By Robert Arnason Glacier FarmMedia staff A few years ago, Stuart McMillan got a call about organic canola acres in Western Canada. Considering there are 18 to 22 million acres of conventional canola across the Prairies, the caller couldn’t believe online data showing that organic canola was less than 2,000 acres. “I was contacted by […]
By Robert Arnason Glacier FarmMedia staff In 2013, organic agriculture in Western Canada was suffering. The industry was losing producers and struggling to attract new entrants. The suffering is now over. Since hitting a low of 1,170 organic crop producers in 2013, the industry has been booming. As of 2018, there were 1,756 organic crop […]
By Laura Rance OrganicBiz editor In naming organic foods as one of its “Tops of 2018,” global analytics company Nielsen ends any debate over whether the industry now worth US$90-billion worldwide is a fad or a trend. “Organic appears to be an age-old growth driver that’s here to stay,” the company says in an online […]
By Robert Arnason Glacier FarmMedia staff Organic is back. After a period of sluggish growth and a decline in the number of producers in the early 2010s, organic farming is expanding in Western Canada. Certified organic acres on the Prairies reached 1.824 million in 2017, up 29 percent from 1.4 million acres in 2015. The […]
By Laura Rance OrganicBiz editor If asked to describe the ‘typical’ organic consumer, many would think of a West Coast hippie crunching on granola. Well, think again. It turns out the stereotypical organic customer is more likely to live in Alberta than British Columbia, and is a university educated 30-something male with a family, new […]
By Lorraine Stevenson OrganicBiz staff The organic food-processing sector is on solid ground in Canada, according to a broad-based report showing most firms experiencing year-over-year growth in excess of 10 per cent. But that growth continues to create its own set of challenges, most significantly an ongoing shortage of raw ingredient supply. Sourcing ingredients remains […]
By Lorraine Stevenson OrganicBiz staff The number of certified organic primary producers and processors are steadily rising in Western Canada, according to a new report touted as the most in-depth analysis yet of the organic sector in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Growing Organic in the Prairies released in May by the Canadian Organic Trade Association […]
By Dave Bedard OrganicBiz staff The deal that clears Canadian-certified organic food for sale as organic in the European Union is now expanded to cover Canadian-processed products with some imported ingredients — and to include organic wine. Canada’s Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan confirmed the expansion of scope for the […]
By Laura Rance OrganicBiz editor Demand for organic products has enjoyed double-digit growth in Canada over the past decade and demand continues to outstrip supply, a senior official with the Canadian Organic Trade Association (COTA) says. “The numbers of organic growers has increased slightly in the past two years, but the growth of the production […]
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