Growth in Quebec’s food industry isn’t keeping pace with the growth rate in the province’s overall gross domestic product, according to a 2007 food sector profile released Friday by the provincial ag ministry.
Gross domestic production in the food sector reached $15.9 billion in 2006, for a growth rate of 3.5 per cent in the period 2003-06 compared to Quebec’s overall GDP growth rate of 6.8 per cent. Quebec’s GDP in 2006 sat at $242.1 billion, the province said, citing figures gathered by l’Institut de la statistique du Quebec.
Of the sectors within the food sector, crops and livestock posted the highest growth rate between 2003 and 2006, boosting their combined GDP by $312 million during those four years. Food and beverage retail and food service sectors grew by $255 million and $276 million respectively.
Read Also
VIDEO: Green Lightning and Nytro Ag win sustainability innovation award
Nytro Ag Corp and Green Lightning recieved an innovation award at Ag in Motion 2025 for the Green Lightning Nitrogen Machine, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant-usable form.
Combined gross production in beverage and tobacco processing dropped 23.1 per cent during that time, although food processing appeared to recover in 2006 from a trough in 2005.
Overall, the report said, the food sector accounts for 6.7 per cent of the wealth generated in Quebec. Of that, food, beverage and tobacco processing combined account for 34.9 per cent of the sector’s GDP, food and beverage service 24.2 per cent, food and beverage retailers 22 per cent, and the combined crops, livestock, fishing, hunting, trapping and ag support sectors, 18.9 per cent.
In terms of job creation, the number of jobs in the food sector rose two per cent in the 2003-06 period, compared to just 1.2 per cent for the provincial economy overall.
Average annual capital investment by the food sector during the four years studied was $2.1 billion, decreasing by an average of 1.7 per cent per year compared to an average annual increase in investment of 5.4 per cent in the economy overall. Within the food sector, the sector showing the greatest decline was agriculture at 4.5 per cent — more specifically, in grain and oilseed production, the province said.
Gross farm production rose by 1.2 per cent annually over 2003-06, with 68.5 per cent coming from market receipts, 15.3 per cent from sales to other farms and 10.7 per cent from payments and subsidies.
The sector profile data comes over two weeks after the release of the report of the provincial Commission sur l’avenir de l’agriculture et de l’agroalimentaire quebecois, which urged the province to “air out” its agricultural system to allow for innovation and diversification.
While not mentioned in the province’s news release Friday, the commission’s report observed “low expectations for growth and development” in the province’s food processing sector and an ag income stabilization insurance program that masks normal market signals and thus “does not encourage farmers to improve.”
