Rising costs and economic uncertainty are slowing Ontario farm business growth, according to the latest Farm Business Confidence Survey released this week by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA).
Compared to the previous year, Ontario farmers are focusing on maintaining the status quo and dialing back expansion and investment in their farm businesses. They’re also less confident in the sector’s outlook than they were a year ago, the survey finds.
It was something of a stand-pat year in terms of farmers’ investments, according to Ben Lefort, senior policy analyst for OFA.
“It was a status quo year in that fewer farmers were making on-farm investments in 2024 compared to 2023, as fewer farmers were expanding, buying more acres and whatnot. But also, fewer farmers said they downsized. So it was a year that I think they would be characterized by more status quo,” said Lefort.
This was the second year OFA conducted the survey, asking members about farm investments, confidence heading into this year, and policy concerns they felt OFA should address.
They had 1,100 respondents this time around, up from 800 in 2023.
There was a drop in confidence in the industry compared to the previous year, which was unsurprising to see with the current trade and geopolitical uncertainty, noted Lefort.
“I would say the bright spot would be farmers were more confident in their own business for this year than in the industry,” he said.
“Everyone expects it to be a volatile year, but farmers who are more confident in their own business tell me that they are resilient and confident in their ability to get through what is possibly a difficult year.”
When asked which policy issue they feel OFA should focus on, farmers consistently pointed to the tax burden, which takes the top spot for the second year in a row.
Lefort told The Observer that these results were not surprising, considering all the economic uncertainty that abounds just now.
“All the questions on confidence and sentiment, we expected that to drop when we ran the survey. It was about two weeks after Trump initially announced a 25 per cent tariff, so we knew that there would be a drop in confidence. It was going to be weighing on people’s minds.”
As a grassroots organization, OFA was always looking for ways to connect with its membership directly, which is one of the reasons they ran this survey for the first time last year and then again this year, said Lefort.
This survey has received much positive feedback from farmers and different government and research organizations.
The OFA has also received interest from Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness and other researchers in the commodity business.
“We want this to be information here that many different stakeholders could benefit from. We want to put this information in front of the Ministry of Agriculture, too, so that they know these are the top concerns farmers face,” said Lefort.
“So that’s also municipal officials. I’ve heard from several economic development officers and different municipalities that are working on how to grow their local agricultural industries, and they’ve been very interested in this.”
Full detailed results from the survey will be released today (Thursday) during a 1 p.m. webinar. Lefort will review the impacts that primary agriculture and food manufacturing in Ontario has on business revenue, GDP, jobs, wages paid to workers and tax revenue generated to all three levels of government. The report also addresses challenges facing farmers, such as rising costs, regulatory burdens and farmland affordability.
