A 2020 Year-in-Review report from MLT Aikins LLP says there was significant growth and opportunity in Canadian agriculture in 2020.
Lawyer Eric Dalke, who wrote one of the articles, says the review covered several agriculture sector topics.
He says it was a great report to put together and really a nice overview of what happened in 2020 in Canadian agriculture.
“We talk about data collection; we talk about agricultural technology; we talk about venture capital in Canadian agriculture, trade, and a number of other interesting issues,” Dalke said.
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He says a lot of the growth and opportunity was in western Canada in 2020.
“With Western Canadians contributing 60 per cent of the gross farm receipts across western Canada. Western Canada is really the heart of Canadian agriculture.”
Dalke says the report shows there’s growth and opportunity and respect of new private equity and venture capital deal flow in the agricultural space, which includes in the agtech space.
He says the report talked about many significant initiatives from Farm Credit Canada, which included a new hundred million dollar fund to support venture capital investments in the agriculture industry.
The report also covers TELUS Communications moving into the ag space with the launch of TELUS Agriculture and them acquiring Alberta-based entities Feedlot Health Management and Decisive Farming and what that means for the industry.
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Dalke says COVID really put the spotlight on agriculture and food production.
“People’s attention to Canadian agriculture has really been turned on.”
He says people are really noticing the importance of food production at both the producer level and agricultural company level.
“Through COVID, we’ve been forced to be a lot more local, of course, in our buying habits, in what we eat and what we consume.”
He says it has really hammered home the fact that food and food production are really key to our way of life and our survival.
To read all of the articles in the report, click here.
