Canada’s Agri-food Opportunity: The Road to $25 Billion Episode 3 - Innovation
May 13, 2024
Iain Stewart, the former President of the National Research Council Canada, and Bill Greuel, CEO of Protein Industries Canada, dive into the essential role of innovation in value-added agriculture. They discuss the challenges of translating research into marketable solutions and the barriers like talent and funding that hinder progress. Highlighting Canada's innovation gap, they emphasize the need for stronger industry commitments and collaborative efforts to unlock economic growth and achieve a $25 billion potential in the agri-food sector.
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Innovation Is A Full Continuum
- Innovation equals new or better ways of doing valued things and covers ideation through scaling to market.
- Effective innovation requires balanced support across conception, development, delivery, and scaling.
Canada Underinvests In Business Innovation
- Canadian firms underuse innovation as a competitive strategy compared with peers, shown by low R&D and equipment spending.
- Underinvestment in advanced personnel and capital causes talent loss and weaker productivity growth.
Rosetown Factory Turned Byproduct Into Jobs
- Lucent Bioscience built a multimillion-dollar factory in Rosetown, converting crop byproducts into micronutrient fertilizer.
- That facility created dozens of direct and many indirect jobs, boosting the local rural economy.
