In the food business, there is likely no more ruthless arena than the grocery store. A recent move by Walmart to impose new costs on suppliers has prompted a group of food and beverage organizations to call on the federal government to step in and regulate the grocery industry. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Dairy… Read More
As we navigate value chains in a global pandemic, many ag and food commodities are experiencing supply disruption and major shifts in demand of both product and destination. These shifts are perhaps most evident in protein markets, and Michael Young, president of Canada Beef, says that the value chain is adapting as well as it… Read More
Maple Leaf Foods has named Nadia Theodore as senior vice president of global industry and government relations, effective October 13, 2020. Theodore steps in for Rory McAlpine, who will retire after 15 years with Maple Leaf Foods. Theodore currently serves as the Consul General of Canada to the southeast U.S., based at Atlanta, Georgia. Since… Read More
You can be forgiven if you don’t remember the first Food Day Canada. After all, it wasn’t even called that in 2003. At the time, the Canadian border was closed to livestock movement and protein trade because of BSE. It was an economic disaster for the beef industry, but it also spurred the creation of… Read More
Throughout the pandemic there’s been some struggle with meat supply chains and consumers getting the products they want. A new app developed by Lyndon Lisitza, Meatocracy, may just be the timely solution to widening the supply chain bottleneck. “The purpose of the app is very simply to bridge the gap between livestock producers and consumers… Read More
The federal and Manitoba governments have announced a new $3 million cost-shared program to help agricultural processors in the province mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Agri-food and agri-product processors, food distributors, and agri-food industry organizations can apply for up to $25,000 for the following: • personal protective equipment and sanitation supplies; • business continuity practices,… Read More
Aspire Food Group has announced it is moving forward with plans to create a 100,000 sq ft cricket farm at London, Ont. The company plans to commercialize insects-as-protein for the North American market. The plant will hatch, raise, and process crickets into a protein powder. “This first-of-its-kind commercial facility will enable not just Aspire Food… Read More
Canada’s Food Price Report, currently jointly released by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph, will go national in 2021, with members of the University of Saskatchewan (USask) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) added to the project team. “When we started this project a decade ago, we always wanted to make it fully… Read More
For the second time this week, the pulse industry is in the spotlight as another research and development project gets the green light. This latest project, funded through the protein supercluster Protein Industries Canada (PIC), is a joint research and development initiative between Saskatchewan-based AGT Food and Ingredients and ulivit, a consumer-facing ingredients start up,… Read More
Billing itself as a company ready to transform Canada’s food industry, Local Leaf Farms has opened a vertical farm in Barrie, Ont., with plans to launch 20 locations across the country by the end of 2025. Vertical farming is “always presented as the future, and I’ll state right off the top I don’t see it… Read More
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $90 million in government financing — mostly loans — for the Merit Functional Foods plant protein facility that’s being built at Winnipeg, Man. as part of his morning address on Monday (June 22). Merit Functional Foods is building a commercial-scale protein extraction plant that will process peas and canola into… Read More
Protein Industries Canada has announced a $19.2 million project looking at faba bean (also called fava bean) and pea processing on the Canadian prairies. The main partners and private funders in the project announced on Friday are Roquette — the French company that’s building a $400 million pea processing plant at Portage, Man. — and… Read More
Originally announced in February — what seems like a lifetime ago now — Tim Hortons has made good on its commitment to introduce a non-dairy option for its hot beverage line up. Following poor profitability performance to round out 2019 (comparable sales were down over 4%), the company laid out its plans to change a… Read More
The four western Canadian provincial hog producer groups are asking three major pork processors for a larger cut of the value of each hog. The boards of directors for the B.C. Pork Producers Association, Alberta Pork, Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council have sent a letter to Maple Leaf Foods, Olymel, and Donald’s Fine Foods… Read More
Lately, a lot of attention has been paid to the beef aspect of your mainstay steak entree, however, we’re now turning our attention to potatoes. Late last year we saw a shortage of potatoes due to a late, wet harvest. As of May 2020, the situation is quite the opposite, as the repercussions of COVID-19… Read More