Mar 1, 2022

Canada Organic Trade Association receives new funding

On March 1, funding of up to $770, 000 was announced for the Canada Organic Trade Association (COTA) to support market development for organic products.

The funding will help create domestic and international export opportunities and promote the “Canada Organic” brand. The project includes the development of market activities at major food shows in Germany and the United States with additional activities related to market accessibility and technical assessments. The investment, made under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriMarketing Program, will support the association in welcoming incoming missions, offering retailer training, creating market reports and developing a directory of organic producers and exporters.

With this investment, COTA has developed a 4-module retailer training program as well as a webinar training series on how to become ‘Export Ready.’ It continues to expand the training program in order to deliver sessions virtually as well as in-person to a wide stakeholder audience. In the first two years of the program, COTA has trained more than 600 participants from 300 companies with estimated related sales close to $1.7 million.

The announcement supports the continued growth of Canada’s organics industry through increased access to domestic and international markets, export readiness and retailer training, and promotion of the industry to incoming missions.

“COTA and our members are very grateful for the continued support from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as organic agriculture and trade assist the Federal government to meet their goals on climate change,” said Tia Loftsgard, COTA’s executive eirector. “Canada Organic Trade Association Canada’s organic landscape continues to shine on the world stage and grow at a pace that highlights the increased demand for climate-friendly products by consumers worldwide.”

Globally, the organic sector shows a worth of $147.5 billion dollars in 2018, up from the $102 billion in 2016 and is expected to continue its burgeoning growth. The Canadian organic market is now the sixth-largest organic market in the world valued at $8 billion, which is up from $5.4 billion in 2017. There were more than 7,500 organic operations in Canada in 2019, accounting for roughly 2% of total agricultural land.