Trade minister touts Saskatchewan’s successes overseas

Trade and Export Minister Jeremy Harrison says recent overseas trade missions, events and webinars are paying off for Saskatchewan.

During a news conference Monday at Cameco’s headquarters in Saskatoon, Harrison said the province had seen a number of successes in 2023 when it comes to trade, with exports worth nearly $50 billion to 163 countries and agri-food exports totaling more than $20 billion.

A 2023 mission to Saudi Arabia for COP28 became the most expensive Government of Saskatchewan trip ever, with a cost around $1 million, including $765,000 for the trip itself and $238,000 for advertising.

Harrison said in the last quarter of 2023, trade missions represented more than 30 Saskatchewan exporters and resulted in 190 trade deals with sales around $7 million and 148 job offers being extended.

“It’s important to have government working with industry to demonstrate the support for companies who are working internationally,” he said.

Harrison also took a shot at the federal government on Monday, citing an effort by the federal agriculture minister to secure a $150,000 agreement in Vietnam for the purchase of blueberries when the country also wanted to strike an agreement to buy wheat.

“Both their trade and their ag minister, the first issue they raised was, ‘We want to buy more wheat from Canada – really Saskatchewan in a tangible way … There’s an issue that exists, we want to resolve the issue, but Canada wants to talk about blueberries before they’ll talk about wheat,'” said Harrison.

The issue turned out to be thistle content, which Harrison said was quickly resolved.

“We’re going to be seeing nearly $200 million in wheat exports from Saskatchewan to Vietnam this year,” he added.

According to the provincial government, Saskatchewan is expecting to see a private-sector capital investment increase of 14.4 per cent this year, up from $12.2 billion in 2023 to $14.2 billion.