The weakness of the Canadian dollar should benefit the food industry exporters: the Confrerence Board of Canada.

The weakness of the Canadian dollar will have various implications for the industry of the manufacture of food products in the coming years, according to a recent report on Canada’s Food
Manufacturing Industry published by the Conference Board of Canada.
A weak dollar should benefit the food industry exporters, the report said. The Canadian dollar lost ground on five of six currencies of the Bank of Canada’s Canadian Dollar Effective Exchange Rate Index (CERI) in the first seven months of this year, Canadian food products have become more competitive in many markets foreigners.
However, in the short term, the biggest boost to the food industry exports will come from the strengthening of the US economy, as the US market accounts for the bulk of Canada’s exports of food products. In 2014, manufacturing exports of food goods increased by 1.8 percent to $ 20.2 billion, or about 28 percent of industry sales, the report said.
While the weak Canadian dollar supports the competitiveness of Canadian processed food abroad, it also brings greater domestic market share, making imported food more expensive compared to their domestic counterparts.
Foreign manufacturers will have to increase their prices in the Canadian market to offset the decline in the currency, which will make them relatively less competitive compared to other products on the shelves; or they will have to keep their Canadian prices stable,  which means an effective price reduction which will translate for them, once their revenues are converted back to their original currency, eating into their profit margins. For industries such as confectionery manufacturing, where a significant portion of domestic demand is met by imported products, the weak dollar will exert upward pressure on the cost of materials for food manufacturers based on a range of imported inputs.
This will affect those segments, such as fruits and vegetables and specialty food manufacturing, importing a wide variety of raw materials not produced in Canada.
Source: Confrence Board of Canada