2021 Highlights

Milestone dates are always time for reflection and forward thinking. Canada had a good year—largely due to the strength and support of Canada’s plant-based food, feed and ingredient ecosystem. We have now fully committed our initial tranche of funding from the federal government, with 47 total projects approved (though not all announced). We are on track to exceed our goals related to job creation and GDP. Internationally, Canada is gaining traction as the place to do business in the plant-based food sector. Our members are attracting new clients, forming new partnerships, scaling-up, creating jobs and growing. From our perspective, cluster theory is proving true: by focusing on transformative industries and supporting collaborative, industry-led innovation, we are accelerating the growth of the sector.

See CEO Bill Greuel’s full message about anticipating what’s to come for Protein Industries Canada in the new year:

This year, we announced 10 projects through our technology program and five through our capacity building program. Our partners are striving for more plant-protein innovation and sector growth through their collaborative projects. We are proud and grateful to work with incredible, intelligent organizations accelerating growth for Canada’s plant-based food, feed and ingredients ecosystem.

Along with our fellow Superclusters, Board and senior leadership team, we held government and key stakeholder engagement sessions in Ottawa followed by a reception. We took this opportunity to share our accomplishments and discuss opportunities for the evolving plant-based food, feed and ingredients sector. We were met with successful conversations for the future of Canada’s innovation-filled future. Thank you again to those who attended.

With the support of industry leaders and our advisory committee, we launched The Road to $25 Billion (Roadmap), a 15-year plan to help guide the continued growth of Canada’s plant-based food, feed and ingredient ecosystem. The Roadmap outlines key actions, based on consultations about what the industry needs, that will help the sector collaboratively reach its goal to supply ingredients for 10 per cent of the global plant-based food products by 2035. By focusing on areas of innovation, scale-up and prosperity, industry leaders and the advisory committee are working toward benchmarks, implementations and actions to accelerate toward our goals, while meeting societal needs.

Earlier this year, we launched a new member portal with an up-to-date interface for our members to explore our latest news and projects. Members can connect with other members and access commissioned reports, webinars and IP. We are thrilled to be able to share this portal between members of Protein Industries Canada.