Industry, governments have smoothed cross border agri-food shipping but challenges remain, says report

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

The agri-food industry and government agencies can manage the movement of food products across the Canada-United States border to reduce everyday frictions but haven’t been able to completely resolve all problems, a new George Morris Centre study concludes.

“Considerable efforts at the private farm/food firm level remain key to smoother cross-border movements,” it says in the 56-page study, called An Economic Analysis of Agriculture and Food Cross-Border Movements: Windsor-Detroit and Sarnia-Port Huron. The University of Windsor’s Cross Border Institute commissioned the study. The George Morris Centre is an agricultural policy think tank based in Guelph.

George Gilvesy, general manager of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, says they agree with the study’s findings that border delays and costs exist but industry and government are managing them. “How the border is handled has improved significantly over time” but there are still problems, such as congestion. “The border is very busy,” he says.

Ontario’s greenhouse sector is a big exporter with 70 per cent all Ontario product headed to the United States, according to the greenhouse vegetable growers’ website.

The Ontario greenhouse vegetable growers was one of the organizations interviewed as part of the study along with major manufacturing and export trade associations, individual greenhouse growers, Canadian and American food processing trade associations and government officials involved with overseeing cross border trade.

In 2012, Ontario’s total agri-food exports to the United States were valued at $7.98 billion with more than half, 50.32 per cent, moving through the Windsor-Detroit border crossing, according to the study. Combined, the Windsor-Detroit and Sarnia-Port Huron crossings handled slightly more than two-thirds of all agri-food exports from Ontario. A large percentage of the exports were processed goods.

Ontario imported $14.3 billion worth of agri-food imports in 2012 from the United States. Imports through Windsor-Detroit accounted for 45.2 per cent of all agri-food imports to Ontario.

Prepared foods were at the top of the list of both agri-food exports and imports, followed by vegetables. BF