The Port of Vancouver is Canada’s largest and most diversified port, moving more cargo each year than Canada’s next five largest ports combined. Strategically located on Canada’s west coast, the port plays a vital role delivering Canadian grain to overseas markets, thanks to unimpeded ocean access west to the thriving Indo-Pacific region, and strong road and rail links throughout Canada to the east.
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority’s account representative for grain, Alistair Sinclaire, discusses the port’s long relationship with farmers and its forward focus on growing export capacity.
Q: The Port of Vancouver moves a huge variety of Canadian goods every year, from bulk exports of grain, coal and fertilizer to auto imports and containerized trade. Can you explain the port’s relationship with Western Canadian grain farmers?
Grain, and in particular wheat, has long been a core sector connecting the port and the Prairies—with some of Vancouver’s bulk grain terminals celebrating their 100th anniversary in recent years.
The Port of Vancouver was built to move Canadian commodities like grain to world markets. Today, its grain handling facilities successfully move 25-35 million metric tonnes of Canadian grain exports annually and connect Canadian farmers to 170-plus world markets.
Q: Trade through the port reached record volumes in 2025. Can you take us through some of the numbers and what they mean for Canadian farmers?
We saw port terminals move record volumes of cargo to overseas markets last year, headlined by exports of Canadian grain such as wheat, canola and specialty crops.
Exports of Western Canadian wheat, for example, jumped 20% to more than 16 million metric tonnes, with top destinations including China, Japan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Peru.
The port has eight bulk terminals able to handle wheat exports, as well as four container terminals and numerous supporting facilities to support grain transloading. Last year about 3 million metric tonnes of grain left the port in containers including 1 million metric tonnes of high-value wheat.
Q: What work is currently underway at the port to add capacity and reliability, and ensure the port can continue to move Canadian wheat to overseas markets?
The Port of Vancouver is Canada’s port, and our focus right now is on helping get more of what Canadians make, mine, harvest and grow to more customers overseas. A core part of this for us is collaborating with industry and government to invest in the gateway to strengthen supply chains and grow trade capacity.
A positive example of this collaboration in action is our work with CN to optimize its rail line to the port’s North Shore, which handles about one-third of the port’s cargo volumes. CN has been able to boost rail service to the North Shore by 10%, thanks to collaboration and optimization of ship and rail transits via the port’s Active Vessel Traffic Management program.
There are also great examples of industry-led investment in the port over the past decade including construction of the state-of-the-art G3 Terminal, P&H Fraser Grain Terminal, and major upgrades to Richardson International, Pacific Elevators, Alliance Grain Terminal, Cascadia and Fibreco terminals. The port authority continues to advance the 2.4 million TEU Roberts Bank Terminal 2, that will support growing containerized trade including grain exports.
Q: Looking to the future, can you describe how the port sees its partnership with the Prairies evolving?
We see this partnership focused on one clear objective: How can we help move more of what Canadian farmers are growing to more customers overseas, both reliably and efficiently.
We’ve seen Canadian crop yields, international demand for our grain and West Coast port capacity all grow significantly over past decades, to the benefit of Canada and its farmers. And we want to ensure this trend continues in coming decades.
That’s why we must all continue to collaborate and invest in Canada. For us, that means working closely with farmers, industry, railways and governments to strengthen the gateway and its supply chains with a focus on port optimization, reliability and capacity.
At the port we like to say that a rising tide lifts all boats. In other words, everyone benefits when we work together to move more of what you grow to more communities across the globe.
Together we can grow Canada and feed the world, one bushel at a time!
Learn more about how the Port of Vancouver is delivering the true north far and wide.
Alistair Sinclaire
Grain Account Representative, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority
Alistair.Sinclaire@portvancouver.com