It’s a Saturday night, I’m watching the news, and then I hear it. Trump announced a 25% tariff on everything coming into the U.S. from Canada. My first thought? “Well, that’s going to be a problem.”
Canadian provinces offer the isolation needed for high-quality, disease-free seed, and HZPC relies on that supply. A 25% increase overnight on your cost of goods is a hit that nobody has built into their margin structure on either side of the border.
We aren’t strangers to these challenges. In 2020 we had to adapt to not being able to move people across the borders. Now this was going to be about avoiding moving goods across the borders.
With these tariffs barrelling down on us, we didn’t hit the panic button, but we did hit the ‘oh my goodness’ button and started problem solving.
We reached out to our broad network of seed suppliers, both in Canada and the U.S. What can we do? How much can we service Canada with Canadian seed and the U.S. with seed from the U.S? We worked tirelessly. Calls, video chats, emails — all to ensure growers got what they needed without a 25% cost increase. We put plans in place to mitigate the effects as best we could, and Tuesday drew near, but we felt prepared.
And then? I had barely finished supper on Monday when I heard the announcement. The tariffs were on hold.
But that work wasn’t for nothing. In the future it might be tariffs, a strike at the port, a rail strike, or a trucking availability issue. Each of these events impacts operational resilience.
It was a great exercise. It was a fantastic opportunity to understand how well positioned we are to be resilient through times of chaotic, unexpected change. I think that’s a scenario every organization can benefit from running, even if it’s just a tabletop scenario.
How well positioned are you for disruptions in key crop inputs? What about labour? How well prepared are you to recover from a drastic change? Regardless of whether tariffs are implemented, another pandemic arises, or a port strike occurs, building resiliency into your systems and sourcing is essential.
If you need help with building that resiliency into your seed pipeline, HZPC is your partner and is standing ready to help you.
