As part of the horticultural sector, the vegetable industry in Canada is split between fresh, processed and greenhouse vegetables. Because of the seasonal nature of vegetable production, Canada has traditionally been a net importer. Greenhouse production helps to somewhat mitigate seasonality, however greenhouse growing faces its own challenges due to the high capital costs involved.

Canadian growers work to keep their competitive edge by growing well-managed, high quality crops. The technology gap between the U.S. has hampered Canadian efforts to remain competitive, but recent changes in the regulatory environment allowing for product review synchronization have helped close that gap. While maintaining the same regulatory vigor as in the past, today a zonal approach is used when evaluating new technology. Often, pest issues are very localized or season-specific, so industry, government and grower associations have been working together to obtain minor use registrations when the need arises.