Nils-Gerrit Wunsch
Research expert covering foods trends in North America, Europe, and the global food system
Bread and bakery products in Canada - statistics & facts
Bread is one of the oldest man-made foods and remains to this day a staple in diets around the world. Canada is no exception to this, with retail sales of bread remaining high and growing year on year. To keep up with this growing demand, there are over 1,321 bakery product manufacturing establishments and more than 1,406 retail bakeries in Canada, most of which are located in Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia.
The Canadian bread and bakery market
The revenue generated in the bread and cereal product segment in Canada amounts to approximately 14.6 billion U.S. dollars. Worldwide, Canada’s market is ranked in 21st place. The world market is led by China with 231.9 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of revenue. About 4.24 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of bread is sold in retail in Canada. George Weston Ltd and Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV are the two companies with the highest retail sales in the bread market in Canada. Both companies generated sales of more than 780 million U.S. dollars.The consumption of bread products in Canada
Canadians consume about 1.4 billion kilograms of bread annually. This figure is forecast to grow to 1.7 billion kilograms by 2028. Dividing the share of consumers who regularly purchase bread and bakery products in Canada by age shows that the older the participants, the higher the tendency to such products. About 77 percent of consumers aged between 60 and 64 regularly buy bread and bakery products, which is the highest share among all age cohorts. Among those who are between 20 and 29, only 42 percent regularly buy such products. The share of consumers who follow a gluten-free diet in Canada is about eight percent on average, across all age groups. A gluten-free diet excludes many regular bread products, as they usually consist of wheat, barley, and rye, all of which contain gluten.
