Protein Industries Canada announced a new project this week to help small and medium-sized plant based businesses access capital to scale up their operations.
PIC CEO Bill Gruel says when they talked to their member companies about the challenges they face accessing capital was the number one concern.
"The type of companies that we're talking about here, they would be ingredient manufacturers that have proof of concept at a pilot scale facility. But they really want to scale that business up so that they're processing, 50 to 100,000 metric tons of crop. That's quite expensive, that can be upwards of $100 million."
He says a consortium including industry stakeholders will work on establishing a fund that will raise $200 million in equity capital.
To get the project off the ground $2.4 million will be invested initially, with Protein Industries Canada putting up $1.8 million, and the rest coming from the consortium partners.
Led by Bellwood Partners and Champlin Advisory, alongside other industry stakeholders, the consortium will work with an advisory board to identify and break down barriers to raising capital.
Gruel says Canada is on the cusp of an incredible opportunity when it comes to plant-based foods.
"The global market is expected to surpass $250 billion by 2035. We believe Canada has the opportunity to capture 10 per cent of that market which would result in the creation of a new $25 billion sector for Canada."
An advisory board consisting of subject-matter experts, industry representatives and Indigenous leadership will help lead the fund.
By increasing the amount of deployable capital, the fund will also support the creation of jobs and the adoption of more sustainable processing techniques.
Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau says the plant-protein sector is innovative and growing.
"These funds will help Canadian SMEs in this sector to continue to grow. The resulting additional capital, reinvestment and innovation will bring more
products to market and will ultimately strengthen the Canadian food supply chain."
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