Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne issued a challenge to the province’s agricultural industry in October 2013: double its growth rate and create 120,000 new jobs in Ontario by 2020.
She said the province should become one of the top five revenue generators in North America for food and beverage manufacturing while doubling its agri-food exports.
At the time, Wynne said the agri-food sector in the province had grown by more than 10 percent since 2002.
It was a bold move, one that certainly caught the attention of those involved in an industry that contributed $34 billion to the province’s economy and employed 740,000 people in 2013.
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The challenge still stands a year and a half later, despite more than a few hurdles.
First, there’s the closure or downsizing of several food processing plants that put people out of work: Heinz in Leamington, Kelloggs in London and Smucker’s and Lance Canada Ltd. In total, 105 plants closed in Ontario from 2008-14.
The closures caused some to pause and wonder about the future of food processing in Ontario, but, as CBC News reported in March, a study from Western University’s Ivy Business school found the sector was still viable.
It found that the impact of the closures had been mitigated by 105 openings and plant investments.
Labour is also a pressing concern for certain sectors, particularly the province’s mushroom industry. Mushroom growers were hard hit by an April 1 deadline that saw more than 500 foreign workers forced to go home.
Mushrooms Canada has estimated that the loss of labour is a $300 million hit to the industry, while growers have said productivity at their farms will also go down.
Meat processors and slaughterhouses are already wary of a fast-approaching July 1 deadline that would tighten the cap on the number of foreign workers allowed per facility.
Then there are the ongoing trade challenges.
A single case of BSE in Alberta in February triggered trade restrictions on Canadian beef from several countries, among them Taiwan and China. The restriction have had an impact on Ontario beef producers.
China is Ontario’s second largest trading partner after the United States, which is a major market for provincial beef exports from northern Ontario.
Representatives from Beef Farmers of Ontario are currently in China on a trade mission with agriculture minister Jeff Leal and immigration minister Michael Chan. Twenty delegates from a cross-section of agriculture sectors are on the trip, which runs from April 16-25.
In a technical briefing with reporters before the trip, Beef Farmers of Ontario president Bob Gordanier, who is on the trip, said the goal is to strengthen the sector’s relationship with China.
“As wealth and income grows in China, there will be a greater demand for high quality proteins,” he said.
China’s ban on Canadian exports wasn’t the only issue expected to overshadow the trip, which is the first of its kind in Ontario. An ongoing outbreak of H5 avian influenza in southwestern Ontario was also expected to be raised. One case of H5N2 has been confirmed on a commercial turkey farm near Woodstock, Ont.
A second confirmed case of H5 avian flu was found on a broiler breeder farm 25 kilometres from the infected turkey farm April 18. As of April 20, the N strain on that farm had not been identified. Thirty farms in Ontario are under quarantine because of the outbreak.
The industry is supply managed, which leads to limited exports of poultry and poultry products, but several countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan, have placed varying export restrictions.
Ontario poultry, poultry product and egg exports totalled $212 million last year, accounting for 1.7 per cent of the province’s agricultural exports.
Leal has said he remains optimistic about being able to meet the premier’s challenge, which is an essential ingredient in a task no one said would be easy.
