- In 2024, the food and beverage processing industry was the largest manufacturing industry in Canada in terms of value of production with sales of goods manufactured worth $173.4 billion; it accounted for 20.3% of total manufacturing sales and for 1.6% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It's also the largest manufacturing employer and provides employment for 318,400 Canadians.
- The food and beverage processing industry supplies approximately 80% of all processed food and beverage products available in Canada and is the largest buyer of agricultural production, purchasing over half.
- Exports of processed food and beverage products stood at a record value of $59.8 billion in 2024, an increase of 3.8% over 2023; and accounting for 34.5% of production value.
- Canadian processed food and beverage products are exported to almost 200 countries with a significant proportion exported to a few countries. In 2024, 89% of the total went to 3 major markets:
- United States (80%)
- China (5%)
- Japan (4%)
- During the last 5 years, exports of processed food, beverage and tobacco products grew at an average annual rate of 10.0%. Meanwhile, imports grew at an annual rate of 9.3% during the same period reaching $55 billion in 2024. This resulted in a trade balance of 4.3 billion, a reduction compared to the trade balance of $6.8 billion in 2023. Food manufacturing (excluding beverage) has maintained a positive trade balance over the last 20 years, which stood at $9.2 billion in 2024. Beverage manufacturing on the other hand, has maintained a negative trade balance since 1997, which stood at $4.9 billion in 2024.
The largest food and beverage processing industry is meat product manufacturing with sales of $43.8 billion in 2024 and accounting for 25% of sales. Dairy product manufacturing is the second largest industry with sales of $19.6 billion, followed by grain and oilseed milling with sales of $18.9 billion.
Other industries include:
- other food manufacturing ($18.8 billion)
- bakeries and tortilla manufacturing ($18.5 billion)
- beverage manufacturing ($15.7 billion)
- fruit and vegetable preserving, and specialty food manufacturing ($11.2 billion)
- animal food manufacturing ($10.1 billion)
- sugar and confectionery product manufacturing ($6.7 billion)
- seafood product preparation and packaging ($6.7 billion)
- Although food processing is important to the economies of all provinces, Ontario and Quebec account for most of the production with approximately 60% of sales, British Columbia and Alberta account for 23% and the remaining provinces, approximately 17%.
- Meat product manufacturing is the most significant food industry in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia; grain and oilseed milling is the largest food industry in Saskatchewan; while seafood product preparation and packaging is the most significant in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
- Approximately 8,800 food and beverage processing establishments with employees exist in Canada, with the vast majority being small businesses. Of those, about 92% have less than 100 employees, 7% have between 100 and 500 employees, while less than 1% of establishments have more than 500 employees.