The Agriculture and Agri-Food Labour Task Force has come forth with an update on its Workforce Action Plan.

The task force has been working for three years on the issue of agriculture labour shortages in Canada.

Janet Krayden is the project coordinator for the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.

She says international workers will be a key factor moving forward.

"The industry is definitely looking for improved pathways to permanency for international agriculture and agri-food workers," explained Krayden. "This is needed as a backstop to compliment the domestic workers that the industry always uses as a first choice."

Krayden notes that the three main challenges contributing to the labour shortage in agriculture in Canada are rural depopulation, seasonality, and the fact that the industry deals with perishable products.

She adds that Farm Credit Canada has released a report that cites the labour shortage as one of the main issues of the year for agriculture.