Agribusiness

Positioned to grow

A centrally located, diverse agricultural hub

Our province is located at the geographic centre of North America, providing a positional advantage and close proximity to the continent's largest trimodal port. This enables easy access to markets across North America and beyond. Our agribusiness sector contributes $4.4 billion to Manitoba's GDP, the third highest in Canada, while the contributions by crop and animal production are the second highest in the country.

Many of Canada's leading agribusinesses and associations are located here and enjoy a highly collaborative environment. Manitoba has a balance of crop and livestock production, innovative farmers and the second-largest proportion of large farms in Canada. These operations are supported by the highly developed agri-food processors and research ecosystem that created canola (first bred at the University of Manitoba). Established infrastructure benefits for agriculture include access to 99 per cent renewable energy at some of the lowest published electricity rates in North America.

Manitoba agribusiness at a glance

• Manitoba leads North America in plant protein ingredients, including the world's largest pea protein processing plant and canola protein processing capabilities.
• Manitoba is home to world-class agri-food research and development centres, specializing in areas such as swine, cereal grains, plant protein extraction, malting barley, agri-food linkages in health and medicine, swine genetics and food product commercialization.
• Manitoba's leading food processing segments include hogs, potatoes, canola oil and protein ingredients.
• There are 189 food and beverage manufacturing companies located in Winnipeg alone.
• Manitoba has the highest proportion of young farm operators in Canada.
• Manitoba has 17.1 million acres of farm area, the third largest in Canada.
• Manitoba supplies one-fifth or more of Canada's hogs, soybeans, oats, and potatoes.