Heard it through the grape vine that most grapes grown in Canada go into wine

Canadian farmers mainly grow two types of grapes. Fresh Labrusca grapes are destined for the produce section of a supermarket to be eaten, while fresh vinifera or French hybrid grapes are grown to make wine. 

Based on production data, Canadians are much more likely to partake of the grape in liquid rather than in solid form, with fresh vinifera or French hybrid grapes accounting for 97.3% of total grape production in Canada in 2025.

Farmers sold 89 708 metric tonnes of fresh vinifera or French hybrid grapes in 2025, up by over one-fifth (+22.0%) from a year earlier. 

To place Canada’s fresh vinifera or French hybrid grapes into a wine perspective, farmers grew enough grapes to make approximately 80.8 million 750 millilitre bottles of wine. 

Nevertheless, it was not a vintage year, with marketed production of fresh vinifera or French hybrid grapes falling 24.0% below the record high of 117 999 metric tonnes set in 2019. 

Marketed production of fresh vinifera or French hybrid grapes topped 100 000 metric tonnes every year from 2016 to 2020 but has trended downward since then.

In 2025, almost three-quarters (73.6%) of fresh vinifera or French hybrid grapes were grown in Ontario, while one-fifth (19.5%) were grown in British Columbia. These grapes were also grown in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Alberta, although in much smaller quantities.

During the 2024/2025 fiscal year, imported wine sales in Canada fell for the first time since we began tracking alcohol sales by origin in 1992/1993, while domestic wine sales increased 1.9% to $2.3 billion. 

In 2025, farmers grew 2 533 metric tonnes of Labrusca grapes to be eaten or made into grape juice, up 41.8% from a year earlier. This represented 2.7% of all domestically grown grapes sold in 2025. Ontario alone accounted for over four-fifths (85.3%) of total Labrusca marketable production that year.

Since the record-high marketable production of 5 995 metric tonnes in 2013, Labrusca grape sales have trended downward, and by 2025, marketable production was 57.7% below peak levels.

According to our food availability release, which estimates the amount of food physically present in a country for consumption, there were 4.3 kilograms of grapes and 2.0 litres of grape juice available per person in Canada in 2025.