Behind the Scenes of the Ottawa Grocery Meetings, Ag Trade with India, and The Fantastic World of the Portuguese Sardine

For our season debut episode, we decided to catch up on the top issues brewing over the summer, with kids back in school and plenty of topics to discuss. Prime Minister's meetings with the big five in Ottawa certainly caught our attention. Sylvain was there and shed some light on how the meeting came about and the objectives and deliverables coming out of those meetings.Food inflation has been a hot topic, easing at 6.8%. How is Sylvain thinking about food inflation for the rest of the year and prospects for 2024?The Bank of Canada claims that 0.15% of inflation is due to the carbon tax.Let's zoom out and discuss the state of the food and packaged goods industry in Canada. We've seen a frozen pizza brand exit earlier this year; another brand is also pulling out. What's driving these departures?On a different note, how important is India to the Ag sector in Canada?Turning our attention to international matters, there's an update on the war in Ukraine, with Zelensky visiting New York and Ottawa.We're also saddened to hear about Oylmel shutting down more processing plants, leaving 400 people looking for work. We talk about the industry's future, especially with 40,000 open positions in manufacturing in Canada. It's time to invest in technology rather than relying solely on foreign temp workers.Moving on to the restaurant industry, Restaurants Canada is raising alarms about government funding extensions falling short, especially with the stats showing that people are eating out less. It's a double-edged sword.And finally, we'll wrap up by discussing the fantastic world of Portuguese sardines. There's exciting news about a second store location opening in Times Square.Stay tuned for more insightful discussions and updates on the Food Professor Podcast. Thanks for joining us today!Coffee Association of Canada conferenceAbout UsDr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. Google Scholar ranks him as one of the world's most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability.He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Lancet, The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.Dr. Charlebois sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre’s Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa. About MichaelMichael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketin