Taking stock of fruit and vegetable flows to Canada
We live in a highly interconnected world where food travels vast distances to its consumption point through global supply chains. In Canada, roughly 60% of vegetables and 80% of fruits consumed have been imported from elsewhere. As we see a heightened focus on food sustainability and climate resilience, understanding the journey of our food is critical.
This tool sheds light on the sources of fruits and vegetables consumed by Canadians in different provinces. This application offers a unique platform to visualize Canadian produce flows broken down by provinces, fostering transparency and informed decision-making. It can be utilized to estimate consumption-based environmental footprints or sustainability indicators such as greenhouse gas emissions, groundwater depletion, biodiversity loss, food miles, and water pollution and understand climate risks embedded in Canada's fruit and vegetable supply chains.
This dataset on provincial-level food flows for Canada covers 18 fruits and 16 vegetables from 2010 to 2022. The flows distinguish imports from each specific US state to Canadian provinces, the key supplying country of produce; international flows from other nations; and interprovincial flows within Canada, as some fruits and vegetables are produced within-country.
Unlike traditional approaches that use aggregated food groups (such as fruits or vegetables broadly), this dataset offers granular insights by disaggregating flows based on specific food commodities (such as apples, potatoes, or pineapples). This level of detail enables a comprehensive assessment of how different fruits and vegetables move across regions, and over time, providing insights into the intricacies of Canada's food supply chain.
To develop this novel dataset, multiple datasets on international food trade, provincial-scale production, population and demand were utilized. These data sources were harmonized and integrated using a ‘mass-balance approach’.
Additionally, sensitivity analyses were conducted using grocery store data for a few fruits and vegetables. More details can be found in the upcoming scientific publication, Bajaj et al. 2024.
Two data nerds, Dr. Kushank Bajaj and Prof. Navin Ramankutty from the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Resource, Environment and Sustainability (IRES) and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA). Both use data science to better understand challenges and solutions in agri-food systems. The web application was developed by Edgar Ondati