COVID-19 changed the way farmers marketed their products, according to the agricultural census data collected last year.
Statistics Canada said farmers, mainly those who grow fruits and vegetables, moved increasingly to direct delivery to consumers rather than selling from stands. Half of the farms that reported direct sales used delivery.
Overall, farms that use direct sales grew from 12.7 percent to 13.6 percent. The number rose from 24,510 to 25,917 in five years.
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Vegetable and melon farms were the most likely to sell direct, with 52.2 percent of them reporting those sales compared to 50.2 percent previously.
Smaller farms are more reliant on direct sales. Those with sales of less than $10,000 represent nearly 48 percent of farms that rely on direct sales for three-quarters of their total operating revenue.
Farms with $2 million or more in sales account for just 0.8 percent in the same category.
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