Covering ground: agriculture exports, investments, and the economic recovery

(Kara Oosterhuis/RealAgriculture)

The pandemic has affected the global economy in a broad sense, and there’s a lot of ground to recover from 2020.

To help us get a sense of where 2021 is heading in terms of agricultural economics, Bernard Tobin is joined by Craig Klemmer, principle agricultural economist at Farm Credit Canada, who recently presented at the virtual Ontario Agricultural Conference.

“When we think about the recovery, that’s a perspective of the global recovery from the pandemic, and COVID-19 has really negatively impacted economies around the world,” says Klemmer. Overall, GDP declined about four per cent, so thinking about the recovery for agriculture and agri-food, the it will be mixed, he adds.

Economies are expected to open up, and to grow, as the vaccine is released, and Klemmer is hopeful to see traction throughout 2021.

Agriculture is always front and centre with export opportunities, whether it’s feed exports for the Chinese hog system, or just feed grains in general. Overall, export opportunities will get a boost for Canadian agriculture in 2021, says Klemmer.

As for Canada’s specific economic recovery, there will likely be more deficit spending on behalf of the Canadian government, to protect households and businesses, in 2021. Moving forward, stimulus spending should get Canada back to work and back to capacity, which means demand for agriculture, says Klemmer.

Listen in for more on the role of Canada’s government, interest rates, recovery efforts, land prices, and the “COVID bump”:

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