Overview
Bay of Quinte is Ontario's largest food processing centre east of Toronto. It is home to several large multinational food processors operating within a fully developed and integrated food processing and delivery system.
Bay of Quinte offers good reason to look east to companies now in Toronto that are planning to expand or relocate. For international companies, Bay of Quinte offers proximity to major markets without Toronto's high costs. Additionally, Canada offers important cost advantages for companies exporting Canadian-made foods to the U.S.
A closer look
Bay of Quinte hosts the largest food processing cluster east of Toronto. More than 35 companies employ more than 2,700 people, here, to gain some important competitive advantages:
- High return on investment in location:
- Located astride Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway
- Within legal log times for reach and back haul for the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montréal and Ottawa-markets estimated in 2005 to include 10,089,242 people
- Quick, easy access to northeast U.S. border crossings
- Nearby access to raw materials-nearby county dairy cash receipts were $78.9 million in 2002
- One of Ontario's highest excess water capacities (Belleville), ideal for food processing and beverage industries requiring large volumes of treated water
- Higher return on investment in labour:
- pay rates up to 20% lower than those in Toronto
- benefit costs among the lowest in the industry in Ontario
- high worker loyalty and productivity
- lower worker turnover rates than those in Toronto
- less competition for labour than in Toronto or Southern Ontario
- Higher return on investment in operating costs:
- 10% lower than in competing Ontario food processing clusters
- Savings on full range of required support services:
- full logistics support, including specialized dry, refrigerated and frozen food (RFID) storage and transport
- food inspection services in place
- fully experienced in Canadian and U.S. transborder distribution
- convenient cubic volume and weight optimization, for less than full-load shipping
- chilled and frozen food storage at lower cost than those in Toronto
- electrical, mechanical and fabricating services in place
- food grade packaging in packaging cluster nearby
- Savings through tariff programs:
- ability to buy sugar at world prices and export finished products to the United States without having to pay U.S. sugar tariffs
- ability to access and process supply-managed dairy, chicken, turkey and eggs on the import control list at world prices and export them to the United States without having to pay certain tariffs
- ability to access dairy and/or cheese products
- Savings from locating in a vibrant, growing cluster, including:
- multinational food processors, such as Parmalat/Black Diamond Cheese, Saputo and Nestlé
- a wide range of large and small companies producing meat/poultry, dairy, flour, prepared cereal food and feed, bakery and other products
- Co-location savings when taking advantage of low land costs to bring together manufacturing, storage and distribution facilities
- Effective food processing training is available through:
- Loyalist College, which offers biofood, laboratory and manufacturing programs and which has been judged as having the "most relevant food training curriculum in Ontario" in the Ontario East Food Study
- Loyalist Training and Knowledge Centre, offering corporate training programs including those offered in partnership with the Guelph Food Technology Centre
For further information regarding the Food Processing Sector in the Bay of Quinte Region,
please review this informative brochure.