What can we do?”

Sindh, with a population of 50 million, has been hardest hit, with 697 mm of rain thus far in the monsoon period, or 466 per cent above the 30-year monsoon average. Pakistan as a whole has seen nearly 190 per cent more rain than the 30-year average.

In Dera Ismail Khan, in central Pakistan along the Indus River, warehouses storing vegetables are already emptying out.

The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is scrambling to secure supplies.

“The rice crop has been washed away,” Sharif told reporters after visiting northern Pakistan. “Fruit and vegetables are gone.” He said flood waters had swept away 700,000 livestock.

Pakistan’s agrarian sector powers the economy and feeds the people, accounting for more than a fifth of the country’s output, employing up to 40 per cent of the workforce and producing goods worth around US$80 billion annually.

Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar said on Wednesday that the government was close to an agreement to import vegetables and other edible goods from Iran and Afghanistan, and an urgent request had gone to the cabinet to approve it.

“Prices are up already. If you go to buy onions you wouldn’t get it. If you go to buy tomatoes you will get it at a much higher price,” Qamar told a news conference, citing the fallout of the floods.

— Reporting for Reuters by Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore, Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Syed Raza Hassan in Garhi Yasin and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; writing by Gibran Peshimam.

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Canadian agriculture and food safety officials announced Aug. 10 that talks with Seoul on import rules and certifications had concluded to allow registered Canadian cherry packers to export to Korea effective Aug. 1.

Up until Aug. 1, no Canadian fresh cherries could be exported to South Korea, as negotiations for phytosanitary conditions had not yet been completed, ag officials said via email.

However, they added, the bilateral Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement in place since 2015 included an agreed-upon tariff reduction schedule for fresh cherries, “negotiated with the expectation that Canadian industry would eventually have access to the market.”

That means the tariff rate on exports of Canadian cherries to South Korea, which otherwise would have been 24 per cent, will be just 4.8 per cent this year, with duty-free access already scheduled for Jan. 1, 2024, officials said.

Canada’s cherries didn’t yet have access to the Korean market when CKFTA talks were underway but “it was a priority for the Canadian government and industry stakeholders to secure a tariff phase-out with a view to eventual access,” AAFC officials said, noting that negotiating access for any ag commodity is “a lengthy process that can take several years to be achieved.”

South Korea’s annual imports of fresh cherries from other countries were valued at over $208 million in 2021, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said Aug. 10.

Canada’s annual cherry exports to other countries, meanwhile, were valued at $78 million in 2021, AAFC said.

And, “as the region in North America with the latest-growing cherries, British Columbia exporters have a competitive advantage when the cherries are ready to go to market in August and September.”

Given recent expansions in acres and production volume and rising global demand, sweet cherries have already become Canada’s second-largest exported fruit crop, behind blueberries, AAFC said, and the opening of the Korean market marks “a timely opportunity for the Canadian cherry industry to develop new business.”

“Our growers and industry partners look forward to building long-lasting relationships with Korean customers and cannot wait to see cherries branded with the maple leaf in stores across South Korea,” B.C. Cherry Association president Sukhpaul Bal said in the government’s release Aug. 10. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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