The Senate agriculture committee is examining how Canadian food processors, already a key manufacturing sector, can build up their domestic capacity and expand their exports.Food and beverage manufacturers, also called the value-added sector, “represent an opportunity to create jobs and stimulate investment and innovation,” the committee said in an announcing the study.It plans to hold hearings with a wide selection of food manufacturers, farm groups and other organizations from the sector before presenting the government with recommendations “to take advantage of a golden opportunity to keep exporting quality foods.”“In a world where too many people live with food insecurity, Canada is blessed with an abundance of farm products,” said Committee Chairwoman Diane Griffin. “Canadians owe it to the world and to themselves to make the most of this bounty by making food products that meet the global demand and that create meaningful employment in an economic sector that has great potential.”The committee will focus on challenges facing the sector “including access to foreign markets, the tendency of Canadian farmers to export their raw products instead of selling to domestic food-processing plants and a labour shortage in Canadian food-processing plants that prevents work from being done in Canada.”The hearings will look for ideas to make the food processing sector more competitive internationally. The food chain from farm to dinner plate employed about 2.3 million people in 2016, accounting for 12.5 per cent of the jobs in the Canadian economy and 6.7 per cent of Canada's GDP.The food and beverage processing industry is the largest manufacturing industry in Canada, with a 16.4 per cent of the total manufacturing sector's GDP in 2016, says data compiled by Agriculture Canada. It also accounted for 17.3 per cent of jobs in the manufacturing sector during the same year.In 2016, more than 1,200 food and beverage processing companies exported their products, the department said. Just over 75 per cent of the exporting companies were small businesses with fewer than 100 employees.While the food and beverage processing industry continues to grow and the value of its shipments has more than doubled since 1992, processors continue to experience lower, but more stable, profit margins compared to the overall manufacturing sector, the department said.The senators will have lots of company this year when it comes to focusing on food and beverage makers. The federal government is expected to release both its National Food Policy and Healthy Eating Strategies. The processors were unhappy with some of the early versions of the Strategy but Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay says the two policies will complement each other and not create the divisions many in the food sector feared.The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute has been holding workshops across the country to collect ideas for boosting food production and exports. It says Canada could target an 8 per cent share of the international market for agriculture products by 2027 up from its 5.7 per cent share in 2015, an increase of more than $11 billion in sales.It will propose ideas for increasing the output of the processing sector, especially value-added foods, when its workshops conclude May 10 in Ottawa.Meanwhile the Canadian Food Inspection Agency may finally conclude the overhaul of its food safety regulations launched in 2013. The food industry has worked hard to ensure the regulations produce meaningful results and ensure foreign customers of the safety and value of Canadian foods.The Senate committee has conducted well-regarded studies on bee health, farmland ownership and the impact of climate change on food production in recent years.The committee expects to report later this year on its ideas about how the sector can continue to meet global consumer demand while remaining competitive in the Canadian market.The health of processing sector has gained a lot of attention since the release in 2016 of a report by Dominic Barton, head of the federal Economic Advisory Council, which single out agrifood as a testbed for boosting Canadian exports.The 2017 budget set a goal of $75 billion in agrifood exports in 2025 compared to the current $56 billion. Ron Bonnett, President of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said that while increased agriculture exports would help, it would be up to the value added sector to advance Canada to the goal line.Murad Al-Katib, President and CEO of AGT Food and Ingredients, chairman of the agri-food innovation roundtable and a board member of Protein Industries Canada, the sector's supercluster organization, says the priority remains “What do we have to do to get the Barton report done.”That is to get Prime Minister Trudeau to endorse the creation of an AgGrowth Council that would federal departments and agencies to support the achievement of $75 billion target.Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.