Why it matters: The Canadian organic market is a $9.75 billion industry as of 2024, making it the fifth largest in a global market now worth more than $200 billion.

“Organic agriculture represents one of Canada’s most underused economic opportunities,” said Karen Murchison, executive director of Canadian Organic Growers, in a news release.

“This plan gives the government a clear roadmap to unlock billions in net farm income and help Canadian farmers and processors compete globally while driving growth here at home.”

The Canadian Organic Alliance, which includes the Canada Organic Trade Association, Canadian Organic Growers and the Organic Federation of Canada, announcing the launch of their Organic Action Plan for Canada on Wednesday.

The plan is organized around three pillars:

• Accelerating growth and innovation in organic production. This includes expanding research, training, and transition supports to increase domestic productivity and supply.
• Growing organic markets and demand, including by strengthening domestic and export markets through improved processing and distribution infrastructure, public procurement and education of organic and ensuring affordable consumer access.
• Strengthening policy, regulatory and data infrastructure. The plan calls for establishment of policy directions, modernization of regulations and improved access to data to guide organic development and uphold organic integrity.

“With shifting global trade dynamics and strong consumer demand, organic policy must shift from an enforcement-based approach to a strategic driver of economic growth,” said Canada Organic Trade Association executive director Tia Loftsgard.

“Canada has the standards, certification system and international credibility to lead. With the right policy framework, Canada can build supply, attract investment, and strengthen the organic value chain–while delivering the environmental and social benefits that consumers increasingly seek.”

According to the Alliance, the Canadian organic market reached $9.75 billion in 2024, making it the fifth largest organic sector in the world. However, the group said domestic organic production has stagnated, imports are rising, and Canadian processors are struggling to source Canadian organic ingredients.

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“Without enforceable standards and transparent labelling, consumers cannot be certain the pork they purchase hasn’t been altered through genetic engineering,” said duBreton president Vincent Breton in an Aug. 27 news release.

This summer, the federal government completed public consultation around regulation of pigs that are resistant to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) due to gene editing.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the pigs for use in the American food supply earlier this year, saying the edits are safe for pigs and for humans who consume pork.

However, according to a duBreton survey, 74 per cent of consumers are “concerned about gene-edited pork in their food supply and demand total transparency,” the news release said.

Clear standards

DuBreton sells three lines of pork, according to its website: organic, humanely raised, and raised without antibiotics. It also holds certifications like Certified Humane Raised and Handled, and Global Animal Partnership.

The Canadian organic standards don’t allow gene-edited crops, livestock or material to be used in production. However, duBreton has been seeking clarity from other certification bodies and calling for them to take a clear stance against gene-edited pigs.

“Not being clear to the consumer and not giving him a chance to make a choice is wrong,” Breton said in an interview.

“We’ve not necessarily went to requesting a ban (on the use of gene editing), but at least, I mean, consumers should be aware.”

Breton said government-mandated labelling would be preferred, but at very least they’re looking to other certification bodies to take a stance against gene-edited animals.

Organic sector concerns

The Canadian organic sector has previously decried the lack of mandated transparency and traceability for gene-edited crops.

Health Canada deemed gene-edited crops safe for the food supply in 2022, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency released its guidance the next year. Federal guidance put most gene-edited crops on the same plane as conventionally bred varieties.

No special labelling is required, though the government pledged a transparency steering committee and database.

A significant portion of the organic sector’s concern revolved around contamination of organic food supplies — for instance, due to cross-pollination or inadvertent purchasing of gene-edited seed varieties.

It argued that if it couldn’t guarantee food was free from gene-edited materials, it would lose credibility with consumers and trading partners.

Less risk of contamination

In the case of gene-edited livestock, the risk of cross-contamination is lower with livestock than with crops said Karen Murchison, executive director of Canadian Organic Growers.

Animals are less mobile than seed crops and are easier to track, Murchison said. However, the Canadian Organic Growers would still like to see mandatory labelling within the supply chain.

“We cannot see that livestock move into our production system,” she said. “Again, it’s really about that transparency and labelling.”

Breton said that since duBreton is largely vertically integrated, inadvertent use of edited genetics isn’t much of a risk for them. They can request guarantees from their genetic suppliers.

However, he said if certification bodies don’t take a firm stance on gene editing in their protocols, meat sold under those labels could include gene-edited pork.

It could confuse consumers or dilute claims like ‘natural,’ he said.

“Here I have a natural product at a dollar a pound less, and I have this Certified Humane. What’s the real difference? … They can’t become specialists on everything they eat.”

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If Canadian food manufacturers can’t count on a domestic supply of organic crops, it could mean more imports from foreign markets at a time when Canada’s trade future is already volatile. But to bridge the gap, producers will need more support than they’re getting, industry members say.

Why it matters: If Canadian companies can’t source enough organic Canadian crops, American or other foreign imports may be needed to fill the demand.

The demand for Canadian organic products is growing, both domestically and abroad said Katie Fettes, Director of Policy and Research at Canadian Organic Growers (COG).

“On the global and macroeconomic level, we’re seeing there’s an opportunity here,” Fettes said. “At the same time in Canada, our production has kind of stagnated.”

The Canadian organic market was valued at $9 billion in 2023, up from $6.3 billion in 2019, according to statistics from the Canada Organic Trade Association. In that four-year period, the numbers of certified organic acres and operators have stayed relatively the same.

This means the gap between Canada’s demand for organic goods and capacity to produce them is only widening.

Other countries investing more

Fettes said other world economies have seen economic and environmental potential in organic growing.

“G7 countries are seeing, you know, this is an opportunity and a kind of ready-made tool that we can take up and advance both environmental and economic goals at the same time,” she said.

According to upcoming research from Canadian Organic Growers, set to release in July, the U.S. spends eight times more per acre on organic than Canada. Japan spends nearly 80 times more, and the EU spends on average 200 times more. In Italy, it’s close to 900 times more.

Salma Fotovat, Sourcing and Procurement Director at Riverside Natural Foods, said she foresees problems if producers aren’t able to keep up with the processing sector’s demand.

“There’s going to be a supply and demand issue here,” she said, adding it may already be happening.

Fotovat said Riverside has tried to support organic farmers for stability’s sake.

“What we’ve done … is provide that stability of market access or market demand over multiple years,” she said. “We talk to our growers and kind of do multi-year contracts, which is not very common in the organic commodity space.”

“That gives them stability and line of sight that okay, if I continue to be in this space, if I continue to invest, there is home for the commodities that I work hard to grow.”

Organic farmers lack support

Riverside is a 12-year-old company, which has been growing 30 to 40 per cent year-over-year and uses 95 per cent organic ingredients, said Fotovat. With stagnating growth in production, Canadian farmers may not be able to meet that processing demand.

“Businesses can do a lot, and I think we’re trying to leverage our position, our scale, our network, our sphere of influence, to do that,” she said. “The demand is there; I think we need support on the supply side to be able to keep up.”

Extension supports are often lacking for organic growers said Ian Cushon, an organic grain farmer in Oxbow, Saskatchewan and Organic Task Force Co-Chair.

“There’s not very many agronomists that really understand organic agriculture,” he said.

Fotovat said companies like hers are taking those supports into their own hands.

“We support them (with) agronomists with tools, resources, networking around organic regenerative practices and how to adopt … practices that allow them to be more resilient, better soil health, better yields in time of drought.”

Fettes said the sector also needs better data, research and analysis — information government officials request when the sector asks for support.

Support through transition

One of the main barriers to organic production in Canada is the three-year period in which farmers must adhere to organic standards before being awarded organic certification.

Cushon said these short-term pains make it difficult for farmers to make the leap to organic. The organic task force recommends supporting farmers through the additional costs in that phase.

Fettes said the upcoming COG research suggests the financial setbacks of that three-year period almost always pay off eventually.

Cushon’s farm transitioned to organic in the early 1980s, while looking for new opportunities during a time of financial turmoil.

“Organic kind of came along, and that was an opportunity to become a little more resilient economically.”

He said consumer interest fell off during the 2008 financial crisis, but it bounced back significantly in the 2010s. This type of transition won’t be easy for all Canadian farms, though.

“It’s a really hard thing to predict,” he said. “There isn’t the kind of data collection there on supply and demand that you see in the conventional market with organic products.”

“There’s a chicken-and-egg scenario there that we’ve certainly grown the retail side, but we haven’t necessarily grown the production side to a level that attracts some of the bigger processors and some of the bigger retailers.”

Opportunity to invest

Fettes said she sees an opportunity for the government to go beyond its regulatory approach and invest in the sector.

“This is the time when Canada’s talking about investing and building the economy and building a stronger Canada,” she said. “This is the moment to move, for the organic sector, from a regulatory approach into a partnership and investing approach.”

This is an area where Canada can learn from its G7 peers.

“Many jurisdictions in Europe have been supporting organics with organic action like policy plans for a decade or two by now. They’re just a little bit further along,” Fettes said.

“There’s a huge opportunity to invest more, both in production for organics and also in organic market development.”

Cushon said there is potential for organic farming and many benefits many producers may not know about. But it’s a two-way street.

“There’s quite a long list of things I think we can do, and it it’s a matter whether the willingness is there to make that investment and to make sure that producers know that there are opportunities here.”

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“People don’t realize that with calamari consumption, over 52 per cent of the squid is regarded as waste,” explained Sammy Prantera, Seaborn Organic’s Squid Juice sales director. “They were originally throwing half the squid back into the ocean.”

Seaborn Organics, based in St. Catharines is part of the ‘Off the Beaten Track’ tour at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show.

Prantera said company partnered with the University of Rhode Island horticulture experts to develop an organic fertilizer made of Loligo squid using a low-heat hydrolysate process after the Environmental Protection Agency forced the fishing industry to seek alternatives for their by-products.

Farmers can apply the all-purpose concentrated liquid fertilizer from germination to harvest as a drench, in-furrow as a liquid starter and as a foliar spray application.

The prime demographic is organic and regenerative farmers, but conventional operation usage could lessen synthetic inputs, said Prantera.

Squid Juice ticks all the fertilizer boxes for N, P and K while providing micronutrients, a chitin biostimulant, and some natural pest deterrent capabilities.

“Biostimulants are a new trend in the last five years of farming,” Prantera explained. “(Squid Juice) is the only water-soluble bioavailable form of chitin on the market.”

Chitin increases yield, flavour, brix and terpenes for overall quality and a plant’s defence mechanism, including stress, drought and pest resilience.

“It’s essentially $15 an acre application,” he said. “You only need to use it one to three times a season if you’re a cash crop farmer and a few more times if you’re a fruits and veggie farmer.”

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The rule, which implements mandates from the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill, requires National Organic Program (NOP) certificates for all organic imports, and certification of businesses at more points of the supply chain, among other changes the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a news release in January 2023.

The regulations came into force in March and will be strictly enforced after Sept. 19.

A key change for Canadian exporters is that all organic products sent to the United States (with a few exemptions) must have a valid, digital National Organic Program Import Certificate (NOPIC). These certificates were previously issued as paper copies, and in many cases were optional for Canadian companies.

Additionally, all operations (with a few exceptions) that produce or handle organic products destined for the U.S. must have organic certification, including companies that facilitate the movement of the product.

Some intermediaries that previously didn’t need NOP certification now need to be certified, such as traders, commodity brokers and importers.

To add an extra layer of complication, a NOPIC can only be issued to the ‘importer of record’ if they are certified to the USDA NOP organic standard. This includes Canadian companies that act as the ‘importer of record’ on behalf of non-certified companies or who are certified organic through the Canada Organic Regime (COR).

“It’s the first time that certain Canadian businesses exporting to the US cannot rely on their COR certificate for export to the US,” said Tia Loftsgard, executive director of the Canada Organic Trade Association (COTA). “Importers of record based in Canada must be NOP-certified as a result of this new USDA rule.”

Canada has had an equivalency arrangement with the U.S. since 2009, in which both countries have agreed to recognize each other’s organic standards and enforcement to facilitate trade. However, this new legislation overlays new requirements on that arrangement, Loftsgard explained.

There are several certifiers in Canada that are NOP-accredited, Loftsgard said. However, certifiers that aren’t are suddenly at a disadvantage as they’ll need to spend the time and money to get their certification body accredited to the NOP.

Despite the outreach that the USDA did to inform industry of the change, inevitably there has been some confusion as to how the rules will roll out, Loftsgard added. For instance, U.S. officials only clarified in May that importers of record based in Canada would require NOP certification. Clarifications on requirements for e-commerce were also only recently issued in writing.

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