Category Archives: Agricultural Development

Agricultural Development, Local Food

Restaurants Canada Show 2021 – Live Online

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Restaurants Canada’s annual food service and hospitality trade event for the first time ever, will take place virtually this year from February 28-March 3, 2021.

Register NOW to exhibit in the Ontario Pavilion and SAVE!

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) is partnering with Restaurants Canada to provide Ontario food and beverage manufacturers the opportunity to promote their local products within the Ontario Pavilion. You can register by completing the RC Show 2021 application and submit it to theshow@restaurantscanada.org by February 14. Some perks of exhibiting with OMAFRA:

  • All-inclusive promotion package at a discount rate of $1,599
  • RC Member Fee will be waived under the OMAFRA group booking
  • 6 exhibitor staff registrations
  • Promotion on RC Show website (must submit .jpg logo by Feb 1)

Please complete the PDF application below if you’re interested in exhibiting within the Ontario Pavilion!

omafra-ontario-pavilion-package-rcs2021Download
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Agricultural Development, Downtown Revitalization, Economic Development

2020 Ontario Regional Economic Development: A Year In Review

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2020 has been an incredibly unique and unforgettable year, it’s also been a great year for the ON Regional Economic Development blog website. We’ve expanded our range of topics and have enjoyed watching our follow numbers grow. Below is a recap of our most popular blogs for 2020.

1. Top Ten Impacts COVID-19 Is Having on Local Economic Development and Ways That Economic Developers Can Help – April 23, 2020

Impacts of COVID-19 on local communities has left economic developers seeking guidance on how to best respond to the outbreak and offer effective support measures. This blog post discusses a ten-point action plan for how economic developer organizations can work through a three-phase recovery.

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Agricultural Development, Local Food

Learn About How Your food Business Can Be Part of the PLMA Week Virtual Trade Show

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The Private Label Manufacturers Association Trade Show will be in a virtual format where thousands of retail buyers from across the world will be searching for new business partners. The event happening February 1-5, 2021 will feature trade shows, enabling retailers and visitors to search for products and network with exhibitors using virtual communication tools. Participants will be able to exchange virtual business cards and other company information including social media accounts.

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) will be hosting the virtual Ontario Pavilion, which will assist and promote its Ontario exhibitors. The pavilion will provide opportunity for export-ready Ontario food and beverage processors to showcase their offerings to the United States and international private label buyers.

Join OMAFRA on December 15th for the Virtual PLMA Pre-Event Webinar.

The session will prepare exhibiting companies for the event and provide detailed answers to questions you may have. Topics covered include:

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Agricultural Development, Economic Development

Recap – Municipal Agriculture, Economic Development & Planning Forum

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The 12th annual Municipal Agriculture Economic Development & Planning Forum took place on November 18-19, 2020. The forum showcased exciting agricultural and rural projects happening in Huron County and throughout Ontario. Ways to engage and grow agriculture along the value chain, and opportunities for planning and economic development were highlighted to the more than 230 people in attendance.

Energetic discussions explored topics such as export as a growth strategy, direct selling in a COVID world, inspiring innovation within a municipality and more!

The forum focused on working together to grow a better future for the Agri-Food sector. Whether you want to:

  • Promote local food
  • Brand your region
  • Support export initiatives
  • Drive innovation in your region

Listed below are several tools and resources to support your work. Visit these links for more information:

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Agricultural Development, Economic Development

Funding For Sectors Intake NOW Open

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Ontario’s government is helping to grow the province’s agri-food and agri-products sectors by launching the Place to Grow: Agri-food Innovation Initiative – a program which will help drive innovation, reduce red tape, and address industry priorities. The “Funding for Sectors” stream and will support agriculture and food value-chain partners in address emerging sector challenges and opportunities to create sector wide benefits.

This cost-share intake will remain open until November 26, 2020.

FUNDING FOR SECTORS

Programming Overview

Funding supports agriculture and food value chain partners by offering cost-share funding opportunities to address identified industry priorities and outcomes for Ontario in the following areas:

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Agricultural Development, Local Food

Registration open – Selling Food to Ontario Training Workshop

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Registration is now open for the FREE Selling Food to Ontario Training Workshop, brought to you by collaboration between OMAFRA, York Region, and the Town of Georgina!

Looking to learn more about different sales channels, how they work and how to decide which channel(s) may be best for business? This webinar will help you create new opportunities for your farm or food business by learning how to expand into new markets such as farmers’ markets, restaurants, food service, and food retailers.

This webinar is best suited for farmers, producers, food & beverage start-ups, small food & beverage manufacturers and food business retailers/restaurants.

The webinar will take place on Thursday, November 5th, 2020 (8:45am-12:30pm), and participants will hear from expert speaker on the topics of:

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Agricultural Development, Economic Development

Register Now – 2020 Virtual Municipal Agriculture, Economic Development & Planning Forum

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Registration is now open – select one of the following registration links below to sign up for the Forum

The 12th annual Municipal Agriculture Economic Development & Planning Forum is being hosted virtually by Huron County on November 18-19, 2020. Two half days of sessions will be supplemented with a virtual tour of Huron County and some of its most exciting agricultural and rural projects.

If your portfolio includes rural planning, economic development or any aspect of the agriculture sector – food, farming, ag value chain businesses, workforce attraction, or agricultural innovation you won’t want to miss the 2020 Forum. The Forum will be of interest to municipal economic developers, planners, council members, CAO’s, and supporters of local economic development initiatives. The Forum looks at leading edge collaborations and innovations to grow the ag sector and your community. Two days of sessions cover a wide range of timely topics including:

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Agricultural Development

Recap: Always in Season Community of Practice Session

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On August 20, 2020 the Agriculture Economic Development and Planning Community of Practice webinar highlighted the new Always in Season Toolkit. Participants heard how different communities have introduced initiatives to help strengthen their agri-food sector.

The Always in Season toolkit is designed to help guide communities through potential activities, key performance metrics, funding opportunities, and ways to collaborate to support the agri-food sector. The toolkit is available in both French and English and provides resources for community organizations and municipalities to help them strengthen the role of local food in the community. The toolkit shows users how to:

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Agricultural Development, Economic Development

Teeny Tiny Summit Goes Virtual! Big Ideas for Small Places: A celebration and Exploration of Small-Town Possibilities

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In 2020, Teeny Tiny Summits will be moving to a virtual format featuring a series of three webinars. The virtual Teeny Tiny webinars will shine a light on creative ideas and people in small communities that have made the most of the past few months. The webinar series will be sharing ideas and actions from community leaders in small communities of all kinds for informative and inspiring sessions.

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Agricultural Development, Economic Development

Stories That Demonstrate Rural Renaissance

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The Rural Ontario Institute has created a Rural Rebound sharing platform that showcases encouraging stories and positive examples drawn from across rural Ontario. This online platform offers case studies about creative solutions from community and non profit organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs. These stories share a common theme of effective leadership and collaboration. The platform is also a source of reliable up-to-date information on local and regional government efforts, funding and grant opportunities, research findings, webinar links and more.

Below are a few great case studies shared on the platform:

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