09:33 AM EDT, 06/09/2025 (MT Newswires) -- In the U.S. Great Plains, where spring wheat once dominated fields, farmers are turning away from the crop. But across the border in Canada, the pinch and prospect of Chinese and U.S. tariffs on canola have prompted farmers to pick up the slack on wheat, Reuters is reporting Monday.

Reuters noted farmers are still putting their crops in the ground, so it is not yet possible to know the extent of the acreage shift into wheat.

However, it said early signs, based on interviews with more than 20 Canadian and U.S. farmers, agricultural analysts, traders and industry organizations, show that the grain primarily used to bake bread is proving to be a big winner in this year's global trade war.

Reuters noted China's 100% tariffs on Canadian canola meal and oil and its threat to impose duties on canola seed, amid U.S. President Donald Trump's broader global trade war, have rattled Canadian farmers, who since 1990 had nearly quadrupled their canola acres before paring back in recent years because of growing problems with drought, high production costs and crop diseases.

Now, tariffs are expected to accelerate the likelihood that thousands of farmers could further cut back, adding up to hundreds of thousands or even millions of acres less canola, and more wheat, farmers and analysts estimated.

(Market Chatter news is derived from conversations with market professionals globally, and/or from other media sources. This information is believed to be from reliable sources but may include rumor and speculation. Accuracy is not guaranteed.)