Canada Seeks to Boost Economy by Processing More Food at Home

Canada's soybean industry is looking to capitalize on growing demand for plant-based protein by processing more food at home. According to New Protein International, a company working to create a commercial facility that can process Canadian soybeans into soy protein isolate, the country could unlock $25 billion in annual GDP growth with the right investments and policy support.

The issue is that Canada currently sends a significant portion of its agricultural products outside the country for processing, then imports them back. This not only decreases food sovereignty but also means the country loses out on potential economic gains.

New Protein International's demonstration plant uses a unique process to extract protein without using hexane, a petrochemical. The company aims to create Canada's first large-scale facility in the near future and plans to use 70,000 metric tonnes of soybeans to produce enough soy protein isolate to fill several million large-size protein powder tubs.

Other companies are also looking to capitalize on this trend, including Hartung Brothers, which purchases cucumbers from Canadian farms and delivers them to companies for processing in the US. However, some farmers are concerned about the tax burden in Ontario and the regulations that make it more expensive to process food in Canada.

Arlene Dickinson, founder of District Ventures Capital and star of CBC's Dragon's Den, believes that Canada needs a campaign to tout the value of its processed food to change its image for investors and other nations. She also emphasizes the importance of putting capital to work to support the growth of the food sector.

The federal government's national food security strategy aims to strengthen Canada's food processing sector by increasing the proportion of domestically-processed food consumed in Canada from 70 to 80 per cent, although there is no specific deadline for achieving this goal.