Calgary trade deals with U.S. hit all-time low, but businesses seeing global growth

Trade deals between Calgary-based businesses and the U.S. have hit an all-time low, but local business owners say the shift has contributed to their growth in international markets.

According to data released Tuesday from Calgary Economic Development (CED), of all the trade deals it attracted last year, less than a quarter were with the U.S. — the smallest share of trade deals on record. In 2024, 35 per cent of CED-supported deals were with the U.S.

The change is primarily a result of the economic uncertainty surrounding tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump imposed on Canada last February, said Brad Parry, CED’s president and chief executive officer.

“It’s also a combination of people realizing that we can’t just rely on one single trade partner,” Parry told CBC Radio’s Calgary Eyeopener on Tuesday. 

“We’re never going to replace the U.S. as our core trading partner, but we do need to think about other places that we should be looking for products and services.”

This local diversification comes as the federal government has been making efforts to increase trade with countries outside of North America, launching a new trade diversification strategy last fall and signing a trade deal with China earlier this year.

CED-supported companies expanded into 21 countries in 2025, generating $60 million in revenue through 45 international trade deals. The majority of businesses have been exploring markets in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Oceania, it said.

Parry said fewer local trade deals with companies in the U.S. doesn’t mean businesses are walking away from their southern neighbour entirely.

“We’re just trying to open up new markets to give our companies even a greater chance to scale and grow,” he said.

One of those Calgary businesses seeing international growth is Righteous Gelato. It recently signed a deal to sell two of its top flavours in Costco in Japan.

“Those are going to be running for two weeks at three different warehouses,” said Marilyn Way, the company’s product and brand commercialization lead. “After that, we’ll hopefully be able to get a rotation with those products on shelf for a full summer.”

Way said the deal in Japan was “not an overnight kind of thing”; it was the result of years of work with CED to get into the international market.

Way said the company is hoping the Japan deal will act as a springboard for deals in other markets, such as Korea.

But they are not planning on leaving the U.S. market behind completely.

“We’re continuing to build with some smaller retailers down there and our broker partners, because we know it is a big opportunity, but want to look at other markets that might be better long-term partners as well,” she said.

‘Canada is a great trading partner’

One of the key ways CED has helped businesses drive their expansion, Parry said, is through its Trade Accelerator Program, a four-session workshop providing information on marketing, pricing and cultural norms for businesses looking to expand to global markets.

CED also plays a role in setting up meetings with suppliers and distributors, along with organizing international trade missions and networking events in collaboration with the provincial and federal governments, Parry explained.

“We’re being seen differently now across the world, and people are realizing that Canada is a great trading partner,” he said. “That’s why you’re seeing a bit of that shift going away from just one trade partner into multiple trade partners right now.”

Sergio Llerena, the director of Casa Bonita Foods, which manufactures corn tortillas and chips in Calgary, said the trade workshop program has been a “fantastic” help in getting its products to countries such as Australia, Japan, Korea and Thailand.

Llerena said the tariff threat proved to be a silver lining, as it forced Casa Bonita to explore other export market options.

“We started realizing that we could no longer rely on the States. We needed to start looking elsewhere,” he said. “But the same happened to everybody else around the world. Everybody else around the world started looking for alternatives to the U.S., so we started connecting with more and more people.”

Last year, the company attended FoodEx in Japan through one of CED’s trade missions. The international trade show provided Casa Bonita the opportunity to share its products with global customers, and it secured several trade deals “on the spot,” Llerena said.

While the U.S. is still an important customer for Casa Bonita, Llerena said it is now its fourth-largest market, after Canada, Australia and Japan. 

“Once you start looking outside and once you start looking at the size of everybody else, you realize that the U.S. is important, but it’s just a drop in the bucket,” he said.