Direct Marketing Statistics

2016 Census of Agriculture

The 2016 Census of Agriculture introduced a new question on farms selling food directly to consumers for human consumption. The data available on CANSIM indicate 2,062 farms (5.1% of all farms) in Alberta reporting direct sales. Of the 2,062 farms, 96.3% sold unprocessed food products (such as fruits, vegetables, meat cuts, poultry, eggs, maple syrup, honey, etc.), and 9.6% sold value-added products (such as jellies, sausages, wine, cheese, etc.). Most of these farms (85.4%) sold their products at the farm gate, stands, kiosks or U-pick, while 20.6% sold at farmers’ markets and 5.8% through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

• Farms in direct marketing were located throughout Alberta with a mix of both urban and rural areas (Figure 1).
• Population per farm in direct marketing were relatively higher in Alberta compared to Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia (Table 1).
• One in five direct marketing farms in Alberta is a large size farm with sales of $250,000 or more, 25.7% is in medium size and 54.1% is in small size with sales less than $50,000 (Table 2).
• Direct marketing farms in Alberta have higher proportion in farm capital between $500,000 and $999,999 (Table 3).
• Alberta has direct marketing farms in almost all farm types (Table 4). While beef cattle type farms represented the highest proportion of farms in direct marketing (Table 5), higher proportion of fruit and vegetable, poultry and egg, and beekeeping farms are using direct marketing (Table 6).
• In Alberta, all farms reported direct marketing yielded higher average profitability (0.81) compared to farms did not sell directly to consumers (0.84). Direct marketing farms reported higher average profitability include those in beef cattle type (0.85 vs 0.91), other misc. animal production type (0.85 vs 0.88), dry pea and bean farming type (0.67 vs 0.73), potato farming type (0.72 vs 0.83) and other vegetable (except potato) and melon farm type (0.72 vs 0.86) (Table 7). The profitability ratios of some direct marketing farms were further improved if they were selling value-added products, selling through farmers’ markets or Community Supported Agriculture (Table 8).
• In Alberta, almost 50% of all farm operators reported direct marketing are full time in farming (work 30 hours or more) that is about the same compared to the percentage of all full time farm operators (50.5%) in the province (Table 9).
• In Alberta, farms reported direct marketing had higher percentage of female operators (37.6%) than the percentage of female operators of all farms (30.8%). Alberta had higher proportion of female farm operators than the national average (35.6%) of farms in direct marketing (Table 10).
• In Alberta, young operators (age under 35) accounted for 9.1% of all operators reported direct marketing, compared to 8.5% of all operators in the province (Table 11).
• In Alberta, farms reported direct marketing had a higher average of gross farm receipts to farm area at $442 per acre, compared to farms did not sell directly to consumers at $349 per acre (Table 12).
• In Alberta, 3.1% of farms reported direct marketing are selling organic products (Table 13). The proportion of farms selling organic products through direct marketing in Alberta (15.1%) is lower than the national average (32.6%) (Table 14).
• Out of 2,062 farms reported direct marketing in Alberta, 35% were new entrants (those did not report in the Census 2011). Beef cattle type farms represented the highest proportion of new entrants reported direct marketing, followed by apiculture and animal combination farming type (Table 15). Among the new entrants, more than two third were small farms with sales less than $50,000, 17.7% were medium size and 10.1% were large size with sales of $250,000 or more (Table 16).

Table 2

	Canada	Alberta	Ontario	British Columbia	Quebec
Number of farms	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing
By gross farm receipts	24510	2062	7474	5667	5459
Less than $10,000	8618	507	2432	3144	1381
$10,000 to $24,999	4413	380	1426	959	986
$25,000 to $49,999	2799	228	889	469	775
% of less than $50,000 (small size)	64.6%	54.1%	63.5%	80.7%	57.6%
$50,000 to $99,999	2566	262	793	395	702
$100,000 to $249,999	2785	267	863	346	807
% of $50,000 to $249,999 (medium size)	21.8%	25.7%	22.2%	13.1%	27.6%
$250,000 to $499,999	1534	152	516	155	405
$500,000 to $999,999	966	107	322	102	246
$1,000,000 to $1,999,999	415	61	129	59	94
$2,000,000 and over	414	98	104	38	63
% of 250,000 or more (large size)	13.6%	20.3%	14.3%	6.2%	14.8%

Table 3

	Canada	Alberta	Ontario	British Columbia	Quebec
Number of farms By farm capital	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing
Under $100,000	1216 (5.0%)	64 (3.1%)	317 (4.2%)	221 (3.9%)	330 (6.0%)
$100,000 to $199,999	1504 (6.1%)	42 (2.0%)	312 (4.2%)	205 (3.6%)	541 (9.9%)
$200,000 to $349,999	3134 (12.8%)	112 (5.4%)	845 (11.3%)	550 (9.7%)	955 (17.5%)
$350,000 to $499,999	2988 (12.2%)	197 (9.6%)	960 (12.8%)	593 (10.5%)	757 (13.9%)
$500,000 to $999,999	6895 (28.1%)	608 (29.5%)	2131 (28.5%)	1848 (32.6%)	1413 (25.9%)
$1,000,000 to $1,499,999	3023 (12.3%)	282 (13.7%)	986 (13.2%)	853 (15.1%)	584 (10.7%)
$1,500,000 to $1,999,999	1613 (6.6%)	150 (7.3%)	544 (7.3%)	443 (7.8%)	277 (5.1%)
$2,000,000 to $3,499,999	2126 (8.7%)	238 (11.5%)	725 (9.7%)	521 (9.2%)	357 (6.5%)
$3,500,000 and over	2011 (8.2%)	369 (17.9%)	654 (8.8%)	433 (7.6%)	245 (4.5%)

Table 4

	Canada	Alberta	Ontario	British Columbia	Quebec
Number of farms	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing
Dairy cattle and milk production	534	17	208	38	231
Beef cattle ranching and farming	3121	543	1073	501	279
Hog and pig farming	287	18	120	58	51
Chicken egg production	835	53	205	450	42
Broiler and other meat-type chicken production	196	14	67	60	37
Turkey production	44	2	17	18	4
Poultry hatcheries farms	1	0	0	1	0
Combination of poultry and egg production	127	5	50	48	13
Other poultry production farms	50	4	9	12	24
Sheep farming	744	56	231	235	127
Goat farming	264	22	75	78	58
Apiculture	1303	162	414	205	189
Horse and other equine production	990	131	215	508	48
Fur bearing animal and rabbit production	27	0	13	3	10
Animal combination farming	1939	236	732	522	163
Other misc. animal production	278	58	43	58	51
Soybean farming	212	0	143	0	54
Oilseed (except soybean) farming	115	39	4	3	1
Dry pea and bean farming	45	10	2	1	0
Wheat farming	112	18	36	5	7
Corn farming	174	0	116	0	54
Other grain farming	853	140	341	10	107
Potato farming	217	24	55	27	47
Other vegetable (except potato) and melon farming	2552	84	883	713	497
Fruit and tree nut farming	2967	76	636	1109	728
Mushroom production	91	2	44	17	18
Other food crops grown under cover	441	22	99	109	153
Nursery and tree production	431	30	111	169	77
Floriculture production	224	22	54	41	71
Tobacco farming	3	0	3	0	0
Hay farming	1456	167	555	245	244
Fruit and vegetable combination farming	590	29	164	239	78
Maple syrup and products production	2072	0	275	3	1716
All other misc. crop farming	1215	78	481	181	280

Table 5

	Alberta
	All farms	DM farms	% of DM farms to all farms
Beef cattle ranching and farming	12,282	543	4.4%
Animal combination farming	1,201	236	19.7%
Hay farming	6,094	167	2.7%
Apiculture	343	162	47.2%
Other grain farming	6,211	140	2.3%
Horse and equine production	3,177	131	4.1%
Other vegetable (except potato) and melon farming	174	84	48.3%

Table 6

		Alberta
	All farms	DM farms	% of DM farms to all farms
Fruit and vegetable combination farming	39	29	74.4%
Mushroom production	3	2	66.7%
Fruit and tree nut farming	137	76	55.5%
Other vegetable (except potato) and melon farming	174	84	48.3%
Apiculture	343	162	47.2%
Combination of poultry and egg production	11	5	45.5%
Other food crops grown under cover	54	22	40.7%
Other poultry production farms	12	4	33.3%
Chicken egg production	173	53	30.6%

Table 7

	Operating expenses to gross farm receipts ratio
	Canada		Alberta
NAICS	Farms reported direct marketing (DM farms)	Non-DM farms	Farms reported direct marketing (DM farms)	Non-DM farms
All farms	0.85	0.83	0.81	0.85
Dairy cattle and milk production	0.79	0.77	0.80	0.75
Beef cattle ranching and farming	0.88	0.90	0.85	0.91
Hog and pig farming	0.86	0.90	0.98	0.88
Chicken egg production	0.81	0.78	0.90	0.84
Broiler and other meat-type chicken production	0.89	0.84	0.90	0.81
Turkey production	0.83	0.83	X	0.79
Poultry hatcheries farms	X	0.88	0.00	0.89
Combination of poultry and egg production	0.93	0.92	1.53	0.76
Other poultry production farms	0.93	0.88	0.86	0.70
Sheep farming	0.99	0.98	1.26	1.12
Goat farming	1.03	0.89	1.03	0.96
Apiculture	0.78	0.75	0.74	0.69
Horse and other equine production	1.15	1.06	1.08	1.05
Fur bearing animal and rabbit production	0.86	0.99	0.00	X
Animal combination farming	0.85	0.83	0.80	0.80
Other misc. animal production	0.86	0.89	0.85	0.88
Soybean farming	0.83	0.81	0.00	0.67
Oilseed (except soybean) farming	0.81	0.80	0.80	0.79
Dry pea and bean farming	0.66	0.71	0.67	0.73
Wheat farming	0.84	0.76	0.76	0.77
Corn farming	0.93	0.81	0.00	1.03
Other grain farming	0.78	0.79	0.79	0.78
Potato farming	0.85	0.82	0.72	0.83
Other vegetable (except potato) and melon farming	0.84	0.83	0.72	0.86
Fruit and tree nut farming	0.87	0.83	1.16	1.01
Mushroom production	0.88	0.89	X	X
Other food crops grown under cover	0.86	0.87	0.85	0.88
Nursery and tree production	0.91	0.82	0.87	0.77
Floriculture production	0.80	0.84	0.62	0.85
Tobacco farming	0.89	0.89	0.00	0.00
Hay farming	1.02	0.88	0.99	0.85
Fruit and vegetable combination farming	0.93	0.93	1.00	1.51
Maple syrup and products production	0.81	0.72	0.00	0.00
All other misc. crop farming	0.85	0.78	0.77	0.79

Table 8

Alberta	Operating expenses to gross farm receipts ratio
NAICS – Top seven of highest in number of farms reported direct marketing (DM farms)	DM farms reported selling value-added products	DM farms reported selling through farmers’ market	DM farms reported selling through CSA	All DM farms	Non DM farms
Beef cattle ranching and farming
By gross farm receipts
All farms	0.89	0.95	0.96	0.85	0.91
less than $10,000	2.67	1.54	1.00	1.83	2.14
$10,000 – $49,999	1.56	0.98	1.21	1.34	1.07
$50,000 – $249,999	0.85	0.84	0.72	0.87	0.83
$250,000 – $999,999	0.96	1.00	0.95	0.81	0.80
$1,000,000 and over	0.80	0.00	0.98	0.84	0.94
Animal combination farming
All farms	0.76	0.79	0.82	0.80	0.80
less than $10,000	3.17	2.20	8.27	3.45	2.91
$10,000 – $49,999	0.91	1.07	1.10	1.30	1.26
$50,000 – $249,999	0.91	0.81	0.75	0.96	0.88
$250,000 – $999,999	0.98	0.87	0.80	0.87	0.80
$1,000,000 and over	0.70	0.78	0.00	0.79	0.78
Hay farming
All farms	0.95	0.77	0.82	0.99	0.85
less than $10,000	3.25	3.32	9.79	2.74	2.09
$10,000 – $49,999	2.26	1.00	0.00	1.21	1.00
$50,000 – $249,999	0.74	1.03	0.83	0.84	0.78
$250,000 – $999,999	0.80	0.43	0.75	0.69	0.75
$1,000,000 and over	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.80
Apiculture
All farms	0.66	0.73	0.58	0.74	0.69
less than $10,000	1.47	2.22	0.00	2.22	2.57
$10,000 – $49,999	0.00	1.02	0.91	1.03	1.15
$50,000 – $249,999	0.83	0.74	0.00	0.77	0.66
$250,000 – $999,999	0.97	0.63	0.44	0.69	0.65
$1,000,000 and over	0.58	0.73	0.00	0.75	0.69
Other grain farming
All farms	0.81	0.78	0.71	0.79	0.78
less than $10,000	0.00	0.00	0.00	2.96	2.22
$10,000 – $49,999	0.00	0.74	0.00	1.08	1.02
$50,000 – $249,999	0.93	0.83	0.86	0.85	0.80
$250,000 – $999,999	0.89	0.96	0.89	0.86	0.77
$1,000,000 and over	0.72	0.78	0.61	0.78	0.79
Horse and other equine production
All farms	1.33	1.10	1.31	1.08	1.05
less than $10,000	1.60	1.07	2.38	2.85	3.01
$10,000 – $49,999	1.24	0.98	0.94	1.28	1.33
$50,000 – $249,999	0.00	1.21	0.00	0.94	0.90
$250,000 – $999,999	0.00	0.00	0.00	X	0.93
$1,000,000 and over	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.90
Other vegetable (except potato) and melon farming
All farms	0.65	0.71	0.82	0.72	0.86
less than $10,000	1.15	1.45	0.75	1.67	2.10
$10,000 – $49,999	1.36	1.01	1.37	1.05	1.02
$50,000 – $249,999	0.64	0.73	0.67	0.72	0.79
$250,000 – $999,999	0.62	0.68	0.81	0.68	0.76
$1,000,000 and over	X	X	0.00	X	0.87

Table 9

	Canada		Alberta		Ontario		British Columbia		Quebec
Number of operators	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing
Work hours on farm per week
Less than 30 hours	131435	20300	28585	1695	36665	5935	16450	5785	18265	4145
30 hours or more	140505	16780	29010	1555	33805	5360	9995	3040	23725	3970
% of 30 hours or more	51.7%	45.3%	50.4%	47.8%	48.0%	47.5%	37.8%	34.4%	56.5%	48.9%

Table 10

	Canada		Alberta		Ontario		British Columbia		Quebec
Number of operators	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing
Gender
Males	193970	23890	39840	2025	49565	7330	16510	5075	31050	5630
Females	77970	13205	17755	1220	20900	3980	9920	3745	10945	2480
% of females	28.7%	35.6%	30.8%	37.6%	29.7%	35.2%	37.5%	42.5%	26.1%	30.6%

Table 11

	Canada		Alberta		Ontario		British Columbia		Quebec
Number of operators	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing
Age
Under 35 years	24845	3380	4915	295	6610	1170	1825	600	4130	740
35 years and over	247085	33705	52690	2960	63855	10125	24605	8210	37865	7375
% of under 35 years	9.1%	9.1%	8.5%	9.1%	9.1%	10.4%	6.9%	6.8%	9.8%	9.1%

Table 12

	Canada		Alberta		Ontario		British Columbia		Quebec
	Farms reported direct marketing (DM farms)	Non-DM farms	DM farms	Non-DM farms	DM farms	Non-DM farms	DM farms	Non-DM farms	DM farms	Non-DM farms
Ratio of gross farm receipts to farm area ($ per acre)	652	426	442	349	1,292	1,218	606	579	986	1,282

Table 13

	Canada		Alberta		Ontario		British Columbia		Quebec
	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing	All farms	Farms reported direct marketing
Number of farms	193492	24510	40638	2062	49600	7474	17528	5667	28919	5459
By organic product for sale	4289	1398	424	64	854	331	550	315	1268	476
Certified	3663	1156	354	56	732	272	449	254	1049	394
Transitional	769	273	97	10	173	76	110	65	242	86
% of farms selling organic products	2.2%	5.7%	1.0%	3.1%	1.7%	4.4%	3.1%	5.6%	4.4%	8.7%

Table 14

Table 15

	Alberta
	New entrants reported direct marketing	% of new entrants reported direct marketing
Beef cattle ranching and farming	150	20.7%
Apiculture	87	12.0%
Animal combination farming	77	10.6%
Horse and other equine production	66	9.1%
Hay farming	55	7.6%
Other vegetable (except potato) and melon	50	6.9%
Chicken egg production	30	4.1%
Other grain farming	28	3.9%
Sheep farming	24	3.3%
Fruit and tree nut farming	20	2.8%
Other	138	19.0%

Table 16

	Canada	Alberta
New entrants By gross farm receipts	Farms reported direct marketing	Farms reported direct marketing
All farms	9,469	725
Less than $10,000	5,035	299
$10,000 to $24,999	1,799	153
$25,000 to $49,999	874	72
% of less than $50,000 (small size)	81.4%	72.2%
$50,000 to $99,999	676	66
$100,000 to $249,999	532	62
% of $50,000 to $249,999 (medium size)	12.8%	17.7%
$250,000 to $499,999	279	30
$500,000 to $999,999	165	21
$1,000,000 to $1,999,999	53	11
$2,000,000 and over	56	11
% of 250,000 or more (large size)	5.8%	10.1%