Canada’s small food makers tell Competition Bureau: the problem isn’t competition, it’s being locked out of it
The Small Scale Food Processor Association (SSFPA) has published its submission to the Competition Bureau of Canada’s examination of the food supply chain, consolidating over 521 individual pieces of feedback from small and medium food and beverage producers across the country.
The finding is consistent across every region and nearly every category of business: a small food company in Canada can start, but it cannot grow.
Members described three walls between a working business and a national one. There is nowhere to make more product, as the mid-sized processing capacity a growing business needs has been eroding for decades. There is no money to build it, because conventional lenders largely do not serve businesses below roughly $5 million in revenue. And the shelf is controlled by a handful of grocery chains, with listing fees, free fills and promotional charges set without reference to the size of the supplier.
A fourth condition raises all three: food safety certification, labelling, licensing and municipal permitting apply in much the same way whether a business ships a thousand units a year or ten million.
One food and beverage consultant reported that costs can add 60 to 75 per cent between the manufacturer’s warehouse and the shelf price — a cost the shopper pays and never sees itemized. A grower put it more plainly: “A romaine lettuce that leaves my farm at $1.66 should not be selling for $5.99 at a retail store after passing thru 1 wholesaler then direct to the retail store.”
The submission documents what happens to businesses that hit the ceiling. “They fail, or they get bought by Americans,” SSFPA’s Executive Director told members during the consultation, describing businesses unable to find the capacity to scale.
“Our members are not asking to be protected from competition. Not one of them asked us for that, and not one asked for food safety standards to be relaxed” says Aaron Davis, Executive Director of the Small Scale Food Processor Association. “What they described is a market where the decisive costs have nothing to do with making good food. They are the costs of being allowed to sell it, and they are set by parties our members cannot negotiate with. Every business that closes takes a supplier, a price and a choice away from Canadian shoppers.”
The submission sets out ten measures members asked for, including disclosure of the fees retailers collect from suppliers, mandatory unit pricing at the shelf, scale-appropriate application of regulation, and a route for a provincially inspected producer to sell across a provincial border without rebuilding in a new facility.
SSFPA gathered the feedback between June and July 2026 through written surveys, recorded town halls and written submissions from 46 contributors, with broader engagement reaching every province and territory.
Media contact Aaron Davis, Executive Director · aaron@ssfpa.net · ssfpa.net
