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Frozen Food Growth Strengthens Canada’s Cold Chain Investment Case

Source: Farm Credit Canada
https://www.fcc-fac.ca/en/knowledge/economics/frozen-food-canada

Frozen Food Growth Is Reshaping Canada’s Cold Chain Investment Case

Ce qui s'est passé

Frozen food is becoming a larger part of Canada’s food system, creating new demand for processing, refrigerated warehousing, transportation and automation.

A new analysis from Farm Credit Canada shows that Canadian retail sales of frozen food increased by 63% entre 2019 et 2025. Over the same period, fresh food sales increased by 39%.

The difference suggests that frozen food is moving beyond its traditional role as a lower-convenience alternative to fresh products. Consumers are buying a wider range of frozen fruit, légumes, fruit de mer, articles de boulangerie, prepared ingredients and ready-to-cook meals.

Export demand is also increasing.

Entre 2020 et 2025, Canadian frozen fruit exports increased by 14% in volume, while frozen vegetable exports increased by 38%.

This shift is creating a stronger commercial case for investment in freezing technology, rangement froid, refrigerated distribution and value-added processing.

FCC also identified expansion in refrigerated infrastructure.

Reported refrigerated capacity among three major Canadian cold-storage operators increased from approximately 145 million cubic feet in 2018 à 187 million cubic feet in 2025, une augmentation d'environ 29%.

Nearly two-thirds of that expansion occurred after 2023.

The trend shows that frozen-food growth is already affecting physical cold-chain capacity, rather than remaining only a change in consumer purchasing behaviour.

Comment ça marche

Freezing changes the economics of perishable agricultural products by extending the period during which they can be stored, transported and sold.

Fresh produce is highly time-sensitive.

Une fois récolté, fruits and vegetables continue to lose quality through respiration, moisture loss and microbial activity. Even when refrigeration slows these processes, commercial shelf life remains limited.

Freezing moves the product into a much longer preservation window.

Technologies such as individually quick frozen, or IQF, processing rapidly freeze individual product pieces rather than creating one large frozen block.

For products such as berries, peas, maïs, seafood and prepared ingredients, IQF can help preserve texture, portionability and product quality while giving processors greater flexibility in packaging and distribution.

Cependant, freezing capacity alone is not enough.

The complete supply chain requires several connected stages:

• Raw product receiving
• Lavage, grading or processing
• Congélation rapide
• Stockage congelé
• Gestion des stocks
• Transport réfrigéré
• Retail or foodservice distribution

If one part of the chain lacks capacity, the commercial benefit of the freezing operation can be reduced.

Par exemple, a processor may install additional IQF equipment but still face a bottleneck if frozen warehouse space is unavailable during peak harvest.

De même, a cold store may have sufficient pallet positions but lack enough reefer transport capacity to move products during seasonal demand peaks.

Modern cold chain investment therefore increasingly combines physical storage with automation, robotics and digital inventory control.

FCC notes that refrigerated facilities are adopting automated handling, digital inventory systems and more energy-efficient refrigeration technologies to improve productivity and manage rising operating costs.

For frozen warehouses, storage density is particularly important.

Every cubic metre of refrigerated air requires energy to maintain. High-density pallet storage, automated retrieval and well-designed airflow can reduce the amount of freezer volume required per unit of inventory.

The result is a cold chain that is not only larger, but more productive.

Pourquoi ça compte

Canada has a relatively short domestic growing season for many fruits and vegetables, while consumer demand exists throughout the year.

Historiquement, this gap has been addressed partly through imports.

Additional freezing capacity provides another option: preserve more domestic production during peak harvest periods and distribute it gradually throughout the year.

FCC used Environment and Climate Change Canada’s estimate that approximately 13% of Canadian fruits and vegetables are left unharvested or discarded after harvest and applied that percentage to selected crop production.

The resulting comparison is significant.

Estimated losses were equivalent to approximately:

• 66% of Canadian pea imports
• 55% of corn imports
• 24% of blueberry imports
• 6% of broccoli imports
• 5% of strawberry imports

These figures do not mean that all lost crops can simply be frozen and substituted for imports.

Some products may be unsuitable for processing. Moment de la récolte, qualité, economics and consumer demand also matter.

But the numbers illustrate the scale of value that may be available if more domestic agricultural output can be captured through processing and cold-chain infrastructure.

Pour les robots culinaires, freezing also creates opportunities beyond waste reduction.

A raw agricultural commodity may have relatively low margins during peak harvest. Once it is cleaned, portionné, chevronné, frozen and packaged, it can become a higher-value food product with a longer selling season.

This creates additional economic activity in:

• traitement
• conditionnement
• rangement froid
• transport
• distribution au détail

The growing frozen category can therefore strengthen both food manufacturing and cold-chain logistics.

Impact B2B

For agricultural producers, stronger freezing infrastructure can create additional outlets during peak harvest periods.

Growers may be able to sell products into processing channels that would otherwise have limited value because fresh-market demand has already been filled.

Cependant, processors need predictable quality and volume.

Growers should coordinate harvest timing, product specifications and transport arrangements with processors rather than assuming that surplus produce can automatically enter frozen production.

Pour les robots culinaires, the market creates opportunities for investment in:

• IQF systems
• congélateurs rapides
• spiral freezers
• sorting and grading
• portionnement
• automated packaging

Processing capacity should be matched with downstream cold-storage capacity.

Installing a faster freezing line without enough frozen pallet positions can simply move the bottleneck from production into warehousing.

Pour les développeurs d’entrepôts frigorifiques, Canada’s growing frozen-food category supports continued demand for refrigerated real estate.

Future facilities should be evaluated on more than pallet count.

Important variables include:

• Consommation d'énergie
• Densité de stockage
• Automation capability
• Dock throughput
• Refrigeration redundancy
• Power availability
• Transport connectivity

Pour les fournisseurs de réfrigération, frozen-food growth supports demand for efficient low-temperature systems.

Operators are increasingly interested in refrigeration technologies that reduce energy consumption and long-term refrigerant risk while maintaining reliable frozen conditions.

Heat recovery can also improve facility economics where rejected refrigeration heat can be used for hot water, space heating or processing applications.

Pour les fournisseurs d’automatisation d’entrepôt, frozen environments create a strong business case for robotics.

Automation can reduce labour exposure to very low temperatures while increasing storage density and inventory accuracy.

Equipment must be engineered specifically for cold environments, including suitable sensors, lubrifiants, câbles, batteries and controls.

Pour les fournisseurs d'emballages, the growth of frozen foods increases demand for materials that maintain strength under low-temperature and humid conditions.

Cartons, films, labels and adhesives must tolerate freezing, storage and thawing without losing structural or identification performance.

Pour les transporteurs réfrigérés, larger frozen inventories mean greater demand for dependable reefer capacity.

Transport providers need reliable TRUs, inspection avant le départ, fuel management, telematics and documented temperature procedures.

Pour les détaillants, frozen products offer a different inventory model from fresh food.

Longer shelf life can reduce spoilage and provide more flexibility during seasonal disruptions, but freezer merchandising and backroom storage capacity must keep pace with category growth.

Pour les décideurs politiques, the analysis suggests that food security infrastructure includes more than agricultural production.

A country can grow significant quantities of food and still rely heavily on imports if domestic processing and preservation capacity cannot bridge seasonal production and year-round demand.

The broader lesson is that frozen food is becoming an infrastructure story.

Canada’s 63% frozen-retail growth and expanding refrigerated warehouse capacity show how consumer behaviour, agricultural processing and cold chain investment are becoming increasingly connected.

Future opportunities will come from integrating production, gel, stockage, transportation and packaging into a more efficient domestic food system.