Canada's organic trade now worth billions, research reveals

Monday, April 15, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Fifty-eight per cent of Canadian consumers are buying organic products every week, reveals new research from the Canada Organic Trade Association. This diverse consumer base is helping to drive the phenomenal growth in the organic market that grew to $3.7 billion last year, the research further indicates.

Initial results from the association’s organic market research program were released April 11, and indicate the value of the organic market has tripled since 2006, far outpacing the growth rate of other agri-food sectors.

Shauna MacKinnon, association projects and development manager, says they don’t have numbers for Ontario yet as the first phase of the research focused on British Columbia and Canada as a whole.

In September, the association plans to release a more detailed national report containing provincial numbers. But MacKinnon says based on analysis she has done so far Ontario “is one of the engines of growth because the market there is large.”

Even though Ontario doesn’t have as high a market share for organics as British Columbia, it’s definitely catching up, she says.

The research is the first data on the organic market since the Canadian government introduced national organic certification regulations in 2009. In provinces that had provincial organic certification programs, such as British Columbia and Quebec, the consumer market is further developed and more consumers are buying organic products.

“There’s stronger support of organics,” MacKinnon says. But now with the national organic certification program that’s been in place for almost four years, provinces that previously didn’t have their own certification program, such as Ontario and Alberta, are catching up to ones that did. BF