By Mata Press Service
Canada is gaining ground in the global agri-food economy, but the country’s rise comes with a stark reminder: momentum is fragile, and major gaps risk undermining the progress made.
That’s the central message of the second edition of the Global Agri-Food Most Influential Nations Ranking, prepared by the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University and commissioned by MNP. The assessment places Canada seventh among G20 nations, a significant jump from eleventh in the previous year. The ranking evaluates countries across six pillars that shape long-term food-system influence, including innovation, food security, retail structures, trade, sectoral competitiveness, and sustainability.
The authors say the movement signals more than statistical improvement. As the report puts it, Canada’s climb “isn’t just a data point, but a signal that Canada is gaining ground in innovation, trade, and global presence.” Still, they caution that this progress is “uneven” and weighed down by affordability challenges, retail concentration, and persistent commercialization barriers for small and mid-sized firms.
The report categorizes countries into three performance tiers. Canada remains in Tier 2, described as “moderate but strengthening,” placing behind top-tier leaders such as the European Union, United States, and United Kingdom. The authors say the country’s place reflects “substantive progress in how it builds, connects, and competes,” but also highlights “major gaps in food affordability, commercialization, sustainability, and service-sector recovery.”
On the innovation front, Canada stands out for its ideas and intellectual property, but struggles to turn those strengths into scaled commercial wins.
The country now boasts more than 320 agri-food tech start-ups raising over US$3 billion, and has filed 117,000 agritech and food-tech patents, placing it among global IP leaders. Yet the report notes that investment is slowing, with innovation funding falling 37 percent in 2024. As the authors write, “investment has slowed… creating more distance among leading countries, fewer funds for R&D, limited opportunities for commercial scaling, and weaker international competitiveness.”
Technology adoption remains imbalanced. While Canada performs well overall, “small and mid-sized businesses lag compared to peers” in countries like Germany, Australia and the U.S., where public investment accelerates uptake. The report calls commercialization “one of Canada’s most persistent bottlenecks.”
Even with high access to nutritious food, Canada’s food security picture remains complex.
The authors note that “more than 97 percent of Canadians can afford a nutritious diet,” but food insecurity still affects nearly one in five households, especially those facing income volatility or living in remote regions. Public trust in the food system is another concern. According to the report, “only 47 percent of Canadians say they trust the nation’s agriculture and food sector,” a decline attributed to rising prices and limited transparency.
Food inflation remains a challenge. At 3.8 percent in April 2025, inflation is moderate but higher than several peers. The report concludes: “The data points to a food system that continues to provide broad access but requires improvement in affordability, trust, and national coordination, particularly in the North.”
Canada performs poorly in this category, ranking near the bottom of the G20.
Retail consolidation continues to deepen: the top four grocery retailers now control 72 percent of all sales, up sharply from 65 percent a year earlier. The report warns that the country’s supply chain is “best described as robust but imbalanced and therefore vulnerable,” citing high concentration across retail, input supplies, and processing.
Upstream inefficiencies remain among the largest drags on competitiveness. The report notes that “nearly 78 percent of food loss occurs before reaching households,” underscoring waste, coordination issues, and logistics bottlenecks. Digital retail adoption also lags global peers, with e-commerce making up just 2.5 percent of food retail, far behind leaders like South Korea and China.
Trade is Canada’s strongest pillar. The country ranks second overall, backed by a massive US$60-billion agri-food trade surplus and broad agreement coverage now spanning 1.27 billion people, up from 1 billion in 2024.
The report calls Canada “a reliable global partner” with a reputation strengthened by political stability and consistent export capacity. But the authors warn that Canada’s gains remain capped by market concentration and internal barriers. Interprovincial trade restrictions, they note, “weigh heavily on sectors across the food industry,” diluting national competitiveness.
Geopolitical volatility also exposes risks. Tariff pressures from the U.S. and China illustrate how “external disruptions can ripple through the entire value chain.” The country’s challenge is to diversify more aggressively and reduce reliance on a narrow set of export markets.
Canada ranks as a moderate performer in sectoral competitiveness, supported by strong output in canola, beef, pork, and pulses. But several high-potential subsectors — including dairy, produce, and wine — “missed growth projections,” limiting economic impact.
The report highlights a significant underleveraged opportunity in the US$200-billion global health and wellness food market, which it says Canada has yet to meaningfully capture. It argues that “emerging industries provide a critical opportunity” for Canada to broaden its value chain and move beyond a reliance on raw commodity exports.
Canada performs moderately in sustainability, supported by “world-leading biodiversity and climate tracking infrastructure” and more than $3.5 billion committed through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
One of Canada’s greatest strengths is its diversity: “no two provinces share the same top three commodities,” giving the country a natural resilience to climate and market shocks. The government has also made targeted investments, including a $5.7-million funding package for crop biodiversity research.
Still, the report stresses that these strengths need to be paired with incentives that help producers scale sustainable practices. Doing so would allow Canada to convert environmental leadership into global competitive advantage.
Across the six pillars, the report delivers a consistent theme: Canada has clear strengths and substantial momentum, but those gains are limited by systemic gaps that require coordinated policy action.
As the authors conclude, “Canada’s advancement in the global rankings is more than a signal of progress, but a reminder of what is possible.” They argue that “carrying progress forward will mean harnessing the full diversity of Canada’s producers, innovators, and entrepreneurs,” while ensuring sustainability becomes “the engine of growth,” not a parallel objective.
The challenge for Canada now is to convert potential into leadership — by strengthening competition at home, supporting small and midsized firms, diversifying trade, and embracing the shift to sustainable and value-added food production.
The report offers a clear path. Whether policymakers and industry take it will determine whether Canada’s rise continues — or stalls under the weight of its unresolved weaknesses.
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