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Canada’s ag sector looking at potential massive labour shortage

The country could be in desperate need of more farmers in around ten years time.

That’s according to a new report by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) which claims by 2033 there will be a shortage of around 24,000 workers. This is because the average age of a Canadian farmer is around 56 years old.

Bob Reid, who farms in the Smeaton area, told paNOW finding younger people who want to be farmers becomes harder each and every year.

As to why, he believes many of today’s youth don’t have the work ethic.

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Six hundred Canadian farms grow grain for Warburton's under custom contract — and that partnership exists because of Canadian plant breeding. Now the man responsible for maintaining it is sounding the alarm.

Adam Dyck is the program manager for Warburton's Canada, a company that produces over two million loaves of bread a day for more than 20,000 retail locations across the UK. He's watched Canadian wheat deliver thirty years of yield gains and quality advancements that make it worth sourcing at scale — and shipping across the Atlantic. But he's also watching the investment conditions that produced those gains come under pressure. Dyck makes the case for a new funding mechanism that brings both public and private dollars into wheat breeding before Canada's competitive window starts to close.