Protein Industries Canada wants the country to increase its sales of plant-based products to $25 billion a year by 2035
Protein Industries Canada has unveiled a new strategic plan aimed at increasing Canada’s global market share in the rapidly growing plant-based food and ingredient sector.
PIC recently launched a sector road map that outlines key actions to help the industry reach its key growth objectives.
Those objectives include increasing Canadian sales of plant-based foods, feeds and ingredients to $25 billion annually by 2035 and supplying ingredients for 10 percent of global plant-based food products.
Canada’s current sales — not including canola processing and wheat milling — are estimated at around $2.5 to $3 billion annually.
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“Our sector is on the edge of an incredible opportunity, but it will take a co-ordinated effort to achieve it,” said Bill Greuel, PIC’s chief executive officer.
“We believe that by 2035, Canada can expect upwards of $25 billion a year in annual sales from plant-based food, feed and ingredients.”
According to Greuel, the Canadian industry will need to achieve a compounded annual growth rate of about 16 percent to meet its objectives.
That compares to an estimated global growth rate of about 13 percent compounded annually over the next 14 years.
PIC’s 31-page road map document includes nearly 50 recommendations and takes a broad, sector-wide view of Canada’s existing industry and investment ecosystem.
The report highlights Canada’s strengths, which include a large land base, sustainable production practices and processing systems, and a reputation for providing safe, high-quality foods.
It also points out challenges, which include the need to attract more investment, enhance environmental sustainability, and modernize the country’s agri-food regulatory system, which suppresses innovation and investment.
“Many recent reports have stated that Canada’s agri-food regulatory system requires modernization to keep up with the pace of innovation,” the document states.
“Despite the many calls from industry for reform, Canada’s regulatory system continues to suppress innovation, resulting in investments flowing outside of the country.”
Among other things, the report calls for:
- more funding to facilitate the development of new products and co-products
- a modernized and consistent regulatory system that allows for more flexibility in terms of product fortification with vitamins and amino acids
- assurances that new products derived through gene editing will not be not subject to unduly restrictive regulation
- creation of a regulatory centre of excellence that would conduct regulatory-related research and assist new enterprises in the area of regulatory compliance
- investment in new technologies aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of Canadian crop production, as well as ingredient and food manufacturing
- increased collaboration with Canadian post-secondary institutions
- the establishment of new programs, with crown lending agencies, that incentivize investment in the sector
- creation of new toll processing, pilot plants and co-packing facilities
- the formation of an investor-focused strategy and investment team designed to attract foreign direct investment
In an interview with the Western Producer, Greuel said the new industry road map was the result of consultation between PIC, its members and industry stakeholders.
We wanted to know “what does Canada need to do in order to capture a more significant portion of the global plant-based food, feed and ingredient market,” Greuel said.
“So we… kicked off a consultation, starting with our board. We talked to members, we talked to stakeholders … and we started building out this road map to $25 billion.”
To advance the road map’s vision, PIC and industry partners have established an advisory committee made up of industry leaders.
Members of the advisory committee include Murad Al-Katib of AGT Food and Ingredients; Gord Flaten of Avena Foods; Jasmine Byrn of Big Mountain Foods; Julie Dickson Olmstead from Save On Foods LP; Martin Scanlon from the University of Manitoba; Evan Fraser of Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph; Riel Bellegarde from the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT); Leslie Ewing from Plant Based Foods of Canada (Toronto), and Greg Cherewyk from Pulse Canada.
PIC was one of five “innovation superclusters” that were selected in 2017 to share $918 million worth of federal seed money aimed at spurring innovation in key sectors of the Canadian economy.
Last year, the Innovation Supercluster Initiative — a Liberal program — was scrutinized by the Parliamentary Budget Office for failing to meet its objectives, which included boosting Canada’s gross domestic product by $50 billion and creating 50,000 new jobs by 2027.
According to a PBO report released in 2020, 59 percent of the federal money spent by the superclusters had been to cover administrative and operating costs.
At the time, Proteins Industry Canada said it had invested $99.9 million into 14 active projects and had leveraged $172 million from industry partners.
Greuel said PIC’s total funding through the superclusters initiative will soon be fully allocated.
PIC estimates that the global plant-based food and ingredient market will be valued at more than $250 billion by the middle of the next decade.
“Countries all over the world are racing to scale-up production to become the global leader and claim their stake,” the organization said in a news release.
“Canada has to take advantage of our many strengths to claim our place atop the podium, but we must act quickly and strategically.”
