| | Agri-Food Statistics Update - Issue GDP17-1
Collected from a variety of sources, the Statistics and Data Development Section monitors statistical indicators of agri-food activity for Alberta. The Agri-Food Statistics Update is designed to provide users with commentary on current issues, trends and new developments related to agriculture and the food and beverage processing industries. Up-to-date statistics are supplemented with informative charts and diagrams. To gauge Alberta’s performance, comparative data and information are often available for Canada and the provinces.
This Update presents an analysis of Alberta’s 2016 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for agri-food industries (primary agriculture industries and food and beverage manufacturing industries).
GDP is the total unduplicated value of goods and services produced in a region during a given year. GDP of an industry equals the output by the industry minus the value of intermediate inputs that were purchased from other industries, domestic or foreign. This Update presents “real GDP” which provides a measurement of economic performance changing over time, excluding the effects of price changes. An increase in GDP is a sign of a healthy economy while a decline indicates that the economy is not functioning to its full capacity.
Note to Users: The contents of this document may not be used or reproduced without properly accrediting Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Economics and Competitiveness Branch, Statistics and Data Development Section.
Key Messages
- As measured by real Gross Domestic Product, Alberta’s economy declined 3.8 per cent to $288.1 billion in 2016, following a similar decline in 2015 (3.7 per cent). GDP was largely impacted by low oil and commodity prices. This industry saw a 31.7 per cent decline in the oil and gas engineering construction sector, while the support activities for oil and gas extraction also fell 31.6 per cent. These two sectors combined accounted for most of the decline in the provincial GDP.
- While the majority of Alberta’s major industries had lower output (as measured by GDP) in 2016, a number of industries did report positive economic growth. Among the latter, agri-food posted the best performance, increasing 7.8 per cent to a record $6.6 billion. This was the second highest percentage change increase in Canada, just behind Saskatchewan (8.6 per cent).
- GDP for Alberta’s agriculture industry increased 13.6 per cent to $3.7 billion in 2016, after two consecutive declines in 2015 (3.2 per cent) and in 2014 (5.3 per cent). The significant GDP growth was largely attributed to crop production, which increased 16.0 per cent to 24.6 million tonnes.
- In 2016, GDP for food and beverage manufacturing industries grew 1.1 per cent to $2.9 billion, marking the fourth consecutive annual increase. Specifically, GDP for the food manufacturing industry rose 1.7 per cent to $2.4 billion, while output for the beverage manufacturing industry declined 2.1 per cent to $452.0 million in 2016.
For a complete copy of this update, please download the attached pdf file. |
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