Mr. Chair and honourable members, I'm pleased to appear before you today and to provide my insights as a researcher at the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute.
Horticulture is an essential element of Canadian agriculture and secure access to nutritious food. It's an important source for food manufacturing and the basis of Canadian export-oriented industries, and it's an area where Canada has an importing interest, both off-season and throughout the year.
Horticultural products—edible and floriculture, or nurseries—have ranged around 12% of total farm cash receipts, recently valued at just under $11.5 billion, but represent a far smaller share of agricultural land. Exports of fruit and vegetables were recently valued at about $125 million. Flowers and ornamental exports were valued at almost $225 million.
Processing horticultural crops is economically significant regionally within several provinces. Work by CAPI doctoral fellow Kushank Bajaj at the University of British Columbia has found that Canada is dependent on imports for about 80% of its fruits and 60% of its vegetables, and the dependence on imports exceeds this in some provinces and territories.
Canada's northern climate has limited the output and extent of horticulture. However, some of the key factors are changing. The data compiled since 1948, and even earlier, show that much of the country is warming and receiving more precipitation. The greatest warming and increase in precipitation are in the winter and in northern Canada. Nonetheless, these changes are allowing for increased crop yields, the movement of new crops into areas where the climate was previously unsuitable and the movement of agriculture into regions with climates that were previously unsuitable for farming.
It presents a prospect for growth in horticultural crops in Canada. New developments in controlled environment agriculture and/or vertical farming provide some call for optimism for Canada's ability to supply fruits and vegetables locally, including in northern regions of the country, according to another newly published report by CAPI doctoral fellows.
However, this entails multiple challenges. Just as warmer and wetter promote plant growth, they also promote crop diseases and pests. Some of these were foreign to Canada in the past, but are beginning to be seen in Canada due to changes in climate, and they require an effective means for control. Canada will require research to support controls, enable or generate access to new crop varieties because of climate change, and the ability to expedite registrations to make these products available to growers.
The meaning of “warmer and wetter” in terms of local windows of time with favourable weather for fieldwork needs to be better understood. It will need to be met with plans for a workforce, including temporary workers called upon to work a longer season.
Crop insurance, heavily relied upon by horticultural industries to underpin investments, faces multiple challenges. It requires an adequate level of acreage and frequency of independent management in order to establish insurance programming, which can be a challenge in provinces where horticultural crops are minor. Similarly, crops that are newly introduced to a province lag in terms of availability of insurance, as the data required for due diligence must be acquired and analyzed.
The multilateral, rules-based trade environment, which has facilitated export-oriented horticultural industries and allowed Canada to confidently meet much of its needs for fruits and vegetables through imports, is eroding. Canada has played an active role in attempts to revitalize the WTO and rules-based trade, and this should continue. However, a prudent strategy would reduce some dependence upon imports through exploration of expanded horticultural production in Canada and the challenges this entails.
Thank you again for the invitation. It's my pleasure to respond to questions.