Value-Added Program

Who can apply

To be eligible, an applicant must:

1. Be a bio-industrial processor or food processor that is in the business of changing an agricultural product into a value-added product, and either:

• operate one or more processing facilities in Alberta registered by federal or provincial inspection authorities, and market its value-added products through wholesale distribution channels to arm's length customers (not exclusively through an on-premises or single company-owned retail outlet);
• contract to have agricultural products processed on its behalf at such a registered facility in Alberta, and market them through wholesale distribution channels in the same way; or
• operate one or more such registered processing facilities in Alberta and process as a contract packager/manufacturer for a food, beverage or bio-industrial processor that markets through wholesale distribution channels.

2. Be an individual, corporation, partnership or co-operative registered in Alberta at the time of application.
3. For Stream A, have annual sales between $25,000 and $10,000,000 by the time of application; for Stream B, have annual sales of at least $1,000,000 by the time of application.
4. Be adding value past the harvest or slaughter of the agricultural product.
5. Not have an active application to, or have received funding from, another Sustainable CAP program (including the On-Farm Value-Added Program, Growing Greenhouses Program or Emerging Opportunities Program) for the same expenses or for activities with substantially the same outcomes.
6. Apply only once per program fiscal year (April 1 to March 31), under either Stream A or Stream B.
7. The Minister may approve an Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) applicant even though it does not meet requirements 1 or 2.

Not eligible to apply:

1. Industry organizations.
2. Applied research organizations.
3. Post-secondary institutions.
4. Federal, provincial and municipal governments, agencies and institutions, and similar organizations funded in whole or in part by government.
5. Retail businesses, restaurants and food establishments, including commercial kitchens, food trucks and cafeterias.

Project activities must:

1. Be in respect of a value-added product that the applicant produces (or will produce) in Alberta, or, for a contract packager, packages (or will package) in Alberta.
2. Be a type of activity listed in the Funding List (processing capacity expansion; food safety improvement; new product and process development; market development and access).
3. Be part of a project whose start date is no more than 90 calendar days after the date of the application.
4. Be part of a project for which the applicant has, by the time of application, secured at least 50% of the required investment.

Not eligible activities:

1. Cleaning, bagging, sorting, handling and/or storing of primary products.
2. Construction of walls, floors, ceilings or ancillary buildings.
3. Labels and packaging design that is not part of a New Product and Process Development activity.
4. Advertising.
5. Promotions (e.g., coupons, rebates, product giveaways).
6. Activities associated with aquaculture, aquaponics or seafood processing, except international marketing of fish and seafood products.
7. Activities supporting province-specific branding, promotion or marketing that is detrimental to another province or territory.