General

Reading Time: 2 minutes The main creditor of beleaguered Canadian organic supermarket chain Planet Organic Health has signed a deal to take over all the retailer’s assets. Under the agreement, subject to approval from Ontario’s Superior Court and the TSX Venture Echange, Toronto-based Catalyst Capital Group would acquire all of the Edmonton company’s assets in both Canada and the […] Read more

Reading Time: < 1 minute The federal government is touting a recent funding announcement as a key to expanding markets for Western Canadian food processors in Asia Pacific countries. The feds, through the Western Economic Diversification fund, are providing close to $1 million in funding to “help increase the availability of Western Canadian value-added food product exports in Asia-Pacific markets,” […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes One of Canada’s highest-profile farm leaders is leaving his post for a new job overseeing Canada’s supply-managed egg and poultry systems. Laurent Pellerin, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) and former president of Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA), has accepted a four-year term as chairperson of the Farm Products Council of Canada, […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes 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

Reading Time: < 1 minute 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

Reading Time: 3 minutes 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

Reading Time: 2 minutes 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

Reading Time: 2 minutes 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

Reading Time: 2 minutes “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

Reading Time: 2 minutes 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