Canada’s first national value chain conference, hosted by the Agricultural Adaptation Council (AAC), had more than 250 attendees representing various sectors of Canada’s agriculture and agri-food industry.

The conference, held at the Toronto Airport Marriott, June 18 and 19, had several internationally renowned speakers who enlightened the audience on the theoretical components of value chain implementation and provided real-life success stories of value chains in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Minister, Lyle Vanclief, and Ontario Agriculture and Food Minister, Helen Johns, both attended the event, addressing the crowd they expressed their continued support of value chain initiatives.

Value chains are an effective business response to emerging market drivers including quality assurance, improved communications with the consumer, developing new ‘niche’ markets, and environmental impacts. The formation of value chains is driven by the need to respond to changes in consumer behaviour.

David Sparling, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Guelph commented that value is defined by the customer. “You must think about your client. Can you do something different? Does that difference really matter? What you can do to add value depends on where you are in the value chain.”

A value chain is a consumer demand driven network of strategic alliances –producers, processor(s),distributor(s), retailer(s) – that’s primary purpose is to meet the needs of the marketplace through collaboration, communication, and co-ordination. They are formed to remain competitive and sustainable by either reducing operating costs or improving services or products.

Four key success factors for value chains include: awareness of markets, development of technology and innovation; ability to work with other companies to create win-win situations; sharing attitude for communications; and the capacity to change faster than competitors.

“With all of these changes can value chains stay the same? Clearly no. We have a choice – to anticipate, prepare for and benefit from the changes or hope that we can react quickly enough so that the change doesn’t destroy our business,” said Sparling.

The biggest obstacle to overcome in value chain development is the establishment of trust among all partners. Organizations must look within and identify their strengths and leadership ability before entering into a value chain initiative.

“Successful organizations of the future will be those that effectively harness the intellectual capacity of their employees and develop the capacity to leverage their intellectual capital off that of strategically selected partners,” said Tony Dunne, Reader in Agribusiness, The University of Queensland, Australia.

The AAC is a non-profit coalition of 55 agricultural, agri-business and rural organizations working together to support Ontario’s agricultural sector and rural communities. The AAC receives it’s funding through Ontario’s share of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development fund. To assist in the development of value chains within Ontario, the AAC, through the CanAdapt program, has funding available for value chain initiatives. Please contact the AAC at (519) 822-7554 or visit www.adaptcouncil.org  for more information.

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For more information please contact:

Martin Gooch
Value Chains Facilitator Agricultural Adaptation Council
Phone: (519) 822-7554
e-mail: Martin's e-mail OR

Nadine Buitenhuis,
Communications/Program Coordinator Agricultural Adaptation Council
Phone: (519) 822-7554
e-mail: Nadine's e-mail