Food and Beverage Ontario backs changes to province’s processing vegetable regulations
From Better Farming
An organization representing Ontario’s food and beverage manufacturers supports the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission’s efforts to change the province’s processing vegetable regulations.
Food and Beverage Ontario says the commission’s proposal supports the industry in addressing key elements raised by the Agri-Food Growth Steering Committee, which delivered advice in October 2015 to Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Jeff Leal on how the agricultural industry can meet Premier Kathleen Wynne’s challenge. In 2013, she encouraged the industry to create 120,000 new jobs and double its annual growth rate by 2020.
According to the agriculture ministry website, during the past decade, Ontario’s agri-food sector had an annual growth rate of about one per cent a year.
The Food and Beverage Ontario letter signed by its board chair, Michael Burrows, says among the key steering committee recommendations the commission’s processing vegetable proposal supports are:
- Increasing agri-food businesses competitiveness.
- Enhancing activities to attract and retain agri-food investments, grow Ontario’s market share and encourage more exports.
- Reducing regulatory burdens.
- Identifying new opportunities for growth along the entire agri-food value chain.
- Addressing growth barriers that hamper retaining and attracting new agri-food investments to Ontario.