Thank you for the excellent question, Mr. Drouin.
We are major agricultural producers in the world. In fact, we are the fifth largest exporter of agricultural and agri-food products in the world and the fifth largest importer. This shows that we have a very strong absorptive capacity. We import a great deal to meet our needs. However, as I mentioned in my opening statement, we have to keep in mind that a very large portion of Canadian demand for processed products is met by products made and processed in Canada.
In terms of processing capacity, it can vary from sector to sector. In sectors such as dairy processing, it is very strong in terms of our internal needs. The supply management system ensures that our capacity is high enough to process all the products we need. In other sectors, we have a significant comparative advantage on a global scale. I'm thinking of the meat processing sector, meaning meat products. Clearly, our production capacity is far greater than our needs in Canada. We export the vast majority of our products.
It is difficult to answer this question because of the heterogeneity of the sector. In some regions and for some sectors, the capacity may be insufficient but, given the way our market economy operates, it is up to market forces and businesses to determine where to invest to increase processing capacity.