Quebec announces its bio -food policy for the next ten years

Quebec announced its “2025-2035 bio-food policy”, which will be allocated an amount of $ 1.05 billion for the first five years.

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, André Lamontagne, was passing through the Mouton Village farm in Montérégie, Friday beforenoon, to present his policy called Nourish our ambitions.

The plan will be our compass for the next 10 years in order to strengthen Quebec’s food autonomy while ensuring the prosperity and sustainability of our sectorannounced the minister Lamontagne before several dozen industry guests, gathered under a marquee.

The minister presented the main lines of his policy, but the implementation plan, detailed and quantified, will come later.

Quebec has more than 28,200 farms, 3,200 food processing establishments and this sector represents 7 % of the economy.

More than 530,000 people, or 12 % of the Quebec labor market, work in this industry which faces many challenges that Lamontagne Minister did not fail to emphasize during the press conference. Climate change, geopolitical tensions, aging population and the rarity of workforce are only a few examples of problems that oblige farmers adapt their practices.

The main ambitions of the new policy are to increase our food autonomy, develop a prosperous and sustainable sector, accelerate innovation in the bio -food sectorunderlined André Lamontagne.

To get there, the MAPAQ will have $ 1.05 billion for the first five years, from 2025-2026 to 2029-2030.

A policy that has not the means of his ambitions

The Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) indicated that it adheres to the orientations of the bioalimentary policy 2025-2035, but questions about the significant gap Between the needs of the sector and the financing announced.

Several of the recommendations of the agricultural environment have been selected in the bioalimentary policy 2025-2035, including a preponderant concern for the competitiveness of companies, their potential as well as their continuous adaptation to new economic and climatic realities. The winning conditions are however not met in terms of financing given the scale of the challenges and the challengessaid the general president of theUPAMartin Caron, in a press release.

The collapse of net income in recent years, paired with an unprecedented agricultural debt ($ 32 billion in 2024), terribly harms the sustainability of the sector as well as transfers to the next generationunderlined the president of theUPA.

At a press conference, the Lamontagne Minister responded as follows to the concerns of theUPA : For the next five years, it is nearly $ 1.1 billion, in a context where, each year, the Minister of Finance is called upon to support the various ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture, to come and see and help meet the challenges it faces.

The Lamontagne Minister wants this 10 -year plan to be able to Generate $ 25 billion in investments from agricultural, aquaculture, peaches and food processing as well as Diversify the markets and reach $ 15 billion in bio -food exports.

A step insufficient

According to the Vital Collective, an initiative of the Quebec Public Health Association, the new bio -food policy is a not towards sustainable agriculture to ensure the sustainability of the food systembut it leaves little room for the fight against food insecurity.

Food inflation continues to climb and the economic context remains fragile. All Quebecers must be able to access local foods that contribute to feed them well, and current bio -food policy is insufficient to meet this challenge. On the positive side, Quebec will continue its efforts to improve the nutritional quality of food, this is a good blow to emphasizesaid Charlene Blanchette, nutritionist and files on food policies in the Vital Collective.

The plan announced on Friday actually includes a component which aims at Support companies in improving the nutritional quality of processed foods and at Promote the establishment of health and traceability systems throughout the supply chain.