Investment, research and development

Capital investment
Research and development expenditures

Capital investment

With the exception of the 9.4% annual increase in capital investment in the sugar and confectionary industry and 8.8% in fruit and vegetable processing, capital investments in food processing were on average below the average annual 4.6% increase in all manufacturing.

Slow but steady increases in demand and some rationalization of manufacturing capacity have contributed to the stability of the capacity utilization rate in the food industry, which has stayed between 80% and 82%. With the exception of the recession in the early 90’s which reduced capacity utilization rates, the food industry has provided much more stability than experienced in the manufacturing industry in general which has seen rates as low as 76% in 1993 and as high as 86% in both 1999 and 2000.

Table 13. Capital investment in the food processing sector, by food processing industry group, showing average annual change, Canada, 1994 to 2003

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Research and development expenditures

Research and development expenditures (R&D) by the food industry were approximately $65 million in 2002, and provided direct employment for more than 770 highly skilled professionals and technicians. This represented just over 1% of those employed in R&D in the manufacturing sector as a whole.

R&D workers in the food processing industry total 0.4% of all of the industry’s production workers in comparison to 3.4% for manufacturing in total.

Expenditures on R&D, which represent an investment in the development of new products or processes but which companies routinely treat as a current expense, were equivalent to almost 4% of the food industry’s capital investment in 2002. This number is very low compared to manufacturing.

R&D expenditures by the food industry of $61 million in 2000 were equivalent to 0.3% of industry revenues, up from 0.2% in 1998. These industry expenditures and investments in R&D however, do not represent the total amount of expenditures on food research as they do not include the substantive public sector funding and R&D investments by non-profit research institutes.

	Table 14. Table 14. Intramural research and development expenditures in the food industry, in manufacturing, and in all industries, Canada, 1998 to 2002
	Table 15. Rate of growth of intramural research and development expenditures in the food industry, in manufacturing, and in all industries, Canada, 1998 to 2002
	Table 16. Intramural research and development expenditures as a percentage of revenue in the food industry, in manufacturing, and in all industries, Canada, 1998 to 2002
	Table 17. Workers in research and development as a percentage of production workers in the food industry and in manufacturing, Canada, 1998 to 2002
	Table 18. Persons engaged in research and development, Canada, 1998 to 2002