Do you write the application?

No. We build the market rationale and the scoped project the application rests on, then hand it to a grant specialist who writes and files it. They do that better than we would, and specialists often refer work back, because a funded project needs a consultant to deliver it.

Do you take a percentage of the funding?

No. This is fee-based. Percentage-of-grant arrangements are disallowed by some programmes and create an incentive to submit weak applications in volume.

Can you guarantee the funding will be approved?

No. Approval sits with the programme and depends on eligibility, on the strength of the application and on available budget in the cycle. What we can do is not waste your time on programmes you will not qualify for.

Does registration and certification cost count as an eligible expense?

It frequently does, and that is why the sequencing matters: some programmes will not fund costs already incurred. Applying before you commit to the spend is usually worth more than applying after.

We are a small producer. Is this worth it?

Often more so, because market-entry cost is a larger share of a small producer’s budget. The threshold question is whether you have a real plan for the market: programmes fund plans, not intentions.

Service

Export Funding Strategy

There is real money available to help Canadian food companies open new markets, and a lot of it goes unclaimed by the producers it was meant for. The reasons are always the same. The programmes are not where a food company would think to look, the wording is hard going, and the rule that catches most people is that money you have already spent is usually not claimable.

What’s included

Identification of the federal and provincial programmes your business and project are eligible for
An honest read on which are worth the application effort at your size and stage
The market rationale the application rests on, which is also the plan you need whether or not you apply
A scoped project the programme will recognise, costed the way the programme costs things
Introduction to a grant specialist to write and file it, and the handover pack they need
Guidance on which market-entry costs are typically claimable and which are not
Sequencing, because costs incurred before an application is complete are not eligible

Who else you will need

These sit next to this engagement and we do not do them. They are licensed or credentialed work, and we would do them worse than the people who do them all day.

We will introduce you, and coordinate across them so nothing falls in a gap.

Writing and filing the application: A grant specialist. We scope the project and build the market rationale it rests on, then hand it over; specialists often refer work back, because a funded project needs a consultant to deliver it.

Commercial terms

Fee range: Scoped per engagement
Typical timeline: Confirmed at scoping

Questions

Do you write the application?: No. We build the market rationale and the scoped project the application rests on, then hand it to a grant specialist who writes and files it. They do that better than we would, and specialists often refer work back, because a funded project needs a consultant to deliver it.
Do you take a percentage of the funding?: No. This is fee-based. Percentage-of-grant arrangements are disallowed by some programmes and create an incentive to submit weak applications in volume.
Can you guarantee the funding will be approved?: No. Approval sits with the programme and depends on eligibility, on the strength of the application and on available budget in the cycle. What we can do is not waste your time on programmes you will not qualify for.
Does registration and certification cost count as an eligible expense?: It frequently does, and that is why the sequencing matters: some programmes will not fund costs already incurred. Applying before you commit to the spend is usually worth more than applying after.
We are a small producer. Is this worth it?: Often more so, because market-entry cost is a larger share of a small producer’s budget. The threshold question is whether you have a real plan for the market: programmes fund plans, not intentions.

Read before you brief us

The reasoning behind this work, written out in full and free to read. You will brief us better for having read it, and you may decide you do not need us for part of it.

Start with Vietnam: why the six markets are not one decision
"ASEAN entry" is a phrase that costs money. These are six regulators, six registration routes and two entirely different tariff positions, and entering them in the wrong order is how a budget gets spent proving something the first market would have told you. A sequence, and the reasoning behind it.
Who pays for market entry: why food exporters sit outside CanExport, and inside AgriMarketing
CanExport SMEs is the programme every Canadian exporter has heard of, and the wrong one for a food business: the sector was moved out of it. The programme that now carries agri-food pays a larger share, stays open for years rather than weeks, and asks for the market work an entry there needs anyway.
The AgriMarketing Program: seventy-five million dollars, and what it will actually pay for
A new five-year funding envelope opened to applications in February 2026, it names the Indo-Pacific as a priority, and it covers fish and seafood explicitly. The numbers, the dates and the cost-share rule that decides whether you can use it at all.
Which export funding programme you are eligible for, decided by what you make
CanExport and AgriMarketing are not two doors into one building. Which one is open to you is decided by your core business activity, and the programme documents themselves say where each kind of company should go. Getting it wrong costs an intake cycle.
What export funding will not pay for, and the dates that decide it
Most funding money is lost to two rules nobody reads: a cost incurred on the wrong date is ineligible however well it fits the program, and a cost that is not tied to a specific named market is ineligible however genuinely it advances the export plan.
Your first food export from Canada, in the order the work actually happens
Most guidance starts with finding a buyer. That is the step most likely to be undone by the ones nobody mentioned, because a buyer commits you to a timeline before you know whether the market is open to your product at all.
Getting halal certified, and the harder job of keeping it
The audit is the visible part and the cheap part. What a certifier is really assessing is whether the plant can demonstrate control it already exercises, and whether it will still be exercising it when nobody is watching.