Highlights from BMO’s 2020 Farm to Market Conference

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BMO recently held its 15th annual Global Farm to Market Conference. We presented it as a virtual event for the first time with presentations from more than 60 public and private companies across the food value chain. Despite the uncertain environment, there was a lot of optimism about the industry’s ability to adapt.

There was a lot of information to digest at the conference and some themes stood out.

• Sustainability— In our Sustainability Leaders podcast, John Uhren, Head, Sustainable Finance, Products and Strategy for Sustainable Finance at BMO, recently interviewed major Canadian grocery chain Sobeys: Vittoria Varalli, Chief of Staff and VP for Sustainability to discuss how COVID-19 has disrupted food security and supply chains

• M&A — Lyle Wilpon, Head of the Global Advisory Business, shared his thoughts on the disruption in M&A activity

• The Supply Chain —A panel discussed how the food supply chain has had to evolve during the pandemic

• Ecommerce —CPG brands and retailers discussed how they saw dramatic increases in adoption over the past 3 months

• The Restaurant Industry —One of the hardest hit industries, several experts weighed in on the need for innovation to weather this storm