Food and beverage processing is the largest manufacturing sector in Canada and a key stakeholder group for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). It contributes 1.6% to Canada’s GDP and employs about 318,400 Canadians.

This is the fifth wave of AAFC’s Strategic Issues Survey of Food and Beverage Processors; previous waves were conducted in 2017-18, 2018-19, 2021-22, and 2023-24. This fifth edition of the survey expands on data from previous rounds while gathering feedback on new and emerging issues. The results will help inform the development of policies, programs, and initiatives, enhance communication efforts, and improve service to clients. The data collected offers AAFC valuable insight into the perspectives, concerns, and challenges faced by Canada’s food processing sector. It also presented an opportunity to gather input on food processors’ business outlooks, exporting behaviours, views on international and inter-provincial trade, plastic packaging, and labelling.

The research objectives were met through the design and administration of a telephone survey among Canadian adults who are food or beverage processors or manufacturers and have responsibility for business strategy and/or operations.

The survey is comprised of 427 Canadians, 18 years of age and older, who are food or beverage processors or manufacturers and have responsibility for business strategy and/or operations. This includes CEO, Owner/Operator, President, Vice President, Director, and Operations Manager. Conducted from December 3rd  2025 to March 13th, 2026, the survey took respondents an average of 14 minutes to complete.

The sampling frame for this survey was a list of businesses with relevant NAICS codes, purchased from a commercial supplier (Dun & Bradstreet) which maintains regularly updated lists of Canadian businesses. This is the same sample source used for previous waves. Data was weighted by region and company size to match the composition in the complete Dun & Bradstreet list used for sampling.

Because this is an attempted census of a known population (about 12,297 eligible businesses), a margin of error can be calculated. The margin of error for a sample of 427 on this population is plus or minus 4.8 percentage points (at the 95% confidence level).

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