Investor Arlene Dickinson on Canada’s readiness to compete
Canada’s food and beverage industry is at a pivotal moment—consumer expectations are transforming, input costs are rising and supply chain disruptions remain, all against the backdrop of a trade war. Innovation is essential to maintain profitability and competitiveness. But, it’s more than that. Innovation is about food sovereignty, thriving domestically and on a global stage, where “Made in Canada” becomes a mark of quality. On this topic, we spoke to Arlene Dickinson, founder and general partner of District Ventures Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in innovative companies in the food and beverage wellness sectors, and a Dragon on CBC’s reality series Dragons’ Den. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
How does Canada’s product innovation compare to other top nations?
The agri-food space—it’s a critical sector for our nation. It’s the largest manufacturing sector we have in Canada and it doesn’t get the attention and the visibility and the funding it deserves. As a nation, we are used to shipping our commodities to other nations that commercialize those commodities into products that we buy back. There are two big challenges with that. One, when we buy [these products] back, their standards of manufacturing, the things they put in their products, are not to Canadian standards. So, we’re consuming food that is not necessarily as good for us, which is a major issue for our health system. The other challenge is, we’re missing out on the revenue of that commercialization because we are shipping the commodity at a commodity-based price, and we’re not getting the value-added price had we produced and manufactured the product ourselves. We need to set up more manufacturing and processing facilities so we can start creating products and supporting startups and scaling businesses so they don’t have to go to the U.S. to manufacture—they can do it here. This is something I’m very passionate about, and the country has every element of what is needed to create great products, yet we’re not commercializing here. And that is a huge challenge for our sovereignty. We cannot be a sovereign nation if we cannot feed ourselves. I think this is fundamental.
How can Canada market itself better?
Once we start producing more and more product here, and capitalize on the manufacturing-processing, we need to start thinking about how we amplify the Made in Canada brand. There’s a need here at home to do it more effectively and to be more cohesive so it’s consistent and people know what they’re buying. And opening more export markets, but also telling those markets why Canadian goods are better and why they should buy them. There needs to be concentrated effort from an investment in the facility side, the commercialization side and the investment in early-stage entrepreneurs. Then there needs to be investment in the Made in Canada promise that could go out to export markets and here at home.
How have supply chain issues and tariffs shaped innovation in Canada’s food and beverage sector?
COVID was a wake-up call for our dependency on other nations to provide the things we need. When we can’t get access to either ingredient resourcing or shipping at affordable prices, or other supply chain issues, we start to realize our interdependency. Canada needs to be able to stand on its own two feet. We have the resources, we have the intelligence, we have the skillset—we have all the things we need. But, there’s been complacency. We’ve just accepted that we would always be able to get what we need from everyone else. Now, we need to be more in that pioneering spirit where we figure out how to make [products] with what we have. And there’s lots of opportunity to do that.
What areas of the food system are primed for innovation in the next five to 10 years?
I think it’s in functional food. So, thinking about mushrooms, pulses, peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas and how we take those high in fibre and protein ingredients and create a variety of goods out of them. I think the innovation will be in what we can grow and how we turn it into products that capture the value of what we’ve grown. And vertical farming is interesting to me. It’s a way to feed the world, and I think someone is going to solve—sooner rather than later—how to do that at scale and make money at it.
How do you define innovation?
What's happened is this intersection of functionality and enjoyment—people want to have food they can love and appreciate, but they also need it to be functional for their bodies and to help with high performance. So, when I think about innovation, I think about two things; I think about taking old established categories and rethinking them with different flavour profiles. And, I also think about emerging categories where innovation is about the technology that infuses and imbibes adaptogens or other things into the food we consume to help us live healthier. I think it's a combination of those two areas in [the food and beverage] space.
What policy or infrastructure changes would help unlock more innovation in Canada’s food and beverage sector?
The interprovincial trade barriers have got to change and we hear that'll happen in July. That'll make a significant difference in terms of being able to ship and removing trade restrictions. We need to modernize CFIA [Canadian Food Inspection Agency], we need to modernize Health Canada processes, and we'd need to place a moratorium on new regulations. Then, we need to think about allowing industry to focus on responding and repositioning themselves in the face of global trade—how do we allow this industry to position itself? And that means working more collaboratively, because there isn't a collective voice for the agri-food industry in Canada. Also, working with the Crown Corps to make sure they're modernized and working more collectively on investment, and providing incentives to people who invest in the space. Everyday Canadians who want to invest in this space should get some sort of a tax credit or some sort of incentive. And then we need to think about the labour shortages these businesses face. Many of them are seasonal, so how are we addressing the labour shortages? There's a few places we can start to make a big difference by doing small but meaningful changes.
What are the biggest challenges Canadian food and beverage companies face when trying to innovate?
Funding is a significant issue in this country for these companies. It’s the largest manufacturing sector, but it lacks traditional VC and PE funding, because it's not considered sexy like tech or energy or other large resource driven investment opportunities. Agriculture really matters. You can't eat your phone; you can't eat oil. I mean, maybe you can eat derivatives of oil, but you know what I'm saying. Again, we're complacent. We think food is always going to be there, so getting people to invest is a huge challenge. I'd say the next thing is finding support and manufacturing—co-packing, processing—especially if you're a startup and you don't have huge volume. The other big hurdle is there's huge regulatory challenges from the different government organizations. You take [the complexity of] each province and each municipality having their own regulatory challenges, it becomes very difficult for these businesses to innovate because they can't get past the cost and the time and the effort to be able to take their innovation to market.
What does the future look like for food innovation in Canada?
I can tell you there are many of us that are doing everything we can to ensure the government pays close attention to the agri-food sector. And my hope is that the future is going to be filled with the type of changes that I've articulated already, which is a change in modernizing the regulations, ensuring investment is available, and investing in commercialization, manufacturing and processing. Canada has a real opportunity and the time is now. So, I'm very hopeful about the next four years.
This article was first published in Canadian Grocer’s June/July 2025 issue.
