An Ottawa-based research think-tank partially funded by Agriculture Canada has issued a provocative report calling on governments and the food sector to dramatically improve their competitive performance.
The 100-page report from the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute describes a country whose food sector is stagnating, falling behind other countries in the fight for global markets, lacking in innovation investment and held back by outdated regulations.
“Canada is not realizing the full potential of a major strategic asset – the country’s agri-food sector,” it said.
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“The consequences of falling profitability, lost opportunity and declining relevance are impairing the nation’s agri-food industry.”
It said the country is missing a significant opportunity.
“Canada can be the world’s leading producer of nutritious and safe foods produced in a sustainable, profitable manner.”
CAPI president David McInnes said the report offers high-level concepts rather than detailed policy prescriptions, but it stresses the need for more collaboration and a more coordinated oversight of industry requirements.
There must be co-ordination between now-disparate policy areas such as environment, health, transportation, trade policy and agriculture policy, which could be overseen by a new cabinet committee on food.
“This is meant to be a call for action and I think people in the industry are ready for that,” he said.
CAPI is not proposing fast and radical changes. Rather, it suggests a 15-year evolution that is incremental.
It suggests doubling the value of food exports to $75 billion by 2025, increasing the portion of the Canadian market supplied by Canadian food from 68 percent to 75 percent and having 75 percent of the sector rely on biofuel by 2025.
CAPI said signs of trouble in the sector include the fact that Brazil has passed Canada in value of exports. As well, Canada’s place in the export of manufactured food has fallen from third to seventh.
Only a healthy surplus in commodity exports keeps Canada in a food trade surplus, but in seven of the past 10 years, overall farmer income from the market has been in deficit, requiring program payments.
The CAPI report suggests that farmer business risk management programs be reformed to increase premiums on higher-risk operations, reduce expenditures and make more money available for investment in research and innovation.
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said the report got the story half right by emphasizing declining processed
food exports but not booming commodity exports.
Neil Currie, co-chair of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s attempt to draft a National Food Strategy, said that misses the point.
“Why would Canada want to remain a drawer of water and a hewer of wood anyway?”
