When population falls, the food industry feeds fewer mouths – and customers
Sylvain Charlebois is a professor of food distribution and policy and the director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, and co-host ofCanada’s population grew by more than one million for the first time in its history in 2022. Demographic growth will help grocers and the rest of the food supply chain, with food expenditures increasing by at least $3.5-billion annually, or an average of $3,500 for each new mouth. Good news for the industry. But the party won’t last.
This is not an insurmountable challenge, to be sure. But the food industry needs to adapt to it if it is to thrive in this new societal landscape. What’s more, the demographic gap between the young and the not-so-young is growing. The number of people between the ages of 25 and 64, those who significantly contribute to our economy, will continue to shrink.Therefore, the size of our population won’t be the only challenge for our food industry. The age of the population should also be the focus. The food industry needs to embrace the massive social change that is about to hit the world – for therein is also an opportunity.
The food industry will need to come to terms with a declining market and fewer physically-abled workers. With fewer stomachs to fill, not having enough farmland should be less of a concern. Since 40 per cent of the Canadian population lives in the major cities of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary, we need to figure out a way to repurpose our rural areas.
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