Thank you for the opportunity to be here today and to provide comments on this important study. I will share my time with my colleague Dave Carey.
CCGA represents Canada's 43,000 canola farmers on issues that impact the success of their farms. As the world's largest exporter of canola, Canada exports 90% of what we grow as seed, oil or meal, which was valued at $14.4 billion in 2022. International trade underpins the canola sector's $29.9 billion annual economic contribution and over 200,000 jobs nationally. Canola and its products are sold to 50 different countries.
Ukraine is also a major producer and exporter of oilseeds globally, focused on sunflower seed and to a lesser extent canola. Known in the Europe and the Black Sea region as oilseed rape, Ukraine production is relatively small in the larger oilseed complex. On average, it exports three million metric tonnes, largely destined to the European Union.
Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine created significant uncertainty in global grain and oilseed markets and widespread concerns with food security at a time when the world was already reeling from the global pandemic, high food and input prices and widespread supply chain disruptions. The conflict highlighted the importance, one, of trade to global food security; two, for supply chains to nimbly pivot between markets as demand shifts, sometimes overnight and in unexpected ways; and three, for strong trade corridors to move product to market.
Trade provides food for one in six people globally, ensuring that food and other essential goods, such as fertilizer and crop inputs, get to where they are needed in a timely, reliable fashion. According to the World Trade Organization report called “One year of war in Ukraine”, “Trade is a critical means of adaptation to crises.” Trade between the affected countries has remained resilient; alternative suppliers stepped in to cover the gaps, and with the United Nations-brokered Black Sea grain initiative—which Russia has since terminated—the war's impact on food security was dampened. That said, the potential impact means global food security remains fragile and tenuous and should be closely monitored.
I'll go over to you, Dave.