General

Grocery chain Sobeys plans to aim from a different angle against other players in the discount market, starting in southern Ontario, launching a new group of stores with a focus on the locally grown. The Nova Scotia company, which operates over 1,300 stores across Canada under banners including Sobeys, IGA, Price Chopper, Foodland and Thrifty […] Read more

A U.S. firm billing itself as that country’s leading distributor of organic and natural foods will buy Canada’s biggest distributor of organic, natural, kosher and specialty foods. Toronto food firm SunOpta Inc. said Tuesday it will sell its SunOpta Distribution Group (SDG) assets to United Natural Foods (UNFI) for C$68 million. The deal doesn’t include […] Read more

The Bank of Canada’s commodity price index (BCPI), used to gauge the country’s economic performance, has been retooled to add potatoes to the list of commodities it tracks. But while potatoes are added to an ag commodity basket that already includes cattle, hogs, wheat, barley, canola and corn, the revised index also lightens the agriculture […] Read more

Rural Canada’s passenger vehicle owners are expected to gain as a new standard takes effect allowing some service work on newer-model vehicles to be done closer to home. The Association of International Automobile Manufacturers of Canada and Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, which represent vehicle makers and distributors in Canada, and the National Automotive Trades Association […] Read more

The lenders for Canadian organic food supermarket chain Planet Organic have called in their loans, leading the company to seek creditor protection. The Edmonton company, which has shed most of its other businesses in recent months, is down to nine natural and organic food supermarkets in Alberta, Ontario, B.C. and Nova Scotia under the Planet […] Read more

“Sustainable” farm incomes and environmental stewardship of farmland are two of five planks in what the federal Liberals have dubbed their new “National Food Policy.” The food policy, laid out Monday in Ontario by Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff, is meant to “get more of (Canadian farmers’) products on our tables,” he said in a release. […] Read more

The Canadian government has pledged $230 million to a new Global Agriculture and Food Security Program spearheaded by the World Bank to boost agriculture and food security in low-income countries. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on Thursday announced Canada’s share of what so far amounts to $900 million from nations including the U.S., Spain and South […] Read more

Proposed exemptions to the federal regulations on “Product of Canada” and “Made in Canada” food claims will be the subject of an online consultation until May 16. Participants will be asked to consider “specific guideline details” such as exemptions for certain ingredients that are difficult to source within Canada, such as sugar. “We define that […] Read more

The exact where and when remain to be announced, but Canada will host a ministerial meeting of the Cairns Group of ag exporting countries in 2011. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz made the announcement at the conclusion of the 2010 Cairns Group ministerial meeting in Punta del Este, a coastal town in southern Uruguay. “Hosting the […] Read more

Pointing to “serious” management problems, Canada’s auditor general says the federal agriculture department needs to improve how it runs its research work if it wants to meet its stated goals. Research handled or funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) is “important to Canada’s food production and its ability to compete internationally,” Sheila Fraser said […] Read more