Feds invests $8.5M in Vaughan ‘zero waste’ food firm to catapult global export

Exporting raw material isn’t good enough, the feds wants to flaunt high-quality finished Canadian goods abroad

Yorkregion.com
April 30, 2019
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Riverside Natural Foods Ltd. in Vaughan scored an $8.5 million “repayable contribution” from the federal government in a push to increase Canadian exports, especially of finished products.

The federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau announced the handsome contribution at the company's plant in Concord on April 26.

The funding will enable Riverside Natural Foods to purchase and install robotic equipment, customize and automate their granola bar production and create new production lines for allergen-free healthy snacks in their MadeGood food line of products.

The funding is in line with the government's attempt to increase agricultural exports to $75 billion by 2025, Bibeau said. Last year, Canada exported about $67 billion.

“So investing in that type of companies who are very innovative while protecting the environment and staying socially conscious within their communities is a good way to improve our exports and grow our economy,” said Bibeau.

Riverside Natural Foods president Nima Fotovat said the firm is the “second” in Canada to have “zero waste,” with their goal to measure their success “not only by profit, but also through the impact on people and the planet from Day 1.”

Fotovat said his 400-employee company is “adding value” by processing grown-in Canada raw agricultural material.

“As mentioned by the minister, (in Canada) we tend to export them without any further processing. We are exporting a lot of oats, we export cranberries, blueberries. But here, we have taken these ingredients to make amazing tasting products.”

The added value he explained is the “automation, profitability, jobs, we are buying, employing, packaging by having one business.”

Formed in 2013, Riverside Natural Foods has seen sales of its MadeGood label -- which includes organic, allergen-free and non-GMO granola bars, squares and cereals -- increase by 75 per cent in 2018 compared to 2017’s $50 million, Fotovat said.
Canadian companies “often struggle with undercapitalization as they begin to grow,” he said adding that “support from the government is very powerful in bridging that gap.”

Riverside Natural Foods exports products to 30 countries with the U.S. and Western Europe taking the lion’s share.

“There are many markets that are in East Asia and South America that we are looking at,” Fotovat said. “But we don't want to be only in new markets but we want to grow our business within these markets.”

When asked about its top seller, Fotovat said in terms of flavour, chocolate is winning. “We have the granola chocolate chip as our No. 1 skew that people love.”

Meanwhile, Bibeau said the government has “different financial tools” to lend its support to food processing companies, and AgriInnovation is one of them.

The five-year program starting 2018 has $128 million to accelerate the adoption of innovative agro-based products and environmental sustainability

AgriInnovation has already funneled Riverside Natural Foods $782,000 in funding to allow it purchase equipment to produce healthy organic bars without the use of sugar binders.