With crews in Southern California still trying to gain the upper hand on massive wildfires, there are some concerns about the trickle-down effect on B.C., given the province is one of the state’s biggest trading partners.
“It looks like we do about $4.9 billion of imports from California. They are actually our number two in terms of destinations,” explained Kelleen Wiseman, the academic director of the Master of Food and Resource Economics Program at the University of British Columbia.
A lot of common grocery items are trucked north from the Golden State into B.C. “Fruit, wine, of course, lettuce — that’s a really big one. Grapes, fresh and dried grapes, and vegetables,” she added.
Wiseman says consumers may see some temporary shortages of some food items and price increases, but it shouldn’t be drastic, and it will likely be short-lived.
“These supply chains and the companies that manage them, they’re very robust and what I mean by that is they do risk management all the time. This is not the first time these things have happened to us,” Wiseman explained.
“Increasingly so, companies understand climate change is upon us, so my guess is these large companies … have alternative routes planned. My guess is we may see, as we did with other climate events, temporary disruptions, so there might not be as much lettuce, maybe a temporary cost [increase] because it is costly to reroute in these elements, but then we’ll see it come down because of their management of risk.”
She points out produce can’t be stored for long, and if American companies don’t want to lose out on those potential profits, they’ll do what they can to get items across the border.
“What we will potentially see in terms of supply chains, and this is something for us to think about when we’re looking at prices and availability, is the … Port of Los Angeles. The port’s connected to Long Beach, they are a major transport logistics area. So, the product will come in there and ship to us. Our product will go in there and ship out, and that’s where the disruptions in terms of supply chains could potentially happen.”
In a statement to 1130 NewsRadio, the Port of Los Angeles says the fires have had no impact on operations.
“We are 20-plus miles away. All port operations have been normal throughout the fires,” it stated.
But trade isn’t a one-way street. Wiseman says $4.1 billion worth of Canadian exports make their way to California.
“For Canada’s overall exports, it’s the number three destination. It’s important to us. They’re a big part of our economy.”