Everyone from business leaders to policy makers have spent decades trying to diversify Saskatchewan’s food industry – pushing for more value-added opportunities – to build on our expertise as primary producers.
But we still have a way to go.
A new report on innovation in the food industry shows Saskatchewan lagging the rest of the country. The StatsCan report looked at investment in a variety of diversification and innovation opportunities: from new product development to improved processes.
Nationally, two-in-three companies reported at least some sort of innovation. In Saskatchewan we came in at 55-percent. Only Atlantic Canada devoted less energy to the subject.
Our softest showing was in new product innovation. Less than a quarter of the companies surveyed reported they had developed new products. We did better in the realm of marketing innovation as well as process improvement. And our best showing was in organizational innovation.
Corporate size plays a big role in this area. The bigger the company, the more likely they are to embrace innovation and we tend to have smaller enterprises when compared to national players.
