An update from Bill Greuel, CEO

If you have been following along with what Protein Industries Canada has been up to over the past while, you may have noticed a lot of talk about a recent report that we commissioned from Ernst and Young. This report is one of many inputs we are using to help inform the “what’s next” of Protein Industries Canada and Canada’s plant-based food, feed, and ingredient ecosystem.

When we first commissioned the report from EY, it was to help us answer the question “How big is the opportunity for Canada?”. That question was one we had been keen to nail down for some time. We knew the opportunity was big and were confident that it was only going to continue to grow. But to really understand what needed to be done to achieve the goal of being the leader in the plant protein space – we needed to understand exactly what we were working towards.

Now we know it is likely upwards of $25 billion CDN in annual sales for Canada by 2035. And that it will allow us to process an additional 6 MMT of crop here in Canada – insulating us from trade disruptions, providing more domestic sales opportunities for our crops, attracting investment and creating jobs.

We can now work collaboratively to put together a strong sector strategy to achieve the “what’s next.”.

Over the past two years, Protein Industries Canada has made significant progress on securing the foundation for Canada’s plant-based sector and increasing home-grown innovation – progress seemingly recognized by the federal government. In the recent federal budget, an additional $60 million was made available to Superclusters. This interim additional funding will help grow Canada’s innovation economy by ensuring that Superclusters are able to continue to co-invest into transformative R&D projects. We are appreciative of this additional support, and are committed to working with the federal government, and all of our partners, to help grow Canada’s economy and bring benefit to Canadians.