FCC Report says forecast improving for food and beverage processing

Sep 23, 2022

The outlook for food and beverage processors remains positive amid economic conditions that have shifted from the start of the year, according to the Food and Beverage Report mid-year update from Farm Credit Canada (FCC).

Year-over-year sales growth is expected to slow in the second half of the year to six per cent from 12 per cent in the first half, finishing the year at nine per cent.

“We expect slower growth in the second half of the year as inflation eases, global economic growth moderates and Canadian consumers pay attention to the price of food and their own limited savings compared to a year ago,” said J.P. Gervais, FCC’s Chief Economist. “Food and beverage manufacturers are reckoning with high costs and shifting consumer food patterns, but profitability is projected to improve in the months ahead.”

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Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.