Skippy peanut butter and Dad’s chocolate chip cookies are gone from the Canadian marketplace. If you feel sad about seeing these iconic brands go, brace yourselves. It’s just the beginning. Within days, two major U.S.-based food multinationals pulled well-known brands from the Canadian market. Mondelez International discontinued the iconic Dad’s cookies and Hormel Foods pulled
Multinationals face new pressures in grocery stores
Consumers increasingly want fresh, unprocessed food. The middle of the store now sees less traffic and that’s clearly affecting sales for most grocery products
From farm to fork, brought to you by artificial intelligence
With AI, yields can be improved and grocers can understand consumers — and predict their behaviour — better than consumers know themselves
Many Canadian consumers have noticed that lettuce and celery prices have skyrocketed recently. Such fluctuations happen all the time. But artificial intelligence is about to change that. AI has us on the cusp of a revolution in how we make decisions and how we manage virtually every aspect of our daily lives. The agri-food sector
Comment: Trump’s milk shake
Our dairy producers are now facing change, forced upon them by outside forces
For the first time U.S. President Donald Trump has acknowledged that he knows of the existence of supply management, also known by the global community as Canada’s milk cartel. For years dairy farmers in Canada have been resistant to any change or reform to their policies. With NAFTA 2.0 on its way, Canadian dairy farmers
Growing pains for Canada’s agri-food sector
The federal budget injects some new life into Canada’s agricultural industries, but not enough funding or clarity
Canada’s agri-food sector has underachieved for too long. The new federal budget gives the sector the opportunity to reimagine its potential. Finally, Ottawa wants to make the agri-food sector a place to invest and foster innovation. The Liberal government aims to increase Canada’s agri-food exports to at least $75 billion annually by 2025 (from $56
Brazil and the mother of all food fraud cases
As one of Brazil’s main livestock industry competitors Canada will likely gain from this scandal
Brazil, the largest exporter of meat products in the world, faces a food fraud crisis — and it seems federal authorities have been complicit. There’s a lesson here for Canada. Brazilian authorities recently announced they would investigate several companies, including meat-packing giants JBS SA and BRF SA. The companies are accused of bribing licensed inspectors
Costco finds a willing and growing market in Canada
Same-store Canadian sales are up more than in any other country in which Costco operates
Unless you’re there on a Saturday, constantly trying to avoid collisions with oversized shopping carts, you probably like Costco, even though it will cost you more to shop there as of June. The basic membership fee is going up by $5 to $60, while premium folks will have to pay $120, up from $110. Paying
Food banks plant roots for the long term
Canada’s food banks are embracing gardens and greenhouses, cooking classes and more to help clients achieve greater food security
Facing declining donations, an increasing number of Canadian food banks are growing their own food. Canadians may feel guilty for not giving enough but they shouldn’t. This is really about food banks adapting for the betterment of society. The Mississauga, Ont., and Surrey, B.C., food banks recently launched vertical farms using hydroponics and aquaponics. The
Opinion: Fighting food fraud
Food fraud is everywhere. It can take many forms such as adulteration, substituting one ingredient with a much cheaper one, or misrepresentation including selling an organic product when it’s not. Once food fraud is described, a whopping 63 per cent of Canadians are generally concerned about food fraud. Worse still, more than 40 per cent
The all-day breakfast wake-up call
The divide between breakfast, lunch and dinner is eroding as millennials start to gain a hold in the marketplace
The three-meals-a-day standard is slowly becoming more an ideal than a reality – ask McDonald’s and millennials. More than a year ago, McDonald’s Restaurants introduced all-day breakfasts in the United States. Now, McDonald’s Canada is slowly rolling out the all-day breakfast, testing it at several locations across the country. A&W Food Services of Canada will
NAFTA: The art of the trade deal
The U.S. may be targeting Mexico, but Canada could be collateral damage in this fight
So the Trans-Pacific Partnership is officially dead, but the deal had already been on life support for quite some time. As America was embracing a new era of economic nationalism, even Hillary Clinton vowed during her campaign to kill the deal. No big loss for Canada, since there is no deal, but certainly a missed
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
