Building on its initial success, the Seafood Business Accelerator is scaling across B.C.’s coast with renewed focus on Indigenous seafood harvesters.
K’ómoks Territory, The Land of Plenty, Courtenay, B.C, 29 August 2024 — T. Buck Suzuki Foundation, in partnership with Coastal Nations Fisheries, Vancouver Island University, and Island Coastal Economic Trust announce the expansion of the Seafood Business Accelerator across B.C.’s coast today.
The Seafood Business Accelerator project offers Indigenous seafood harvesters and processors industry-specific coaching, training and business development. Building upon the initial phase of the Accelerator, the first year of the new program will provide 20 seafood entrepreneurs with in-person and online training on market information, food industry skills, business coaching and expert mentoring. Participants are anticipated to extend their operating seasons and generate higher revenues based on new and expanded business opportunities. T. Buck Suzuki Foundation and their partners anticipate that the second year will offer training to a further 20 entrepreneurs.
Alongside the core program, the Accelerator will also make a series of online resources available for regional seafood enterprises interested in growing and diversifying their businesses. Ten training and business development modules will help entrepreneurs create roadmaps for growth, product development, and market expansion. The Accelerator’s online training and business development modules were created during the initial phase of the project with prior investment from Island Coast Economic Trust that is now serving to scale the expansion of this program to First Nations communities across B.C.’s coast.
By developing local processing capabilities and marketing their products, Indigenous seafood entrepreneurs will improve local and regional food security, create new employment opportunities in sustainable seafood harvesting and processing, particularly in First Nations communities, and increase the coastal B.C.’s productivity, enabling the sector to better compete in the global food ecosystem.
Building on the 2023 phase of the Accelerator, T. Buck Suzuki Foundation, in partnership with Coastal Nations Fisheries and Vancouver Island University, are focused on four goals:
- Creating new First Nations-owned-and-operated businesses by assisting entrepreneurs through the start-up phase.
- Increasing revenues for entrepreneurs by identifying new markets, products, and processes.
- Exploring new and emerging sectors within the seafood industry, both to encourage product diversity and identify marketing opportunities.
- Guiding new product development, including the use of traditional waste products, innovative packaging, and adoption of commercial systems.
The first year of the new program will be available to 20 Indigenous seafood entrepreneurs from across coastal First Nations communities. The program will be offered over two four-month SBA offerings, in fall 2024 and fall 2025.
“After such a successful pilot year of this program,” says Emily Orr, Executive Director, T. Buck Suzuki Foundation, “we’re pleased that it has received the support It needs to continue and expand its impact to First Nations communities that rely heavily on seafood production.”
The initiative demonstrates the value and effectiveness of a structured industry-specific business accelerator, generating temporary jobs for business coaches and expert mentors, creating permanent harvesting, mariculture, and value-added processing jobs in coastal communities, and nurturing an inclusive regional ecosystem unique to the B.C. seafood sector.
For more information, or to register for the upcoming program, please visit: www.seafoodbusinessaccelerator.ca.
Island Coastal Economic Trust is investing up to $90,000, in partnership with the T. Buck Suzuki Foundation, towards a project budget of $502,000 through the Trust’s Capital and Innovation Program. This new investment is partnered with contributions from New Relationship Trust and Clear Seas Indigenous Internship Program. The Trust also invested in the first phase of this project, which took place in 2022-2023.
What Leaders are Saying:
“Creating new opportunities to strengthen the connection between small-scale seafood producers in B.C. and their communities is an exciting and rewarding initiative. Access to local, sustainable, and nutritious seafood is challenged by many barriers; the logistics and marketing of seafood directly to local consumers is difficult as most of the market caters to bulk buying and exporting. The Seafood Business Accelerator program is bridging seafood producers to the support they need to strengthen their businesses and our local food systems.” – Emily Orr, Executive Director, T. Buck Suzuki Foundation
“This is the second year that Coastal Nations Fisheries LP (CNFLP) has been involved in supporting the BC Seafood Accelerator Program. CNFLP is a 100% Indigenous-owned fishing company, owned by its shareholder group of the Gitga’at, Gitxaała, Haida, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo Xai’xais, Metlakatla, Nuxalk and Wuikinuxv Nations. Two of CNFLP’s primary objectives are to create a coast-wide commercial fishing company and to support our shareholder Nations in revitalizing their community-based fishing fleets and fishers. The work of the SBA directly contributes to the collective effort of the fishing industry as we all struggle to meet the recruitment and training needs of BC’s fishing industry.” – Guy Dean, Interim CEO, Coastal Nations Fisheries LP.
“The waters off Vancouver Island produce world-class sustainable seafood that First Nations and coastal communities have long depended on. Continuing the Seafood Accelerator program with Island Coastal Economic Trust’s investment means local producers can continue to expand their businesses and grow our local economies.” – Hon Josie Osborne, MLA, Mid Island-Pacific Rim.
“After the successful launch of the BC Seafood Accelerator at the Centre for Seafood Innovation, we are investing in the continued growth of this program. By focusing on Indigenous entrepreneurs and First Nations communities, this initiative positively impacts both economic development and our community wellbeing targets by enabling locally owned businesses to compete in a global food industry.” – Aaron Stone, Chair, Island Coastal Economic Trust
Media Contacts
Jeff Bartlett
Communications and Impact Manager
Island Coastal Economic Trust
jeff@islandcoastaltrust.ca
250-871-7797
Debra Hellbach
SBA Project Manager
debra@hellbach.ca
250-858-7658
