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Food and beverage sales to fall in 2024; processor margins to improve

Stabilizing or declining input prices working their way through the supply chain, FCC says

Farm Credit Canada is predicting Canadian food and beverage sales will fall slightly this year as consumers manage tight budgets. Gross margins, however, should increase as the effects of falling commodity prices work their way through the supply chain, the farm lender said in an April 9 news release.

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Canadian Meat Council decries TFW changes

Industry group says ending special measures for sector is 'premature'

Incoming changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program will add to the sector's already significant labour challenges, the Canadian Meat Council says.




Brent Herrington, 2019 Ontario’s Finest Butcher, breaks down a full lamb carcass into traditional and premium value-added cuts during a craft butchery demonstration at the Ontario Sheep Farmers annual general meeting in October.

Craft butchery elevates Ontario lamb position with consumers, retailers

Award-winning butcher exposes premium lamb cut potential during OSF annual meeting

Brent Herrington’s easy patter never faltered while he transformed a whole lamb carcass into value-added and traditional cuts. Throughout his hour-long craft butchery presentation, attendees of the Ontario Sheep Farmers’ October meeting peppered him with questions on retail prices and techniques. For Herrington, it’s an opportunity to express his gratitude to producers who provide top-quality […] Read more

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U.K. firm to process meats in Canada for Walmart

Plant would be Hilton Foods' first in North America

A British-based firm processing proteins for the retail and foodservice sectors plans to set up shop somewhere in Eastern Canada, after reaching a deal to supply meat products to Walmart’s Canadian grocery business. Hilton Food Group announced Thursday it plans to open a new manufacturing plant in that region to supply Walmart Supercentres in Canada […] Read more

Lack of labour and processing capacity is a long-term sustainability issue for the food and agriculture sectors.

Opinion: Meat processors key link in local food value chain

Labour shortages have long been a challenge for the meat processing sector. Not only does this create problems for meat processing businesses themselves, but it also makes it harder for farmers to access much-needed processing capacity for their livestock when animals are ready for market. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the skilled worker shortage, while driving […] Read more


Bison on pasture near Teulon, Man. on May 30, 2023. (MarketsFarm photo by Glen Hallick)

Bison industry expanding, becoming mainstream

Bison meat emerging from 'seasonal' perception

MarketsFarm — The Canadian bison industry has been through some difficult times during the last few years but is now emerging from those doldrums, according to Manitoba Bison Association president Robert Johnson. “Between the two drought years and the COVID-19 pandemic, then high feed prices, probably the last two years have been pretty crappy for […] Read more

Gino Giansante, meat science lab manager, explains how the CMIT facility works with smaller producers who struggle to access processing.

Centre building capacities for processing labour, research and tech development

Centre for Meat Innovation and Technology aims to carve new markets

The Centre for Meat Innovation and Technology may be Guelph’s best-kept secret.  Tucked away on the University of Guelph campus, CMIT provides training, product and process development, meat science research and technology adoption in collaboration with Meat and Poultry Ontario. Established in the 1960s, the university’s meat lab was refurbished in 2018 with an extension and […] Read more