Canadian Agrifood Export Performance and the Growth Potential of the BRICs and Next-11

In 2011, the Canadian Agrifood Policy Institute released an report highlighting the importance of the agrifood sector to the economy and concluded by stating the need for Canada to double the dollar value of agrifood exports to ensure the viability of the system. This paper seeks to estimate Engel elasticities faced by Canada and four other major agrifood exporter groups for two groups of emerging economies known as the Next-11 and the BRICs, and to forecast the value of agrifood exports to 2017. The findings suggest that despite the relatively low Engel elasticities for agrifood imports faced by Canada, it could sell an additional $3.65 billion in agrifood products to the Next-11 and BRICs by 2017.