Farmers making planting decisions should consider not only the economic return to their farms but what consumers want to eat.
Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in the University of Regina’s business administration department, said the agriculture industry’s ability to understand consumer needs and supply that demand is becoming more critical.
He presented a paper, The Gateway to a Market-driven Agricultural Economy: A Framework for Demand Chain Management in the Food Industry, earlier this year to academics studying trade links, particularly as they relate to Canada’s Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative.
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Charlebois said the principles of strengthening Canada’s trade in that region apply anywhere, but he used Japan as an example.
An increasingly affluent population there demands more beef and animal protein in a diet that used to be predominantly rice and cereal based.
“Of course when you see that transformation it will have an impact on how we supply food,” Charlebois said.
Demand chain management isn’t new, he said, but it does take agriculture longer to adapt than some other industries. Agriculture is commodity-driven and focuses on volume and production. Demand chains work backward from customers to suppliers.
“To change things in agriculture is not easy.”
Charlebois said that Canada has domestic policies, such as supply management and, to a certain extent, the Canadian Wheat Board, that focus on the needs of its own farmers rather than customers.
“Canada is not necessarily perceived as a trade-friendly nation because of our policies and processes,” Charlebois said.
Liberalizing agriculture further, simplifying the tariff structure and downsizing support levels could promote world trade, he wrote in his paper.
Canada is falling behind the United States in trade into the Asia-Pacific region and while Charlebois doesn’t advocate wholesale change he said there has to be adjustment. For example, abolishing the wheat board outright wouldn’t be a good thing to do.
“Adapting should be incremental,” he said. “It shouldn’t be drastic.”
The recent barley plebiscite bears that out, given that more than 80 percent of farmers recognized the economic role of the board, he said.
