There are many career opportunities with a degree in Food and Agricultural Economics and Business. In recent years, more than half of our graduates have chosen a job in one of the three career fields described below:
* For more information, please contact: Andreas Boecker, Chair, FARE, University of Guelph, Phone: 1-519-824-4120 x 53532, e-mail: aboecker@uoguelph.ca
Agri-Marketing / Communications
One of these could be your employer:
- Marketing research agency
- Media productions company
- Strategic communication consultant
- Advertising agency
- Corporation with a marketing department
This is what you would be doing:
- Performing industry analysis (for example, who are the main players and how does the industry work)
- Conducting customer surveys (for example, interest in new product, or satisfaction with current services)
- Designing and implementing a marketing campaign for a new product or service
- Making video clips for advertising (for example, customer testimony, or telling the company story)
- Building customer relationship
These would be your customers:
- Farm businesses
- Producer organizations
- Food processors and manufacturers
- Seed companies
- Feed mills
- Agribusiness companies
Agri-Financial Services
One of these could be your employer:
- Large bank (lending to farmers is a large portion of a bank’s business in rural Canada)
- Insurance broker
- Insurance company
- Another accredited company specialising in providing finance or financing services to farm and food businesses
This is what you would be doing:
- Assisting clients with financial analysis, building customer relationship
- Preparing credit submission with client (for example, loan applications)
- Conducting marketing analysis (for example, finding out about potential customers and their needs)
- Approving credit submission
- Developing marketing strategy
- Performing competitor analysis
These would be your customers:
- Farm businesses
- Food processors and manufacturers
- Agribusiness companies (for example, firms that sell seeds, feed, fertilizer or machinery to farm businesses)
Agribuisness
One of these could be your employer:
- An agribusiness company provides inputs to farmers or buys their products for resale, for example:
- Seed and plant protection company
- Feed mill and dealer
- Animal breeding organization
- Farm machinery manufacturer and dealer
- Commodity trader (in particular a grain and oilseed trader, a so-called elevator)
This is what you would be doing:
- Sales and marketing (for example, meeting your customers for sales calls and to provide services)
- Conducting customer analysis (for example, how have sales developed over time?)
- Developing and implement marketing strategy involving the product, pricing, the best way to communicate
- Building customer relationship
These would be your customers:
- Farm businesses
- Organized groups of farmers, including cooperatives
- Specialized dealers and service providers
- Food processors and manufacturers