Alberta honey hit hard by U.S. tariffs

0:00As mentioned before, the break, happy turf Tuesday to those who celebrate. More of a taco Tuesday kind of guy, but to each their own Canada, officially delivering on counter tariffs today in response to the escalation from the United States and that ongoing trade war, which saw a 50% levy placed on more than $20 billion in Canadian goods two weeks ago. Two schools of thought on this. There are those who think that we need to swing back at the Americans as hard as they did us, but there are others like Danielle Smith who says, you know what? Let's use honey in dealing with Donald Trump. Okay. But what do the people who make honey feel about this? Someone who I would say definitely has had at least two unique jobs in his lifetime, the owner of Parkland County's Good Morning, honey, and a familiar face and Edmonton airways for many years is one of the loved weatherman in our city. Welcome to the program Richard Osrow this afternoon. How you doing, Rich? Yeah, good. Thanks for to hear from me, Courtney. Yeah. You'd say which one? What's job would you say is more unique weatherman or I guess be be keeper?

1:05They're both pretty unique. There's more stress on the beekeeping side of things right now. That's for sure. But I love them both. That's for sure. There you go. Maybe you've got a career as a politician after the way you navigated that question. See, yeah, here's the thing, right? Is that we, I don't know if we necessarily think of how big the honey industry is in Canada and in Alberta in particular. But you guys, you're building a buzz, pun intended in terms of this industry. Well, how big is it? So the Canadian honey industry is one of the bigger ones in the world. And here in Alberta, we produce about 40% of the honey that is actually created in the entire country. We have the vast acres of cropland and natural land. And we have the long summer days. So it's an ideal situation. We produce well above average honey crops per hive here in Alberta.

2:07So we have several large commercial beekeepers. And it's not just about the honey. Elfurt is also home to some large pollination contracts for keeping the canola seed industry in place as well. So it's a major part of the agricultural scene in Alberta. And in Canada, it has to billions of dollars worth of value in the ag industry. Yeah, it's basically as far as these little bees can fly. It seems like they're having their impact across the province in a multitude of different ways as you mentioned. But focusing on honey, though, obviously when these tariffs came into effect two weeks ago, it was a 50% levy on $20 billion in Canadian goods that also included Canadian honey. What's the hit been like for you guys? What's the forecast, if you will, for you guys dealing with that? Well, it's tough to say what the short term, medium term and long term impacts are.

3:09Right now, it really seems like there's been a stop sign put up and a 50% tariff isn't a tariff. It's basically a closed border at this point. There isn't a 50% profit margin hiding in a barrel of honey. So neither the Canadian beekeeper nor the American buyer can absorb that. So it's 50% if it does just become a little more expensive. It stops everything dead and it's trapped. So there were some beekeepers in Alberta who were able to sell a bit of product before the tariffs took place. But there wasn't a lot of honey already in barrels at that time. So that was more like leftover honey that they may have had from last year's crop. So it's a way to see game to see what happens with with the rest of the crop. This isn't a comment of worst time. Like we spend all spring and all summer preparing for this moment where we're finally after paying all these major input costs seeing that diesel prices rise. And finally get a chest to put some honey in a barrel and get set to market it so we can start to pay our bills.

4:13You have the tariff clopped right on top of your head. And now you're dealing with this, you know, these external forces that have never been there before. And it's taking everyone by surprise. Yeah, what's the percentage of your business that you would say is director indirectly tied to the United States? Well, it really depends on the year. Last year I didn't sell anything some years. It's 20% of our business. So that's a that's a major part of what we do. It's you don't want to have your major export partner, not an option anymore. So there's this huge trade imbalance though. So where is the state is a major home for honey that would get exported out of Canada? That's this year. It's as high 70% of what we export has gone into the states is going into the state. And but we're only 2% of what they import. So we're not flooding their market. We're not, you know, causing any problems with American beekeepers. So this 50% tariff doesn't really math out.

5:16So it's weird to find this industry caught in the middle of this international trade war. Yeah, there's a lot of weird things on that list. Like Canadian bamboo and Canadian pillow feathers. It's just strange. But here's the thing with your industry too, right? I mean, you guys can't scale down. Can you? No, you know, you can't. It's where we're in a unique predicament. These aren't widgets sitting on an assembly lie. You know, they're living colonies of bees, whether the honey market is good or terrible. I still have to feed them, treat them, winter them, employ the people who look after them. You know, there's 16 of us here at Good Morning, honey, that work hard to keep these, keep up with the bees here. And this isn't just the honey story. It's Alberta agriculture and Canadian food security story. A terrorist may just kind of sound to the people who are directly involved, like numbers on a trade sheet, but eventually this reaches down to the real farms, real employees and real communities. Yeah. And I guess, you know, when we take a look at the, the by Canadian mantra that seems to have,

6:21you know, stuck around for a lot longer than even I anticipated, is there any way that that can help address some of the concerns that you're anticipating here in the short and long term? Yeah, that's where I'm really painting it is on the consumer. They have the real power. So every time they deliberately choose Canadian honey, they're putting money back into the farms and jobs and communities. So all they have to do, pick up that jar of honey, look at the label, choose Canadian honey, buy from the beekeeper down the road or a farmer's market, a Canadian producer, Canadian beekeeper on offer option. So I'm a member of BeeMade, which is a cooperative that that helps sell Alberta honey producers and Manitoba honey producers. They only pack Canadian honey. There's other great packers out there as well. The important thing is to intentionally support Canadian production. And for them, to NARA listeners, I'll do a quick blog here. Good morning, honey. Also does that local free delivery to the entire capital region. So we deliver locally, but this is bigger than just good morning, honey. Wherever your local beekeeper is, you can support them and trust the people producing honey in your community as well.

7:26Yeah, well, it doesn't get to more local or more down the road than Parkland County. So certainly, hopefully people hearing what's going on today. And looking for a little sweetness in their life when there's a lot of bitterness going on right now. So Richard, it was great catching up with you and glad that your second chapter in life has been so successful. Yeah, it's been a great ride so far. And we'll all get through this together as Canadians. And we're not asking for sympathy. We're just wanting to have the awareness spread out there. And this is one way of doing it. So I appreciate the opportunity to be on your show, Courtney. Right, no problem. Glad to help out. There you go. Richard Ozzaro, owner of Good Morning, honey out in Parkland County. I'm just talking about the impacts that the chair of war, the trade wars had on his business and his industry in general.