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Value chain management
A hub for George Morris Centre writing on agri-food value chains: buyer and supplier relationships, quality systems, food waste, local food and grocery retail.
A value chain is the set of businesses that turn a crop or an animal into food someone buys, from the farm through processing and distribution to the shelf or the restaurant. Chains that share information and solve problems together tend to waste less and earn more; chains that trade only on price tend to pass costs back and forth. The pieces gathered here look at how those relationships work, where food is lost along the way, and what buyers ask of the farms that supply them.
Start with the papers below, then follow the recent analysis on value chains and food waste and food prices and retail.
Papers on this subject
- 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.
- 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.
- Where food is wasted along Canada's value chainFood is lost at every link from field to fridge. A stage-by-stage look at where it goes in Canada, why it is so hard to measure and who can change what.
- Local food: what drives demand and what gets in the wayShoppers say they want local food, yet little of it reaches supermarket shelves. Why demand is strong, what blocks supply, and how food hubs bridge the gap.
- What agri-food can learn from the keiretsu supplier modelJapanese carmakers built long-term supplier networks that cut costs together. What keiretsu means, how it worked and what farms and food firms might borrow.
- Quality management in food businesses: beyond the checklistHACCP plans, ISO 9000 certificates and quality manuals help, but they do not make quality on their own. Where the ideas came from and what makes them work.
Recent 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 ›What drives farmland values in Canada, and why rent tells a different story
· Reid Gauthier
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.
Read the analysis ›Temporary foreign workers on Canadian farms: how the programs work
· Colette Ranville
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.
Read the analysis ›Grocery margins in Canada: what the public numbers show
· Navdeep Grewal
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.
Read the analysis ›Food loss versus food waste: why the difference matters when you measure it
· Annelies Dekker
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.
Read the analysis ›