Market Development and Trade

Market Development



Accepting applications until 11:59 on July 10, 2025
Program guidelines have been revised for this intake. Please review carefully to ensure eligibility before applying.
 

The Market Development program is designed to advance the agriculture, agri-food and agri-product sector's innovation and business capacity to enter new markets, maintain existing markets and capture emerging market opportunities. The program will provide financial assistance to eligible recipients for market development activities that enhance interprovincial and international export capacity of individual businesses and improve overall domestic and international trade access for the sector.

Intake information

The intake for this program is currently open; funding requests will be accepted from May 29, 2025 to 11:59PM on July 10, 2025.

Applications must be received by July 10, 2025, to be considered for funding. Applications will not be accepted after this deadline.

Eligible Applicants

  • Agri-food processors
  • Agri-product processors
  • Abattoirs
  • Brand owners
  • Indigenous government, businesses, communities, and organizations

Eligible Expenses

Eligible expenses include primary and secondary market information and research, export training, professional fees for consulting, agencies and firms to create export strategy, analysis supply chain management and create a social media strategy, pre-commercialization, commercialization and enhancement of products and processes and participate in interprovincial and international market development activities that build brand awareness and support products in market.

The program will support the following activities:

  • Market Intelligence and Research
  • Market Development Planning and Training
  • Product Commercialization
  • Market Development

Market Intelligence and Research

Funding to assist businesses to gather market intelligence and conduct market research to determine the viability of successfully entering a new market or expanding an existing market. This includes projects that conduct primary market intelligence and research to gain market insights and the purchase of secondary market intelligence and research reports and studies and support interprovincial and international trade.

Market Development Planning and Training

Funding to assist businesses to participate in interprovincial and international market development planning and export training, create an export strategy, marketing materials and promote products in-store. This includes projects that provide export capacity building training, creation of a interprovincial and international export strategy, marketing materials, website, social media strategy and participating in retail marketing programs in-store.

Product Commercialization

Funding to assist businesses with pre-commercialization, commercialization, and enhancement of new and existing innovative products to market. This includes projects that support product and process development, enhancement and scale-up, identifying ingredient suppliers, shelf-life testing, product analysis, label design and compliance.

Market Development

Funding to assist businesses to participate in interprovincial and international business-to-business (B2B) trade shows, missions and/or meetings, product sampling and promotion to facilitate market expansion in new and existing markets.

Project Timeline

All projects shall start on April 1, 2025 or later.

Project activities must be completed, and all reports submitted on or before September 30, 2026.

Cost Share Funding

A cost share ratio of 50 per cent government and 50 per cent applicant to a maximum contribution of $30,000 per applicant per intake. The minimum project size that will be accepted is $3,000 in eligible expenses.

Additional Information and Documents

Viewing Forms: left click on the file name below and the form will open in your web browser.

Completing Forms: to complete the Applicant Information Form, Application Worksheet and Application Budget Template, right click on the file name below, select "Save link as" and save document to your desktop. Open document by selecting file name from desktop, ensuring that the document is being opened with Adobe. If there are any issues in opening the form(s), please ensure that you have installed the most up-to-date version of Adobe.

For more details about the program and instructions on how to fill out the application forms, watch the recorded webinars on YouTube:

Terms and Conditions Program Guide Applicant Information Form Application Worksheet Budget Template Sample Agreement