Overview
New Brunswick (NB) is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and its only officially bilingual (English and French) province. Its economy is anchored in energy processing, forestry, agri-food and seafood, and a fast-growing logistics and cybersecurity base. Sainr John is home to the Irving Oil refinery, the largest oil refinery in Canada at more than 320,000 barrels per day, and Florenceville is the headquarters of McCain Foods, the world's largest manufacturer of frozen potato products — one in four french fries worldwide is a McCain fry.
In 2025, New Brunswick exported 15.8 billion CAD in goods, making it Canada's 7th-largest exporter. The province's exports are led by refined petroleum (8.3 billion CAD), crustaceans (988 million CAD), and sawn wood (588 million CAD). Within Canada, New Brunswick accounts for 17% of finished petroleum products.
The province's strategic asset is Port Saint John, Eastern Canada's largest port by tonnage. The DP World-operated container terminal completed a 247 million CAD modernization in January 2026 and now offers direct container service to Northern Europe via the Maersk/Hapag-Lloyd Gemini AL3 service, expanding transatlantic activity.
Quick Facts
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~870,000 Population
Canada's third-least populous province, ~2.3% of the national population
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72,908 km² Size
Largest maritime province
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Fredericton Capital
Provincial capital, seat of the University of New Brunswick and the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity
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Moncton, Saint John & Fredericton Economic Centres
Economic activity is dispersed amongst the three big hubs
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Atlantic Time (UTC -4 / -3)
Time Zone
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English and French Official Language
The Chiac dialect is also very common here. It is a variant of Acadian French that is spoken primarily in southeastern New Brunswick and has many English influences.
Economy & Key Industries
Energy & Refining
The Irving Oil Saint John refinery is Canada's largest; over 80% of its output is exported to the U.S., where it accounts for roughly 19% of U.S. gasoline imports. The adjacent Irving Canaport terminal was the Western Hemisphere's first deep-water crude terminal able to receive supertankers. NB Power operates the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, a 660 MWe CANDU-6 reactor — the only nuclear plant in Atlantic Canada.
Forestry & Wood Products
#1 province in Canada for forestry products in terms of GDP per capita, 900 companies operating in the sector, and 2.8 billion CAD worth of exports annually. It also is a top employer, supporting 24,000 jobs.
Agri-food & Seafood
McCain Foods (Florenceville) is the world's largest frozen-potato processor, with ~50 plants on six continents and a presence in Germany since 1978 (McCain GmbH, Frankfurt). J.D. Irving's Cavendish Farms is North America's fourth-largest french-fry producer. Lobster, snow crab and crustaceans exceeding 2 billion CAD worth of exports in 2025, making it a driver in New Brunswick’s economy — a status symbolized by Shediac, which is recognized as the "Lobster Capital of the World".
Cybersecurity & ICT
Fredericton hosts the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity (CIC) at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), whose computer science faculty has the largest network-security research group in Canada. Siemens Canada is a corporate member of the CIC, citing its critical-infrastructure protection work.
Mining & Minerals
Mines are rich in zinc, copper, and tungsten. These critical minerals are used for low-carbon technologies, national defense and modern manufacturing. The two key mining centres are Bathurst and Sussex.
Location Advantages for German Companies
Direct maritime link to Germany/Northern Europe
DP World’s container terminal at Port Saint John handled a record 239,364 TEUs (twenty foot unit equivalent) in 2025—a 29.4% increase year-over-year and a massive 175% surge since 2021. This growth follows the completion of the 247 million CAD West Side Modernization project. Additionally, the port now offers direct connectivity to Northern Europe via the Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd Gemini AL3 service.
