Agriculture minister David Marit has mixed emotions around the year 2020.
Marit says COVID-19 posed some serious challenges but crop production was the second best ever.
“We’re over 39 million metric tonnes, the second-highest in history,” said Marit. “The bright spot of it is obviously the quality, it’s very high quality, and the prices have moved up significantly, and I think those are things to recognize. Also, we’ve seen record movement of the grains moving to port.”
Marit says there were some challenges with COVID-19 and the livestock industry, as temporary closures of meat-packing plants caused a backlog of cattle going to market.
But he says government provided some support through a set-aside program and the Western Livestock Price Insurance.
