Canada launches $40 million marketing effort
Money will be used to expand market access for Canadian seafood products.
On Wednesday, Canada launched the Canadian Fish and Seafood Opportunities Fund, a new cost-shared fund (70 percent federal and 30 percent provincial) to promote market access and development for the country's seafood industry.
The fund will enable provinces and territories to support their industries' priority projects and help Canadians working in the fish and seafood sector by creating jobs and developing more opportunities for Canadian products.
The CAD42.85 million ($31.9 million/€28 million) program will support the fish and seafood sectors in all participating provinces and territories by encouraging industry collaboration to promote high-quality products, the government said.
The program supports:
- branding and promotional strategies that increase the recognition of Canada as a global leader in providing high quality, legally and sustainably sourced, value-added products;
- maintaining and accessing new markets;
- ensuring product integrity throughout the supply chain; and
- strengthening relationships and fostering increased collaboration and organization within the Canadian fish and seafood sector.
The value of Canada's fish and seafood exports reached CAD6.9 billion ($5.1 billion/€4.5 billion) in 2017. Canada exported fish and seafood products to 137 countries last year. The country's largest exports by value in 2017 were lobster, snow/queen crab, farmed Atlantic salmon, and shrimp.
"The Canadian Fish and Seafood Opportunities Fund will foster increased industry collaboration and support further promotion of Canada's fish and seafood sector as we continue to deliver on meeting the growing demand for our world-class products. This will boost our economy and increase employment opportunities for middle-class Canadians across the country," said Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
The trade group debuted the campaign at the 2018 China Fisheries and Seafood Expo in Qingdao, China.
“Now is the time to brand under Canadian Seafood, because international competition is fierce and we’ve seen Canada’s global market share slip from first place to eighth place in recent years,” said Paul Lansbergen, president of FCC.
