Meet the people selling Saskatchewan to the world

Many people from Saskatchewan who have travelled internationally know it can be hard to find people who don’t give a back a blank look when they’re told where their visitor is from.

But with nine international trade offices around the world, there are a few dozen people whose entire job is to put “Saskatchewan” on businesspeople’s lips. The offices are located in China, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, the UAE, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. The international offices started being opened a few years ago in a bid to expand Saskatchewan’s exports to wider markets.

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The managing directors at the offices aren’t always from Saskatchewan, but they are all Canadian, and they were all recently gathered together in Regina for their annual meetings.

Scott Matthies is the managing director of Saskatchewan’s trade office in India. He wasn’t born in the province, was said he’s always had some kind of connection to Saskatchewan. He said his parents immigrated to Saskatchewan and were raised here, but he was born and brought up in B.C. Matthies said he moved to Saskatchewan for school and ultimately decided to stay.

He also has a long history with India, starting as a student there in the ’90s and then working for a number of non-profits. Matthies said he moved back to Saskatchewan as his kids got older, but when he was offered the opportunity to go back to India and support the province at the same time, he took it.

“Saskatchewan has such a strong value proposition. We’re hard workers, but we’re typically very quiet about that. Other provinces are a bit flashy on the international stage,” said Matthies.

“Saskatchewan is humble, but really we have the most valuable offer, really, when it comes to our agri-products, our critical minerals products, and what we have to offer the world in terms of our food, our fuel and our fertilizer.”

He said the province has an incredible reputation in India when it comes to agri-food products and, despite India being a massive market, he said it’s not too hard to make Saskatchewan stand out.

“Saskatchewan is well known across India, both for our agri-products and our critical mineral products, but also as being the quiet, steady hand that has helped to guide the Canada-India relations over the past few years,” Matthies explained.

In 2023, when the relationships between Canada and India broke down over allegations the Indian government was involved in a killing in B.C., Canadian diplomats were asked to leave that country. But Matthies was eventually invited to come back, and he was, for a time, the highest-ranking Canadian diplomat in that country.

With recent deals reached around pulses and uranium, Matthies said there’s nothing but opportunity between Saskatchewan and India going forward.

Vietnam

Saskatchewan’s trade office in Vietnam is inside the Consulate General of Canada in Ho Chi Minh City. Ha Nguyen is the managing director there, helping to represent Saskatchewan in Vietnam as well as Thailand, Laos, China and other parts of South Asia.

With 1.5 billion people and Saskatchewan exports of $4-5 billion a year, Nguyen said China is one of the most important markets for the province.

“They have and continue to need our products,” he explained.

“We can work with them not only on trade and attracting investment into our province, but also to promote collaboration, partnership and innovation.”

In the past year, Premier Scott Moe went on multiple trade missions to China, once meeting up with the prime minister, and signing deals, including one to remove tariffs that had been a big concern for Saskatchewan farmers.

The trade office in Vietnam was credited with a big jump in Saskatchewan exports to the country in 2023.

Mexico

The managing director for the province’s trade office in Mexico is an “adopted Saskatchewanian.”

Horatio Cuevas was born in Mexico, but his wife was born in Regina and grew up in Saskatoon, and they have family in the province. He called his current position a dream job.

“When I immigrated to Canada, I saw the incredible opportunity to connect more Canada and Latin America,” he explained.

He said Mexico is a huge market for Saskatchewan when it comes to canary seed, oats and canola.

Horatio Cuevas, managing director of Saskatchewan’s trade office in Mexico. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

But Cuevas isn’t just working to bring Saskatchewan to Mexico. He works in other parts of Latin America as well, focusing on Columbia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. He said it’s not always well known, but Saskatchewan is the largest contributor to Canadian exports to South America.

“While other provinces may export some millions to Brazil, Saskatchewan exports $1.9 billion – mostly because of potash,” said Cuevas.

“Brazil is the major importer of fertilizer in the world, it can take more, and is just one token of what we can continue doing, connecting companies, connecting buyers in our countries.”

He said his work is mainly centred on identifying key industries and stakeholders and then making the right introductions to the right Saskatchewan companies. He said doing business in these countries is all about the relationships you build.

“It’s hard to do business over an email. You really need to connect with the person. And we are those connectors. We are the people who build the trust first on behalf of Saskatchewan and then facilitate an introduction to make the work for Saskatchewan companies easier as much as we can,” explained Cuevas.

In 2025, Saskatchewan exported $905 million worth of agri-food products to Mexico, making it the fourth-largest export market for the province.

Looking at more

Warren Kaeding, Saskatchewan’s trade and export minister, presented the trade office directors with pride in his voice, saying their energy and enthusiasm in promoting the province is “second-to-none.”

“I think we’ve seen that with the level of investment that we’ve had in the province, with the interest that we’ve had in all our key sectors here, and that is in a very, very large part to the people that we have in our trade offices that are found throughout the world,” said Kaeding.

He said that as Saskatchewan’s financial situation improves, the government could look at expanding the network further by adding more trade offices in other parts of the world.