Grant: Technology Access Centre

In Canada, food and beverage manufacturing cumulates for 290,000 jobs across 6,200 companies, accounting for $92.9 billion in total value of shipments; $39 billion (42%) is from Ontario alone, where 3,000 food processing companies support over 132,000 jobs. The Ontario agri-food cluster is larger than the automotive sector in the province, when annual Ontario agriculture revenues of $50 billion are included. There are 109 food and beverage processors in the Niagara Region alone, and Niagara is home to almost 1,200 food service businesses, and 39% of the land is used for human food production. In order to help Niagara food and beverage companies stay strong and thrive in competitive emerging global markets, Niagara College is proposing to expand, in partnership with local industry and NSERC, the Canadian Food & Wine Institute Innovation Centre (CFWI IC). At CFWI IC, companies access an array of state-of-the-art equipment, expertise and services to support product innovation, process improvement and commercialization, all of which are keys to their success and growth. The emphasis of the Centre is on food and beverages; demand for Niagara Colleges services in this sector and successful projects have come from local companies producing, for example, non-alcoholic beer, frozen curried meals, Greek yogourt toppings, and game meat products. CFWI IC is an integral and key part of the Niagara Region innovation ecosystem, and its team of faculty, students and staff currently offers two axes of services for food and beverage companies: Innovation Solutions and Commercialization Solutions, both of them requested by our local partners.