Annual Wholesale Trade - Commodities, 2022

Released: 2023-12-22

Wholesalers across Canada buy and sell a wide variety of commodities, ranging from petroleum products, motor vehicles, pharmaceuticals, wood products and clothing to a vast selection of food products. The Annual Wholesale Trade Survey measures the sales and costs of goods sold for these and other products, classifying them according to the North American Product Classification System.

The top five commodity subclasses accounted for 51.8% of all sales in 2022, up from 47.5% in 2021. These commodity subclasses cover a wide variety of goods distributed by Canadian wholesalers, from non-durable goods such as petroleum, food and pharmaceuticals to durable goods such as motor vehicles and farm equipment.

In 2022, the largest commodity subclass in dollar terms was petroleum and petroleum products, comprising a 31.4% share of total wholesale sales, up from 25.8% in 2021. Sales in this subclass rose by 48.0% in 2022 compared with 2021.

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).