Marisa was invited to meet the Canadian Agri-food Trade Commissioner at the beautiful Canada House in Trafalgar Square to discuss collaboration around food production and particularly alternative protein opportunities as well as common goals around global food sustainability and security.
They discussed the region of Saskatchewan which holds 40% of Canada's arable land and has a history of agri-excellence. It is the world's largest exporter of peas, lentils, flaxseed, oats, wheat, canola and mustard seed and this could be helpful to supporting the supply of sustainable ingredients to UK businesses. Marisa works with a number of food companies that could be interested in this and the discussion was how Canada and the UK can work together to bring in these companies and tell them about the possible tax opportunities too.
"Companies are looking at other regions to manufacturer and to get raw products rather than just going across to the EU now and Canada is offering something different that is very appealing to some of those companies especially the start ups." Marisa said. "We have the CPTPP deal in place now and there are discussions on a UK-Canada FTA which means we can really look for opportunities for UK businesses to get good raw products but also grow their businesses with a presence in Canada. I am really excited to be part of these discussions."
There are funding schemes how opening up for businesses which can be viewed on the Innovate UK website
