The Canadian Dairy Commission has pledged $6 million over three years to match private-sector investment in creating or expanding uses of Canadian dairy products.
The CDC, a federal Crown corporation for development and administration of dairy production and processing policy, will put money from its new Matching Investment Fund toward product development activities such as consultations with experts, product analysis, trials and technology transfer, industrial scale tests, retrofitting of facilities, sample preparation and packaging techniques.
The maximum contribution per project from the new fund is to be $50,000 for consultations and $250,000 for product development, the commission said in a release Tuesday.
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“Each of these dollars will be matched by the participating companies, either in cash or in kind,” the CDC said.
The goal of the fund is to “encourage growth and innovation in the manufacture and use of Canadian dairy products and ingredients.”
“This matching fund is a concrete measure to encourage new product development by Canadian companies,” federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in the commission’s release. “This smart investment will increase demand for dairy and provide new and innovative products for consumers.”
The CDC, created in 1966, is meant to provide dairy producers with the opportunity “to get a fair return on their labour and investment,” and to ensure Canadian consumers are provided with “adequate supplies of quality dairy products.”
