Farmers in Canada suffered huge losses from the November floods and landslides.
In mid-November, following wildfires amid heat waves that affected the entire agricultural sector, the province of British Columbia faced severe floods and landslides.
The city of Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley, where almost half of the area is occupied by dairy and poultry farms, has become the center of the bad weather — thousands of animals have died.
The disaster also affected the city of Chilliwack, a major poultry center.
Since November 17, an emergency regime has been in effect in British Columbia, road and rail links between the regions have been disrupted.
As a result of the transport collapse, farmers could not ship their products, purchase feed, hearth and veterinary drugs.
Milk suppliers had to simply empty the product on the ground.
959 farmers were forced to evacuate, leaving their farm. Another 164 farms are under threat of evacuation.
50,600 acres (24.47 thousand hectares) of agricultural land affected by the disaster.
Growers have stopped deliveries to ports.
The situation did not become catastrophic only because of the low harvest: in 2021, farmers harvested 47.2 million tons of basic field crops, which is 36% less than in the last five years.
At the end of October, 34% of the crop was shipped, well above the usual 27% (according to Quorum Corp., which monitors grain in Canada).
But logistical problems cannot be avoided: most of the export program for 2021-2022 is busy, a large harvest was expected.
And if Richardson International, Viterra and Cargill can move some of the traffic to Prince Rupert’s grain terminal, Patterson Grain is unlikely to be able to redirect volumes to the railway line serving Prince Rupert.
In addition, there are two disadvantages for exporters:
Flood recovery may take at least a month, and trading will then be closed due to the New Year holidays.
According to preliminary estimates, the supply chain will begin to recover after Christmas.
