The lingering threat of tariff threats has created a lot of uncertainty in the markets and has left retailers and distributors scrambling to diversify and find other ways forward.

Sylvain Charlebois of the Agri-foods Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University is in Mexico, where he meets with Canadian and Mexican farmers.

“People need to understand, 25 per cent in the agri-foods sector is humungous, it’s huge compared to other sectors because margins are so low. You’re dealing with perishable products, and there’s no room for error here. So that’s why 25 per cent will move markets.”

He says yesterday was a stressful day, and changes are already in the works.

“Right now I can tell you a lot of companies in Canada are talking to companies in Mexico to build that corridor between Mexico and Canada. So we may actually see more Mexican products in Canada and more Canadian products in Mexico in the near future just because of how things are going with Washington.”