Canada Brand for Food and Agriculture

Canada is an export dependent country and is the 5th largest exporter in the world. In 2008, Canada exported over $32 billion worth of food and agriculture around the world. The Canadian Government is investing $32 million for five years until March 2014 in the Canada Brand initiative to put the maple leaf brand on top quality products that Canadian farmers grow. The Canada Brand International Initiative is an industry-government led initiative formulated to assist Canadian exporters to leverage recognition of food/agriculture products in key international markets and differentiate themselves among global competitors. If this initiative is successful, Canadian food and agriculture will be instinctively perceived by citizens of other countries as a product that will meet or exceed their expectations in quality. Canada already has a good reputation on the international arena, and therefore, this initiative is designed to rub off some of that brand power on Canadian exports. The elements of the brand strategy are captured in a new branding handbook, “Quality is in our Nature: A Guide to Building and Managing the Canada Brand for Food and Agriculture”, that contains the brand architecture, key messages, a graphics and style section and other information to help strategically brand Canada as a supplier of safe, high quality products. This along with other tools and examples of ‘how to’ is available for qualified users who sign user agreements. In order to preserve the value of the Canada brand, the graphics and photos can only be used for products that are originally grown or harvested in Canada, and products produced elsewhere using Canadian input. Some examples of of great food products associated with their country are: Swiss chocolate, Colombian coffee, New Zealand lamb, and even our good old Canadian beef.