The Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission is concerned by Saudi Arabia’s decision to suspend future purchases of Canadian Barley.

Saudi Arabia recently canceled any new trade with Canada, recalled and expelled diplomats after Federal Government officials took the kingdom to task over their human rights policies.

SaskBarley Vice-Chair Brent Johnson says export markets are key for Canadian agriculture.

“We don’t ever want to see a market being lost. Really, Saudi Arabia was in the market last year for Canadian Feed Barley, they bought about 130,000 mt which is only about 1.5% of the total production, and the three years previous to that they hadn’t bought anything. So, they’re not a real consistent buyer but we also don’t want to be losing any market along the way.”

Canada is the fourth largest producer of barley in the world.

He says “We need to be selling to other places and it seems like protectionism is the flavor of the month right now in the world. It’s easy to blame us for failures in their own countries, we’re an easy target because we’re always selling.”

Canada is facing a number of agricultural trade disruptions right now from not only Saudi Arabia and the U-S, but also Canadian Durum into Italy, and Pulses into India