- In 2022, 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 $156.5 billion; it accounted for 18.2% of total manufacturing sales and for 1.7% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It's also the largest manufacturing employer and provides employment for 300,000 Canadians.
- It supplies approximately 70% of all processed food and beverage products available in Canada and is the largest buyer of agricultural production.
- Exports of processed food and beverage products stood at a record value of $54.3 billion in 2022, an increase of 14.1% over 2021; accounting for 34.7% 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 2022, 87% of the total went to three major markets:
- United States (77%)
- China (6%)
- Japan (4%)
- During the last five years, exports of processed food and beverage products grew at an average annual rate of 9.2%. Meanwhile, imports grew at an annual rate of 6.3% during the same period reaching $45 billion in 2022. It resulted in a significant improvement in the trade balance. That is, from a balance of $2 billion in 2017 to a trade balance of $9.4 billion in 2022. Food manufacturing (excluding beverage) has maintained a positive trade balance over the last twenty years, which stood at $14.8 billion in 2022. Beverage manufacturing on the other hand, had a growing negative trade balance since 1997, which stood at $6.6 billion in 2022.
- The largest food and beverage processing industry is meat product manufacturing with sales of $38.5 billion in 2022 and accounting for 25% of sales. Grain & oilseed milling is the second largest industry with sales of $20.3 billion, followed by dairy product manufacturing with sales of $17.4 billion.
Other industries include:
- other food manufacturing ($16.4 billion)
- bakeries and tortilla manufacturing ($16 billion)
- beverage manufacturing ($14.9 billion)
- animal food manufacturing ($11.9 billion)
- fruit and vegetable preserving, and specialty food manufacturing ($10.1 billion)
- seafood product preparation and packaging ($5.9 billion)
- sugar and confectionery product manufacturing ($5.2 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 24% and the remaining provinces, over 16%.
- Meat product manufacturing is the most significant food industry in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, beverage manufacturing is the most important sub-sector in 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 8,500 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, 8% have between 100 and 500 employees, while less than 1% of establishments have more than 500 employees.