Filipinos join growing temporary foreign workers in Canadian farms

By Carlito Pablo

They grow and harvest the food served on Canadian plates. 

Like the cyclical nature of the agriculture industry that employs them, temporary foreign workers (TFWs) come and go mostly after the season is done.

Because it’s tough to get Canadian citizens and permanent residents to work on the farm, TFWs are essential to keeping food production going.

For years, the Philippines has been a source of agricultural workers to Canada as employers face chronic labour shortages.

Though not as numerous as TFWs from South American and Caribbean countries, Filipinos have a substantial presence in Canadian farms.

In 2025, according to information released by Statistics Canada on May 7, 2026, the agriculture sector employed a total of 77,088 TFWs, of whom more than 40 percent are from Mexico.

During that year, Filipino TFWs in agriculture were the sixth largest, numbering 2,355.

Based on the same Statistics Canada information, the Philippines sent a little over the said number in 2023 and 2024.

In 2016, Filipino agricultural workers were counted at 1,652.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) highlighted the role of TFWs in a June 2024 report titled “Harvesting a solution: mitigating agricultural labour shortages”.

“As an important sector in the Canadian economy, the inability of agri-businesses to secure local workers is concerning. The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council estimates that there will be more than 100,000 vacant jobs in the agriculture sector by 2030,” the report stated.

“This is not surprising given the already limited availability of domestic labour in agriculture, which will only diminish with Canada’s population ageing.”

This situation leaves agri-businesses “little choice but to turn to workers from outside Canada”.

“Foreign workers play a key role in narrowing the domestic labour gap, thereby having a direct impact on food security, sustainability and the economic development of the sector,” the CFIB report stated.

An April 28, 2021 study by Statistics Canada titled “Foreign workers in the Canadian agriculture industry” shows a steady increase in TFWs in Canadian farms.

The report noted that the share of TFWs in agriculture more than doubled from 6.2 percent in 2005 to 13.2 percent by 2014.

The proportion increased further to 16.1 percent in 2017.

“The number of foreign workers employed in agriculture increased from 17,200 in 2005 to 50,800 in 2017,” the report stated.

In 2017, the top five source countries for agricultural workers in Canada were Mexico (47.9 percent), Jamaica (17.1 percent), Guatemala (17 percent), Philippines (2.2 percent) and Thailand (two percent).

The same report noted a low transition rate to permanent resident (PR) status for agricultural workers.

It noted that about 14 percent of the 2013 entry cohort made a transition to PR in the five-year period following first entry to Canada from 2014 to 2018. 

In comparison, the transition rate to PR within the first five-year period was 10.3 percent for the 2005 cohort.

In 2020, the federal government launched the Agri-Food Pilot program to provide a pathway for PR status for workers in special occupations.

The government accepted 2,750 applications to the program each year before capping it to 1,010 in 2025.

The Agri-Food Pilot ended on May 14, 2025.

Meantime, Canada will continue to rely on TFWs when Canadians and permanent residents are not available to work in farms.