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Market Development for Exporters

Sustainability

Grain Farmers of Ontario recognizes that our farmer-members need to produce their crops using sustainable methods in order to be economically viable, while ensuring our commitments to both the environment and society.

In order to help meet market demands related to sustainability, Grain Farmers of Ontario has developed a number of resources that are available to use that help tell the Ontario grain sustainability story. Please refer to the links below for access to sustainability brochures as well as global programs that are available to use to meet sustainability demands of end users. 

Commitment to Sustainability – English

Commitment to Sustainability – Japanese

SAI Platform

The SAI Platform is the main food and drink industry initiative supporting the development of sustainable agriculture worldwide. In 2002, Nestle, Unilever and Danone came together to create the SAI Platform. Today, there are over 100 members including companies such as Cargill, Coca-Cola, Ingredion, McDonalds and Kellogg’s.

Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA)

The FSA is a questionnaire that allows farmers to assess and improve sustainable agriculture practices. Made up of 112 questions, farmers will answer the questionnaire based on their farm business and the practices they employ on the farm. Depending on the responses, farmers will be given a score of ‘not yet bronze’, ‘bronze’, ‘silver’ or ‘gold’. Depending on the market, some end users are looking for farmers to be within a certain range.

Farmers can use the FSA to assess and improve sustainable agriculture practices and communicate to customers in a consistent format.

How can exporters use the FSA to meet customer demands?

The FSA is a farmer self-assessment tool which allows farmers to assess their operation as it relates to the 3 pillars of sustainability; economic, social and environmental. If you are an exporter or company that is being asked about sustainability, the FSA will allow you to help meet these market demands.

Step 1Step 2Step 3Step 4

First you must create a farm management group (FMG). This can simply be a group of farmers growing a certain variety, a commodity or based on participation in a specialized IP program. A FMG can have as few as 1 farmer in it, to over 20,000. Farmers participating in the FMG will be selected to go through the FSA.

Once a FMG group has been selected, the next step will be to have farmers go through the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FMG). Not all farmers in the FMG will be required to go through the FSA. A random sample from the total farmers in the group will be selected. The sampling is based on statistical sampling methods with a fixed accuracy of 12.5% to ensure a stable outcome of sampling results. Depending on the number of farmers in the FMG, a certain number of farmers will be selected to go through the FSA. Please see the chart below:

For example, if you have 15 farmers in the FMG only a total of 10 will be required to go through the FSA.

# Farms in Group 0-10 11-20 21-30 31-50 51-100 101-200 201-300 301-400 401-500 500-1K
Self-Assessment Sample Size 6 10 13 17 23 29 33 34 35 37
# Farms in Group 1K-2K 2K-3K 3K-4K 4K-5K 5K-7.5K 7.5K-10K 10K-20K 20K-30K 30K+
Self-Assessment Sample Size 39 39 39 40 40 40 40 40 41

For certain markets, 3rd party verification may be required. This means that a 3rd party will check the reliability of the data supplied by a farmer and the quality of engagement with the farmers by the management group. In Canada, the Canadian Seed Institute (CSI) has been used as the verification body. Similarly, to step 2, not all farmers who went through the self-assessment will need to be verified. The verification body will randomly select several farms to be verified. These will be selected from those farmers who went through the FSA self-assessment. Below is a chart highlighting the number of farmers to be verified based on the sample size.

For example, if you have 10 farmers in the FMG that have gone through the FSA self-assessment, only a total of 4 will be required to be verified.

# Farms Self-Assessed 0-10 11-20 21-30 31-50
Audit Sample Size 4 5 7 9

After completion of the FSA self-assessment you are now able to make claims for the total volume that the group of farmers produce. This means that they claim x% of the total volume within the group is gold, silver, bronze and/or not yet bronze. An administrative system needs to be set up to monitor volumes from the farm management group. The scores of the farmers within a FMG should be extrapolated to the volume sourced from all farms in the group according to the mass balance. That result is the total claim of the farm management group. For example, if 40% of the farms in a management group are silver level FSA, then 40% of the volume from that management group is also bronze level FSA.

Field to Market Canada

Field to Market Canada is a collaborative alliance of grower organizations, agribusinesses, food companies and conservation organizations. It engages in broad communication with stakeholders to ensure a coordinated, outcomes-based approach to sustainable agriculture that is grounded in science.

Field to Market Canada provides a common framework for sustainability measurement that farmers and the supply chain can use to better understand and assess performance at the field, local, provincial and national levels. This supply chain sustainability program provides an unparalleled platform that helps the food and agricultural supply chain benchmark sustainability performance, catalyze continuous improvement and enable brands and retailers to characterize the sustainability of key sourcing regions, as well as measure and report on progress toward environmental goals.

Field to Market Canada’s framework for sustainability measurement is consistent with that of Field to Market in the United States. As a result, Field to Market Canada allows for streamlined sustainability assessments to occur throughout North America.

Field to Market Canada will leverage existing tools and metrics of the Canadian Field Print Initiative to ensure the program is tailored to locally relevant conditions and built upon prior technical investments from the Canadian agriculture sector. 

Field to Market Canada will offer the same core mission and commitment to multi-stakeholder convening and collaboration. Various programs and protocols developed for the U.S. context will be made available through Field to Market Canada over the coming year.

For more information please visit: Fieldtomarket.ca

Joint release for Ontario grain stakeholders

No trade concerns with new soy and corn protection products available in 2023.

View news release

Looking for information on companies with Ontario grain for sale?

Contact one of the following.

Dealer NameAddressPhoneCommodities
Broadgrain Commodities3963 Perth Road 183, RR #4 Seaforth, Ontario N0K 1W0(519) 345-0500 ext. 206Corn
Cargill Limited765 Exeter Road; Unit B14 London, Ontario N6L 1G4(519) 691-8100Corn
Hensall District Co-OperativeP.O. Box 219 Hensall, Ontario NOM 1XO(519) 262-3002Corn
IngredionSuite 460-401 The West Mall Etobicoke, Ontario M9C 5P7(416) 620-2300Corn
Richardson International Limited155 Eastport Blvd Hamilton, Ontario L8H 7S3(905) 545-3270Corn
London Agricultural Commodities1615 North Routledge Park, Unit 43 London, Ontario(519) 473-9333Corn, Soybeans
Louis Dreyfus Canada LimitedSuite 1400; 333 11th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta T2R 1L9(403) 205-3322Corn
Parrish & Heimbecker Limited36 King Street East, Suite 700 Toronto, Ontario M5C 2L9(416) 360-7178Corn, Soybeans
Thompsons LimitedBox 250-2 Hyland Drive Blenheim, Ontario NOP 1AO(519) 676-5411Corn, Soybeans
Timmermans Elevators, Ltd.RR #5 Stratford, Ontario N5A 6S6(519) 393-6010Corn
Beechwood Agri Services123 King Street Parkhill, Ontario N0M 2K0(519) 294-0474Soybeans
Broadgrain Commodities133 Richmond street West, Suite 408 Toronto, Ontario M5H 2L3(416) 504-0070Soybeans
Bunge Canada4605-b Lapiniere, Office 160 Brossard, Quebec J4Z 3T5(450) 462-6167Soybeans
Dennis Jackson Seed Service, Ltd1315 Jackson Street Dresden, Ontario N0P 1M0(519) 683-4413Soybeans
DG Global970 Lawrence Ave W. Suite 900 Toronto, ON, CANADA M6A 3B6(416) 782-1942Soybeans
Elite Grain L.P.900 L'Acadie boul., Suite 200 Montreal, Quebec H4N 3H7(514) 858-2037Soybeans
Field Farms Marketing, Ltd.4922 Lasalle Line Petrolia, Ontario N0N 1R0(519) 882-2976Soybeans
Globeways Canada, Inc.120 Traders Blvd. Suite 118 Mississauga, Ontario L4Z 2H7(905) 252-4933Soybeans
Huron Commodities, Inc.P.O. Box 135 Clinton, Ontario N0M 1L0(519) 482-8400Soybeans
IP Agri Trading, Inc.2513 Beacon Ave., P.O. Box 2748 Sidney, BC V8L 5Y9(250) 655-6688Soybeans
Semences Prograin, Inc.145 Bas-de-la-Riviere Nord St-Cesaire, Quebec J0L 1T0(450) 469-5744Soybeans
Sevita International11451 Cameron Road Inkerman, Ontario K0E 1JO(613) 989-3000Soybeans
SG Ceresco, Inc.164, chemin de la Grande-Ligne St-Urbain-Premier, Quebec J0S 1Y0(450) 427-3831Soybeans
Snobelen Farms, Ltd.P. O. Box 29 Lucknow, Ontario N0G 2H0(519) 528-2092Soybeans
South West Ag Partners, Inc.40 Centre Square, Suite 200 Chatham, Ontario N7M 5W3(519) 380-0002Soybeans
St-Lawrence Beans, Div. of Agrocentre Belcan, Inc.180 Ste. Marie Ste Marthe, Quebec J0P 1W0(450) 459-4288Soybeans
ADM Milling Co.7585 Danbro Crescent Mississauga, Ontario L5N 6P9(905) 819-7000Wheat
Ardent Mills, Ulc.235 Nugget Court Brampton, Ontario L6T 5H4(905) 494-2600Wheat
Brant Flour Mills, Ltd.R.R. #4 Scotland, Ontario N0E 1R0(519) 484-2921Wheat
Grain Process Enterprises, Ltd.105 Commander Blvd. Scarborough, Ontario M1S 3M7(416) 291-3226Wheat
Howson & Howson,  Ltd.232 Westmorland Street, P.O. Box 390 Blyth, Ontario N0M 1H0(519) 523-4241Wheat
P & H Milling Group1060 Fountain Street North Cambridge, Ontario N3E 0A1(519) 650-6400Wheat
Port Royal Mills240 Industrial Parkway South Aurora, Ontario L4G 3V6(905) 713-1712Wheat