Ontario's food products are transported through a network of efficient carriers. From the gates of farms, cold storage facilities or the loading docks of food manufacturers, Ontario's food distributors (more than 850) move food proficiently to the consumer in Ontario, North America and the rest of the world.

140 million People within a One-Day Drive

The City of Toronto, the commercial centre of Ontario, is conveniently and excellently positioned within one day’s trucking drive of significant central markets in both Canada and the United States (U.S.). This gives Ontario quick and easy daily access to about 140 million consumers. We reach a total of about 400 million North American consumers with ease.

Excellent Transportation Infrastructure

Ontario’s extensive and sophisticated network of highways and railways is fully integrated with U.S. networks. Our highways are linked at ten commercial border points, while our railway lines meet the U.S. at five commercial crossings.

Distribution Advantage over Chicago to ship to New York

The Greater Toronto Area in Ontario is 2% closer to North America’s consumers than is Greater Chicago. For the transportation industry, distance is time, and time is money. Ontario’s controlled-access highways follow the St. Lawrence--Great Lakes corridor. The shortest and quickest overland distance between Detroit, Michigan and Buffalo, New York is through Ontario using Highway 401, a 4+ lane highway that runs right across the province, close to the U.S. border.

Integrated Rail Network virtually covers North America

Roads are only one layer of Ontario’s multi-modal transportation infrastructure. Linked into our roads are two Class 1 railways (CN and CP) with daily trains -- or more-- to and from Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, New York, Detroit, St. Louis, Montreal, Halifax and Vancouver. About 90% of the North American market is directly accessible from Ontario’s rail infrastructure.

Equipped to Ship Offshore

For offshore shipments, truck and rail container facilities are clustered in the Greater Toronto Area, with access to every major ocean port on the continent.

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Distances to a few major U.S. cities from Toronto:

Toronto US Cities Kilometres Miles Atlanta 1,520           945           Boston 883           549           Chicago 821           510           Dallas 2,307           1,434           Detroit 367           228           Los Angeles 4,040           2,511           New York 788           490           Pittsburgh 518           322           Richmond 1,069           664           Seattle 4,143           2,575