MEXICAN CHILI STEW

Canada is a major producer, exporter and importer of an immense variety of agricultural and food products ranging from processed foods with global value chains to local, farm-based value chains. In this section, we share 3 of our research insights and assess to what extent our recipe can be made from Canadian agricultural and food products.

China produces the most potatoes in the world while Canada doesn’t even rank on the top ten producers for potatoes. Although Canada can produce potatoes, a majority of potatoes in Canada are imported from other areas of the world. Our potatoes were imported from the United States, which makes sense given the fact that potatoes are very dense and heavy thus making them expensive to transport from far countries.

Just like potatoes, China ranks number one for tomato production, while Canada produces less than 1% of the world’s tomatoes every year thereby making it difficult to find Canadian grown tomatoes. The tomatoes we purchased were imported from Mexico which borders the United States making it a cost effective import.

Once again, China is the number one producer of onions in the world. With Canada producing a very minute amount of the world’s onions. The onion that we bought from the grocery store was also from the United States.

We have noticed a trend in regards to the production of the ingredients in our recipe. Although a majority of our ingredients are produced in China, our ingredients bought from the local grocery store, were imported from somewhere in North America (US, Mexico). This is can be due to the fact that our climate doesn’t allow us to grow certain produce, as well as that it is profitable and convenience to shipping within the continent.