Small Business Funding Grants – Agricultural Food Software Support

The Canadian Industry Traceability Infrastructure Program (CITIP) supports national industry organization in the agricultural food chain to enhance, develop and implement traceability systems. This government funding for business is available to those with a strong implementation plan in place. The Canadian government funding will assess how the proposed system will collect and share traceability information for emergency management automatically with the end goal of supporting the marketing of Canadian products domestically or internationally.

Canadian Government Grants

Serving for agriculture and agri-food products, eligible support includes activities related to traceability systems development on a national or regional basis. To be eligible for funding, project proposal must support the National Agriculture and Food Traceability System (NAFTS) guidelines encouraging collection of product ID, location, and product movement and be developed for efficiency and accuracy. Focused on the critical points along the supply chain or with “full-chain” from farm to fork (i.e. meat and fresh produce), this program goal is accelerate and increase industry’s tracking and tracing capacity. Applications are to be submitted through a national or regional non-profit industry association (i.e. livestock, etc).

Canadian Government Funding

The Canadian Industry Traceability Infrastructure Program includes two types of activities:

1. Systems Development activities include strategic assessments, implementation plans and pilot project activities to support systems implementation and the development process to serve industry standards.  AAFC supports up to 90% of total project costs.
2. Based on further advanced technology, Industry Systems implementation activities may include: data management systems – collection and sharing, technology assessment and testing, technology adoption, data auditing and verification, and information utilization best practices. AAFC supports up to 50% of total project costs.

Eligible costs for reimbursement for Industry Systems Implementation may include:

• Incremental cost of services, such as salaries and benefits, including staff training;
• Consultant fees, technical advisors, inspectors for pre-audits and audit costs;
• Costs related to capital equipment items such as computers, servers, and furnishings,
• Travel costs, shipping and transportation costs within Treasury Board guidelines;
• Translation of public information in an official language

Applications may be submitted until September 30, 2012 and will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis while funding is available. All project activities must be completed no later than March 31, 2013.

Ontario Business Grants

For information on other Canadian government funding programs, reference Top Agricultural Funding Program – Small Business Funding Grants. Mentor Works serves the small business community in Southern Ontario through assistance in locating and sourcing Ontario government grants. To learn more, visit our Mentor Works Blog  and Ontario Provincial initiatives such as Government Funding – CAAP Program.