Canada’s food and agriculture sectors are setting themselves up for productivity and competitiveness problems by failing to put enough emphasis and resources into attracting, retaining and training skilled workers, says a Conference Board of Canada report.
“The agri-food sector lacks a culture of training and ongoing learning,” said the business-friendly private think-tank based in Ottawa.
“Currently, agri-food and especially primary agriculture find itself in a cycle of low profitability and low investment in human capital, which tends to reinforce low profitability.”
There is a particular lack of management and leadership training that has led to a skills gap in the sector.
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The report states it is a major factor in Canada’s falling food competitiveness on world markets.
“In every food manufacturing industry, Canada’s labour productivity lags behind that of the U.S. and the trend of falling behind shows no sign of letting up,” it said. “Although less analysis is available at the farm production level, Canada is also clearly losing ground to its competitors in feed grain production.”
Elsewhere, the report acknowledges that American farm subsidies are part of the reason feed grain producers in the United States are doing better.
But it says the Canadian food industry has a difficult time attracting and keeping skilled workers because it does not pay competitive wages and does not invest enough in upgrading worker skills.
In primary agriculture, the problem is compounded by the fact that farmer labour needs are often seasonal, but federal income support policies often discourage seasonal work. Immigration rules also sometimes make it difficult for farmers to get access to seasonal foreign workers.
Meanwhile, the sector suffers from an image problem, says the Conference Board.
“Agri-food employment tends to be viewed as consisting of hard physical labour and long hours in exchange for relatively little pay and few benefits,” said the report.
“The science and technology based skills that are now required to succeed in the agri-food sector seem to receive less recognition. But qualified employees with the operational, technical and managerial skills necessary to exploit the technologies and science used in the sector are vitally needed throughout the entire value chain.”
