In the midst of more grim economic news about job losses and economic decline, prime minister Stephen Harper found good economic news to brag about last week.
Statistics Canada reported April 9 that after sharp declines in previous months, the value of merchandise exports increased by $1.6 billion in February, or 5.2 percent.
Agricultural exports were a big part of the story, increasing 7.2 percent and $458 million over last year’s comparable two-month totals.
The strongest increase came in the wheat sector, where exports worth $1.3 billion in the first two months of the year were 16.5 percent higher than last year.
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The downside came in the livestock sector, which showed a $100 million, 20 percent decline from last year’s levels in the value of live exports.
John Masswohl, director of government and international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said the decline can be attributed at least in part to lower sales to the United States because of country-of-origin labelling recently implemented
Harper did not parse the results in individual sectors, happy to tout the overall numbers as a glimmer of hope that the economy might be halting its freefall.
“There is some good news in the trade numbers and that is encouraging,” he said at an Edmonton news conference as reporters peppered him with questions about unemployment numbers released that day.
More than 60,000 jobs were lost in Canada in March and the unemployment rate hit eight percent for the first time in seven years.
The unemployment numbers showed 5,200 agricultural jobs lost in March, bringing the year-long agricultural job loss to 16,800.
Many in the industry, including agriculture minister Gerry Ritz, dispute Statistics Canada’s agricultural job loss calculation. Many argue there is a shortage of workers in the agricultural sector.
The increase in the value of trade caught economists by surprise because most of Canada’s exports go to the United States, which still is in an economic contraction.
The agricultural export report for the first two months was a mixed result.
While the value of live animal exports fell dramatically year-over-year, the value of processed meat products and meat preparations increased 25 percent.
Barley export values fell more than 42 percent to $109 million.
As well, the value of canola exports dropped more than $100 million, or 17 percent, compared to 2008 results.
Exports of machinery and equipment led the way in export growth in February, according to Statistics Canada.
The export surge in February turned a January $1.2 billion trade deficit into a $126 million trade surplus.
