Food processor survey highlights labour challenges

A 2021 report from Food Processing Skills Canada (FPSC) pinpoints labour availability as the “the most critical business challenge” for the food processing sector and it has issued a call to action.

Its recent survey report, entitled “Crossroads to Greatness: key insights and labour market research about Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing industry,” identified the challenges of labour shortages and the costs associated with them.

Why it matters: Inability to maintain a full workforce prevents food processing companies from expansion or upgrading facilities and processes.

Crossroads to Greatness was published April 29. The not-for-profit, industry-led FPSC said it “quantifies the financial impact of unfilled jobs in the industry, a chronic situation that began prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic and continues today.”

FPSC executive director Jennefer Griffith told Farmtario the report was informed by a survey of more than 700 food and beverage manufacturing businesses across the country, as well as by FPSC’s ongoing collaborations with national advisory councils that represent various types of food processing activities.

“The majority of the data collected for the report is from before the arrival of COVID-19,” said Griffith, which shows the critical lack of skilled workers has been a problem for years.

However, border restrictions related to the pandemic had significant effects, particularly for travel by temporary foreign workers. It also slowed conventional immigration into Canada.

“Immigrants make up 31 per cent of the food and beverage manufacturing workforce,” Griffith said. “During the pandemic, retirements continued while immigration was stalled, further tightening the labour market.”

The report’s executive summary said “what is really standing in our way is an astonishing lack of people. There aren’t enough people working in the sector today to even maintain the status quo. To ensure that Canada is at the forefront of this rapidly growing sector at home and abroad, the industry must recruit tens of thousands of new workers between now and 2025, as well as equip them with an increasingly diverse range of skills and knowledge.”

Griffith said she is confident that the sector is up to the challenge. It has a positive story to tell about the resilience of food and beverage manufacturing in Canada.

“We know from our research at the end of 2020 that the employment level in food and beverage manufacturing was 98 per cent of its 2019 level while manufacturing outside of food and beverage processing was only 91 per cent of its 2019 level and the whole Canadian economy was at 92 per cent.”

Several recommendations in the report are already being implemented on smaller scales across the country. All that’s needed in some cases is a coordinated national approach.

“We believe all the recommendations have a place in solving the industry’s labour challenge but we are particularly excited about the potential for a national awareness and reputation program for the industry,” Griffith said.

Key recommendations in the report:

• Establish a national awareness and reputation program . . . (including) meaningful stories that promote careers and job opportunities, in addition to communicating education to career pathways.
• Promote “workplace integrated learning,” especially in the skilled trades, through local educational institutions to provide job experiences and a bridge to future employment.
• Offer onboarding and training in relevant languages for the workforce.
• Collaborate with governments, unions and training institutions to develop more post-secondary education programs aimed at producing food and beverage processing production workers.
• Invest in research and development and commercialization of new technologies, especially in uniquely Canadian products.
• Develop more capacity within pre-arrival training programs like FPSC’s Food Safety Employment Readiness Program, which provides training to support an individual in starting a new career.
• Map seasonal workforces in Canada to help seasonal food and beverage processors better target recruitment for workers and help governments better understand labour availability and mobility.

Griffith said much of this work boils down to making people aware of the opportunities available in the sector.

“The research has shown that only 31 per cent of people have a positive impression of the jobs offered. We need to change that.”