by SUSAN MANN
Ontario’s food and beverage industry plans to roar past the automobile sector as the new engine for the province’s economy.
Unlike other manufacturing sectors that are forecasting declines, the province’s food and beverage industry is committed to adding another 60,000 or more jobs to the economy and generating annual revenues of $70 billion by 2020, the Alliance of Ontario Food Processors says in its five-year industry plan released Monday. Currently, the sector employs 125,000 people and generates $39 billion annually in revenues.
“We can become the dominant leader,” says alliance executive director Steve Peters.
He says their plan is not a response to Premier and Agriculture Minister Kathleen Wynne’s challenge issued earlier this month for the entire agricultural sector to double its growth and create 120,000 new jobs by 2020. The alliance began working on its report in the spring and hosted a large industry consultation in July.
But “it kind of dovetailed in very nicely with the premier’s agriculture summit,” Peters says. The summit was held Oct. 7.
The plan outlines four recommendations the alliance says are necessary to support a dynamic and innovative business climate. The alliance is also calling for an industry-government partnership to refine the implementation plans by February 2014, including outlining the costs, timelines and how they’re to be delivered for each of the four recommendations.
The alliance’s recommendations are:
• Establish a food and beverage innovation centre to provide existing processors with market development and business resources plus encourage and foster new entrepreneurs.
• Raise the profile of Ontario food and drink both within the province and around the world.
• Develop talent and raise awareness of the food and beverage-processing sector as an attractive industry for jobs.
• Simplify and modernize regulations at all government levels including municipal, federal and provincial.
Premier and Agriculture Minister Kathleen Wynne endorses the alliance’s plan. “I support any initiative that drives growth and creates jobs for Ontario,” she says in an email provided by her agriculture ministry communications director Mark Cripps.
Wynne says she’s pleased the alliance has developed a plan to move toward its targets “and if it surpasses the targets of our government’s challenge that would be an example for others in the industry and good for Ontarians.”
It’s important for the alliance and others in the agri-food industry to take leadership in developing strategies, plans and specific actions to move the industry forward. “The government is willing to provide input into this process and offer a whole-of-government approach that cuts across ministries and jurisdictions,” she says.
The Ontario food and beverage-processing sector has more than 3,000 businesses, ranging from small, niche-driven firms to multinationals. Most food and beverage processing businesses are located close to urban centres, while a number of establishments are in rural regions.
Many companies already work to foster innovation, Peters says. But the food and beverage innovation centre is needed because almost 98 per cent of the industry is made up of small and medium-sized companies that may not have that internal infrastructure, he notes.
The alliance isn’t talking about constructing a new facility for the innovation centre but using existing resources to provide this service through possibly the University of Guelph as well as the agricultural or community colleges, he explains. “What we’re really advocating for is just a more coordinated approach to making sure people know what is out there and making sure we can utilize that infrastructure that does exist.”
Peters says for food and beverage makers the current business climate in Ontario “has yet to reach its full potential.” There has been a significant rise in imports of food and beverages into Ontario “and some of that has been to meet the needs of the changing face of Ontario.”
But working with their partners in agriculture, the alliance wants to use the diversity in Ontario’s population to their advantage. “We are the farmers’ best customer,” he says, noting that 65 per cent of everything that’s grown or produced in Ontario has value added to it through the processing sector. “We would like to see that number be higher.” BF
Comments
The reality of agricultural life in Ontario is that we fall all over ourselves to drive companies like Chobani right out of the Province because of our misguided, and wrong-headed, support of supply management.
Secondly, the lack of dairy exports and the declining absolute consumption of dairy products here in Canada, thanks entirely to supply management and the highest farm gate price of milk in the world, has driven dairy processing companies like Saputo to invest in Latin America, not here.
Thirdly, the antics of the Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) to restrict supplies of milk to a 1% per year increase to award-winning artisanal cheese makers such as the one recently featured in a series of articles in the Financial Post, means that even the best product, and even the most-substantial demand, count for nothing when dealing with DFO's "command-and-control" mentality.
There's absolutly nothing our food processing companies need, or want, except to get rid of the farmer-controlled systems which force them to pay the highest farm gate price of milk in the world, and even then, artificially restrict the supply of it.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Give vanilla soymilk a try! Delicious and full of vitamins also.
Most health conscious people in Japan already have switched. Given our exponential increase in health conscious Asian-Canadians perhaps explains why milk is on the decrease and healthy soymilk is on the increase. Quite often on sale at your local store.
Soymilk is not "milk" it is a liquid derived from mainly GMO soybeans
Are you sure it is GMO soys or Non GMO soys ?
are you sure it is not from IP Non GMO soys ?
You make it sound like it can only be made from GMO soys .
GMO corn and soy, and an additional environmental cost of greenhouse gas emissions, excrement [sadly, often a pollutant rather than fertility resource], and anti-biotic resistant bacteria.
In Canada, dairy farmers are allowed to import BST for their own use, and don't have to disclose the fact that they used it - thereby making soy milk, even from GMO soybeans, just all that much more appealing.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Lets not forget what Country developed BST and approved its commercial use..the good old US of A.
The first point is that somebody originally tried to infer that soy-milk is somehow less than advertised because of the possibility it came from GMO soybeans. I then pointed out that because consumption of soy-milk is increasing, while consumption of cows milk is decreasing, dairy farmers should pay attention.
Another person went on to point out that cows milk comes from cows fed GMO soybeans and GMO corn which, in turn, makes it less than advertised. I then pointed out that cows milk, in Canada, is even less than advertised because, in the US, most BST-free milk is labeled as such, but, in Canada, it is not.
The main point has nothing to do with who developed what, and in what country it was developed, the point is that if soy milk is less than advertised in Canada, cows milk is even substantially-less than that.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Leave it to the USA to put a BST-free label on Milk, knowing full well the drug is undetectable! Then charge a premium for it!
l was in Connecticut a few years back and relatives had Premium priced Ultra-Pasteurized Milk on the table,l commented,whats next "SuperDuper Ultra Pasturized"!..leave it to the Americans!
As long as sales of this soy product are increasing, and sales of cow milk are decreasing, that's the only thing that matters, and dairy farmers are as dumb as rocks to be dismissive about it - and, besides, soybean farmers aren't bragging about having the highest farm gate price of soybeans in the world.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Would have been nice to see some Government money given to the Alliance to help out with some of those recommendations,if the Liberals can hand OSPCA 5.5 million a year they can shirly give a helping hand to a growing industry that has potential for many more jobs!
Last I checked soymilk is made from IP non GMO soybeans because most Asians will not accept GMO in their food or drink. However, Dairy cows do not seem to care if they eat GMO soybeans which are then converted to milk.
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