With assistance from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, COTA has developed an international marketing strategy to promote the growth of Canada’s organic sector. Internationally, COTA focuses on export marketing, trade show participation and trade missions. Domestically, COTA maintains an active presence at Canadian shows and events to promote the growth of our domestic organic market.
Export Program
COTA's export program helps supports members with funding to attend trade shows and participate in COTA-led export missions, while also providing critical market information services and regulatory support for foreign markets. This program is possible due to support from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's AgriMarketing Program.
Equivalency Arrangements
Organic equivalency arrangements are a form of bilateral or unilateral arrangement that recognizes another country’s organic standards and regulatory system as comparable. Organic equivalency arrangements are negotiated between countries to facilitate organic trade. On behalf of Canada’s organic sector, COTA has played a role in helping to bring about five equivalency arrangements between Canada’s and our key export markets.
Domestic Markets
COTA and its members regularly attend and participate in domestic trade shows and business networking events. COTA organizes exhibits, information sessions and Business to Business (B2B) meetings to promote the Canadian organic brand and help members establish valuable business contacts.
Organic Transition Program
The Organic Transition Program assists organic producers financially for their added costs incurred while transitioning to organic farming.
This program reimburses producers for their paid certification costs up to $1000 maximum.
Organic Export Support Fund
The Organic Trade Association of Canada (COTA) has a fund to promote the export of Canadian organic products worldwide. This fund provides a grant to all exporters of organic products to help cover the cost of shipping samples to foreign buyers interested in their products.