CEO's Message

This past fiscal was a milestone year for Protein Industries Canada. After launching our second fund in February 2023, this past year saw a consistent roll-out of calls for new project EOIs, leading to a new portfolio of partners that are advancing Canadian innovation and introducing new products to the world. This occurred alongside the launch of the newest version of The Road to $25 Billion, our roadmap to the future prosperity of Canada’s ingredient manufacturing, food processing and bioproducts sector.

The high level of interest for projects and the Roadmap are evidence of the current strength and future potential of our sector. Ingredient manufacturing, food processing and bioproducts have the potential to inject a $25 billion boost into Canada’s economy by 2035, but we need to take action now to support our companies to access the capital, innovation support and infrastructure they need to succeed. The Roadmap outlines what that action looks like, and how we can work together to make that $25 billion potential a reality.

Launching the second iteration of the Roadmap this past year, in the early stages of our second fund launch, was a strategic move that allowed us to showcase the success of our project partners. Of the 11 projects announced this past fiscal, eight build on projects that were completed under our first round of funding. Our partners’ continued commitment to their collaborative efforts, and ability to build on their product development, shows that our cluster model is working. It’s helping Canada’s small companies scale and create new jobs, while also increasing Canadian IP, providing new options for consumers and creating a more sustainable sector.

And the world is noticing. Throughout this past fiscal, Protein Industries Canada was invited to visit and work with a number of countries interested in learning about how they could partner with Canada in the ingredient manufacturing, food processing and bioproducts space. Of particular note were my trips to Singapore and Frankfurt, where I was able to discuss what Canada had to offer while several of our partners showcased what they were working on at the time. This occurred around the same time as our partnership with Innovate UK, in which we worked to leverage the expertise of their companies alongside our own to develop new projects focused on food and ingredient development. We hope to make announcements related to this partnership in the 2024-25 fiscal.

The progress we made throughout 2023-24 is encouraging and is a positive sign for what’s yet to come in 2024-25. In the past year alone, we accomplished the following:

• Contracted 17 projects under our three project streams;
• Committed $65.4 million to those projects;
• Leveraged an additional $81.2 million from industry for those projects, bringing the total project investment to $146.5 million;
• Recorded 100 registered and non-registered anticipated IP assets; and
• Recorded a total of 56 partners participating in projects.

With new project announcements, advancements down the Road to $25 Billion, continued engagement with international stakeholders and a commitment to new initiatives, Protein Industries Canada is well on its way to helping Canada achieve a prosperous and productive plant-based food, feed and bioproducts sector.