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Canadian Agri-Food Sector:

Overview and Commentary

Bob SeguinExecutive Director,

GMCGuelph, March 2013

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Overview

Insights of Agri-food sector• Historic developments, scale,

diversity, and fragility• Key agri-food policy issues-

national/global

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Source: Statistics Canada, OMAFRA

  Canada Ontario

Landmass (sq. km) 9,976,140 1,076,395

Arable Lands (sq. km) 498,807 36,138

Population 35,002,447 13,546,112

Canada/Ontario Quick Facts

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Farm Sector Growth/Shifts (1)

Source: Statistics Canada

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Farm Sector Growth/Shifts (2)

Source: Statistics Canada

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Stability in Food Processing

Source: Statistics Canada

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Stability in Employment

Source: Statistics Canada

Food Manufacturing: 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011

Canada 216,070 213,999 231,613 233,388 224,085

Ontario 79,025 78,940 82,558 85,873 82,191

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Retail Food – Dominating

Source: Statistics Canada

Food and Beverage Retail Sales - Canada (CDN $)

1991 1996 2001 2006 2011

52,226,998

58,326,480

71,048,945

88,743,439

104,134,083

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Agri-Food Evolving

Source: Statistics Canada

Census Data in Farm and Food Operations - Canada

1991 1996 2001 2006 2011

Number of Census Farms 280,043 276,548 246,923 229,373 205,730

Farms between $50,000 and $99,999 48,550 42,541 35,315 31,422 25,455

Farms over $1,000,000 1,477 1,870 2,809 3,691 6,304

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Comparing Ag Sectors

Source: FAO

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Canada’s Trade Performance (1)

Source: Statistics Canada

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Canada’s Trade Performance (2)

Source: Statistics Canada

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Policy Outlook: Markets

International trade policy: ambitious, rules-

focused, unique positioning, “hot”

buttons

Tough competition within domestic

markets

Tougher competition at the global level-past

performance, innovation, new

investments?

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Inconsistent Policy Measures

Canadian constitution- unique joint role

National policy-now more fully developed- Growing Forward II

Range of other Federal, Provincial policies

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Key Agri-Food Issues

Capacity of sector

Competition- past policies no longer enough

New investments, innovation needed

Scale and productivity

Sustainability and Management-Talent

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Agri-Food: Where next?Canada- large country, urbanized population, historic access to resources, middle power

Both policy (global and regional) and attitudes shift but not dramatic

A global player, competitive-but not in first place in most agri-food

Caught by history and comfort of location

Need to invest scarce $$ to catch up and lead