A member of IICA’s delegation in Canada attended the November 28 – 29, 2016, Canadian Food & Drink Summit 2016, hosted by the Conference Board’s Centre for Food in Canada (CFIC) in Toronto Ontario. The two-day event provided an opportunity to explore the future of Canada’s food sector, and to leverage new opportunities to enhance the food sector’s performance—both provincially and globally.
The summit attracted many players in the sector, over 200+ participants from across Canada’s food system to discuss sector challenges and solutions. Producers, manufacturers, shippers, traders, distributors and retailers in Canada’s food system are all important for ensuring the quality, healthiness and safety of the food supply to Canadians. The Summit launched the Conference Board’s 1st Provincial Report Card on Food, an assessment of Canada’s food performance comparing provinces to each other.
On behalf of IICA, Trudy Werry gained insights from the Summit’s speakers and participants as they shared their visions for the future of food and drink in Canada. Of significance, speakers provided their latest forecasts on the economy and on certain sectors of the industry. A break out session on successful farm business practices explored strategies such as diversification, innovation and vertical integration for family businesses, strategies that would be applicable to similar operations in Latin American and Caribbean countries. A session on Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s efforts to develop a National Food Strategy was informative. In addition to other themes, of relevance to IICA, is the intention of the policy to address food insecurity and the sector’s ability to respond to global food demands. A session on sustainability in the sector touched on Canadian initiatives to support sustainability issues such as the reduction of food waste in the industry. IICA member countries could benefit from some of the Canadian tools and approaches adopted by the sector.
Given the opportunity to network with experts from many parts of the Canadian food sector and the insightful presentations, the Conference Board of Canada’s Summit proven once again that it is an event not to be missed.
For more information, visit the conference website:
http://www.conferenceboard.ca/conf/foodsummit/default.aspx
