Grow Ontario Market Initiative gets $6 Million boost

The Grow Ontario Market Initiative is receiving an additional $6 million from the governments of Canada and Ontario to help agri-food businesses and industry organizations expand their sales and grow their markets.

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The increase brings the total funding for the Initiative through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership to $12 million.

The Grow Ontario Market Initiative was launched in 2023 to provide primary producers, food processors and industry organizations with cost-share funding to help them increase sales in domestic and foreign markets through market analysis and planning, new product development and marketing.

In addition to the new funding for the Grow Ontario Market Initiative, the Ontario government said in a release it has been promoting the province’s agriculture and food products outside the province’s borders, most recently during a successful trade mission to Mexico to promote grain and bakery products.

Lisa Thompson, Ontario’s minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, led a delegation of agri-food businesses and organizations to meet with Mexican government, trade representatives and leading food companies. The meetings provided opportunities to promote the range and quality of Ontario bakery and grain products available to Mexican buyers, and to learn more about companies’ operations and needs.

Thompson said OMAFRA is committed its Grow Ontario Strategy goal of increasing agri-food trade by eight per cent each year. The Ontario delegation to Mexico included Grain Farmers of Ontario, Baxter’s Bakery Inc., DG Global Inc., Hamilton Oshawa Port Authority, King’s Pastry, London Agricultural Commodities (LAC), and Parrish & Heimbecker.