Alberta’s international merchandise exports increased for the fourth month in a row in March, posting a gain of 18 per cent ($1.7 billion) over February’s total.

The value of exports over the first three months of the year was 6.1 per cent higher than during the same quarter last year and 13 per cent higher than during the same period in 2019.

Exports were up across all 11 major sectors included in this dataset.

Strong prices helped energy exports to swell by $765 million in March and account for 45 per cent of the total monthly increase.

Strong sales in the agriculture and agri-food sector, petrochemical and plastics sector and the forestry sector boosted the monthly total by $701 million or 42 per cent of total exports.

Exports were up to each of our three largest trading partners. Sales to U.S. customers rose by 15 per cent ($1.2 billion) in March compared to February while sales to China improved by 45 per cent ($156 million) and to Japan by 36 per cent ($64 million).

Canada’s international exports* increased by the same percentage as Alberta’s—18 per cent— for a rise in value in March over February of $8.1 billion.

*Note that these values differ from national export statistics reported on a seasonally adjusted balance of payments basis.

Answer to the previous trivia question: Prior to the pandemic, Chicago lumber futures reached a high point of US$639 per 1,000 board feet on May 16, 2018. As of last week, the price was  2.7 times higher than this pre-pandemic peak.

Today’s trivia question: Which country bought more goods from Alberta between March 2020 to March 2021: the Russian Federation or Algeria?