By Tabitha Caswell
Canada is a country rich in natural resources, research excellence, and agricultural heritage. We’re also home to some of the most promising innovations in food and agri-tech—solutions that can strengthen food security, reduce emissions, and support a growing global population. Compared to other parts of the world, we’re doing a decent job feeding ourselves. But while we’re patting ourselves on the back, a big opportunity remains: becoming a global leader in sustainable agriculture and bio-based innovation.
With mounting trade pressures and the looming threat of supply chain disruptions, it’s time to rethink how we position Canada’s agricultural innovation ecosystem. Strong policies and partnerships are essential, but they must be matched with bold action and strategic investment to close persistent gaps and build a truly national bioeconomy.
A Natural Fit for Global Leadership
The bioeconomy is broad, but at its heart, it’s about using sustainable biological resources—like our forests, crops, biomass, and food by-products—to create sustainable fuels, materials, and products. Agriculture is a cornerstone of this transition, with bio-based solutions emerging in everything from soil health to circular packaging, low-impact food processing, and farm-to-fork digital traceability.
In this arena, Canada is well-positioned to lead. We have the land, the water, and the research horsepower to back innovation. Our food and agri-tech sectors are producing cutting-edge solutions: AI-driven farm tools, bio-based inputs that reduce fossil-based dependency, climate-smart greenhouses, and an endless list of other innovative products, services, and systems. The potential is obvious, but turning potential into global impact requires something we haven’t yet mastered: a coordinated national focus that supports strategic scale-up of agri-based innovations.
The Gaps We’ve Known About for Years
Across the ecosystem, we hear the same refrain: the innovation is here, but it’s stuck. It’s stuck in pilot projects, short-term grant cycles, funding gaps that miss cross-sectoral opportunities, and one-off initiatives that don’t quite make it to market. In 2024, a group of national agri-food stakeholders issued a National Call to Action outlining the systemic gaps holding Canada back: fragmented support programs, barriers to on-farm adoption, and a lack of long-term investment in commercialization pathways. Similarly, Canada’s Bioeconomy Strategy (2019), highlighted parallel hurdles including fragmented support programs, barriers to technology adoption and adaptation by Canadian MNEs and SMEs, and a lack of strategic investment in Canadian supply and value chain development.
None of these points were new revelations. Nearly a decade ago, Dominic Barton’s 2017 report urged Canada to seize its agri-food advantage, with targets to grow agri-food exports to $75 billion by 2025—a goal that was later raised to $85 billion, and more recently to $110 billion by 2028 under federal commitments in Budget 2025. And by some measure, we’re delivering: Canada surpassed $82 billion in agri-food exports by 2021, and by 2024, that number had climbed to over $102 billion.
But here’s the catch: these headline numbers mask deeper challenges. Much of our export growth has been driven by established commodities and global demand—not by commercializing and scaling Canadian innovation. The foundational issues outlined in 2017—regulatory roadblocks, commercialization gaps, infrastructure limitations, and misaligned investment—persist. If we’re doing so well while leaving so much potential on the table, imagine what we could achieve with a national plan designed to help our innovators thrive.
So, what’s holding us back? The issue isn’t a lack of ideas. It’s a lack of urgency and national focus.
This Moment Demands More
Right now, Canada has a rare window of opportunity. Global demand for healthy, sustainable food is rising, along with the need for defossilization of industry to increase productivity and competitiveness. Other countries are investing aggressively in their bioeconomies as economic drivers and industry enablers. Trade priorities are shifting, and while we keep talking about our chance to lead, we risk being left behind.
If we want to build a resilient and export-ready bioeconomy, we must do more than showcase innovation—we must invest in it, connect it, and adopt it across our regions and industries. We need to prove our ideas work, demonstrate their value, and share them with the world. That means supporting innovation commercialization in agriculture, funding AI solutions that optimize production, and helping innovators and farmers work together to scale technologies that leverage Canada’s resource endowment and propel our agriculture industry forward.
Zooming out, Canada’s food and agri-tech ecosystem doesn’t just serve domestic needs. The innovations we grow here can help solve global problems—from soil degradation and water scarcity to food waste and emissions. But only if we give those innovations a clear runway to lift off.
A National Effort, A Shared Responsibility
Organizations like Bioenterprise Canada are building national programming to help innovators scale their technologies, connect with producers, and access the support they need to grow. But this work is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. True transformation will come when we work together—not in silos, but as a unified ecosystem committed to turning our strengths into global leadership.
Canada’s Bioeconomy Strategy, developed by Bioindustrial Innovation Canada and partners, along with the BioCAN initiative are important steps toward building the collective momentum we need to create nation-building projects. By aligning messages, sharing tools, and telling real stories, BioCAN is helping to make Canada’s bioeconomy more visible—and more valuable—to policymakers, investors, and the public.
We know what the barriers are. We’ve heard them echoed in roundtables, boardrooms, various reports, and in fields across the country. We also know what the solutions look like: collaboration, sustained investment, and policy alignment across sectors and industries that prioritizes long-term outcomes over short-term wins.
Let’s Lead with More Action
Canada’s bioeconomy holds incredible promise—we all know this. The next step is to take what we’ve learned and scale it, with intention and unity.
We’re doing well, but we could be doing better. In a world facing climate, food, and energy crises, “doing well” just isn’t good enough anymore. We need to do the right thing, which means doing our very best.
Let’s build the bioeconomy Canada deserves, for us and for the rest of the world.
About Bioenterprise Canada
Bioenterprise is Canada’s Food & Agri-Tech Engine, the country’s leading agri-tech alliance, uniting innovators, partners, and investors to drive groundbreaking agri-food innovation. By providing market intelligence, mentorship, and funding, Bioenterprise bridges cutting-edge research to commercial success, helping agri-food innovations scale nationally and globally. Through its team of agri-food industry experts and Innovation Advisors, The Engine is dedicated to helping small- and medium-sized agri-food businesses connect, innovate, and grow.
About BioCAN
The Bioeconomy Communications Awareness Network (BioCAN) is a collaborative effort led by Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) and key industry partners to advance the Canadian bioeconomy. Through strategic messaging, coordinated outreach, and targeted engagement, BioCAN aims to enhance Canada’s global competitiveness, drive investment in sustainable technologies, and position Canada as a leader in bio-based innovation – all while simultaneously supporting broader societal objectives. This initiative is supported by multiple organizations working collectively to promote the bioeconomy’s role in fostering economic resilience, energy security, and job creation.
Learn more: https://www.bincanada.ca/biocan