Farm business
What drives farmland values in Canada, and why rent tells a different story
Canadian farmland has risen in value for decades. How Farm Credit Canada measures it, what pushes prices up, and why rents and returns lag behind land prices.
George Morris Centre explains the economics behind Canadian food and farming.
Plain, careful writing on supply management, trade, food prices, farm business and the value chains that link a field to a grocery shelf. Who gains, who pays and what the evidence says.
What’s new
How cost-of-production pricing sets the price of milk in Canada
· Colette Ranville
From a survey of farm costs to a price change each February: how the Canadian Dairy Commission turns farm costs into milk prices, with a worked example.
Read the analysis ›Why food processing plants close in Canada, and what keeps others open
· Navdeep Grewal
Food processing is Canada's largest manufacturing industry, yet well-known plants still close. What decides which ones shut, which stay, and which get a second life.
Read the analysis ›Value chain collaboration in practice: how farmers and processors share risk
· Colette Ranville
Contracts, shared data and joint problem solving can spread risk between farms and processors. How the main arrangements work, and why some partnerships fail.
Read the analysis ›When a market closes: what canola trade disputes teach about market access
· Duncan Strathearn
Twice in seven years China shut much of its door to Canadian canola. The record of those disputes shows how market access is lost, regained and paid for.
Read the analysis ›
More analysis
Food and rural economy
Temporary foreign workers on Canadian farms: how the programs work
From the 1966 Jamaica agreement to today's Agricultural Stream: how farms hire seasonal workers from abroad, the rules on wages and housing, and the criticisms.
Food prices and retail
Grocery margins in Canada: what the public numbers show
Gross margin, EBITDA and net margin measure different things. A plain guide to grocers' reports, the Competition Bureau's 2023 study, and where $100 goes.
Dairy and supply management
What CUSMA changed for Canada's supply-managed farms
New US quotas for milk, chicken, eggs and turkey, the end of milk Class 7, caps on powder exports and two dispute panels: what CUSMA did to supply management.
Value chains and food waste
Food loss versus food waste: why the difference matters when you measure it
Loss happens before the store, waste at the store and after. How the UN indices and Canadian studies draw the line, and why a crate of produce can count twice.
Trade and markets
Interprovincial trade barriers in food: why a cheese can be foreign at a provincial border
Canada has an internal free trade deal, yet meat, milk and wine still stop at provincial lines. How the rules work, what they cost, and why they persist.
From the papers shelf
- Is food really dearer in Canada than in the United States?Cross-border shoppers swear food is cheaper in the US. Sometimes it is. A look at exchange rates, scale, distance, taxes and supply management, item by item.
- Cutting food waste as a business decisionFood a business throws away was paid for twice: once to buy it, again to bin it. How plants and stores treat waste as lost margin, with a worked bakery example.
- How food inflation is measured and forecast in CanadaFood inflation comes from a weighted basket, not a till receipt. How Canada measures grocery and restaurant prices, what moves them and how to read a forecast.
- Sustainability certification schemes for fruit and vegetable growersGlobalG.A.P., CanadaGAP, organic and retailer codes all ask growers for audits. What each scheme covers, what it costs a small farm, and how they overlap.
- The economics of Ontario's craft cider makersA small cidery is an orchard, a factory and a shop at once. How apples, licensing, taxes and retail channels shape the money behind a bottle of Ontario cider.
- Environmental farm plans and what food buyers ask of farmsFood companies want proof that farms are run sustainably. How Ontario's voluntary Environmental Farm Plan works, and whether it can serve as that proof.