A new pot of cash will help Canadian food processors reformulate products or create new goods for the domestic market in the face of trade uncertainty, Protein Industries Canada (PIC) announced Thursday.
“Canada can be the preferred ingredient supplier to the world—building off our strong advantages as an agricultural powerhouse. To seize that opportunity we must invest in, and support, our domestic processing capacity,” said PIC CEO Robert Hunter.
“The Strengthening the Canadian Supply Chain Program is an interim step to help our companies weather the current turbulence, but as a country, we need to become serious about our ability to add value to our products here at home.”
Read Also
Canada, Mexico look beyond U.S. as agri-food trade pact expands
Earlier this week Heath MacDonald, Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development, Julio Berdegué, met to discuss bilateral relations and strengthen cooperation and trade ties between the two countries.
The $3 million Strengthening the Canadian Supply Chain Program will reimburse up to 75 per cent of eligible costs to a maximum project cost of $200,000 on projects that:
- Reformulate products with domestically produced ingredients
- Work to scale up or commercialize to increase the supply of domestically produced food
- Work to scale up or commercialize domestically produced ingredients for Canadian manufacturers
Projects must use Canadian feedstocks or ingredients derived from Canadian crops like wheat, oats, barley, peas, soy or fava beans.
PIC said it will also increase funding for capital and equipment through its Technology Leadership Program.
