Alberta has been well known for producing high quality meat protein. Alberta is well positioned to meet growing market demand for new plant proteins and plant-based food products. Transportation infrastructure is ideal to move product east and west within Canada and to the export ports on the west coast. north and south transportation routes provide access to large fast-growing U.S. markets and to northern Canadian markets. With two major international airports Alberta is only hours away from all global markets. Alberta is also a logistic hub for major food service companies such as Sysco and GFS. Alberta is also home to major retailer distribution centres such as Sobeys, Walmart, Costco, Loblaws and has major distribution centres for Amazon currently under construction.

Alberta’s climate allows for the sustainable production of Canada’s largest variety of high-quality protein crops. With the majority of Canada’s irrigated acres of farmland there is the highest probability of the highest yields and the highest quality of these crops to ensure consistent quality and supply of these crops for processing into protein ingredients. Alberta offers many scaling opportunities for food companies.

With Alberta’s Food Processing Development Centre including food taste testing and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology there are services to assist in the development of new products and decrease the risk of new product entry. The University of Alberta is home to Canada’s Protein Research Chair, Dr. Lingyuen Chen who is researching new technologies in plant proteins. With a highly skilled labour force and a unique can-do business culture there are excellent human resources to partner with to ensure a smooth entry into production and the rapidly growing market.

The Province of Alberta is proud to work with Bridge2Food on creating new business networks in Alberta and Canada. Learn more about the great opportunities in Alberta during the Invest in Alberta´s Forum, in Calgary, June 3.

Discover these resources and meet with people who can assist you in exploring what Alberta and our communities have to offer.

More information: Norm Janssen (Norm.Janssen@gov.ab.ca), Investment Attraction Manager at Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.