Course:FNH200/Lessons/Lesson 01/Page 01.4

01.4 The Canadian Food Industry

The Canadian food industry is a multi-billion dollar a year industry.  Foods available to us on the grocery store shelves include both domestically produced products and imported foods.

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The next time you are in a large grocery store, take some time to survey the proportion of shelf space devoted to various food commodity groups and note the vast array and variety of products that are in the grocery store.

Although Canada produces large amounts of fruits and vegetables, vast quantities of fruits and vegetables are imported as fresh product and in lesser amounts as frozen, canned and dehydrated products. This is due to the seasonal nature of fruit and vegetable production in Canada, as well as the need for climates warmer than Canada to grow fruits such as oranges, grapefruit and bananas.

Canada exports meat products (raw meat and processed meat products) to other countries but also imports meat products (raw meats of specific cuts that may be in short supply in Canada, as well as processed meat products). Likewise Canada exports raw fish (fresh and frozen salmon, cod, etc.) and processed fish (canned fish, smoked fish, salmon and herring roe) to other countries, while other types of fish (such as prawns, oysters, processed fish products) are imported into Canada.