Market Development and Trade

Market Development


The Market Development program is designed to advance the agriculture, agri-food and agri-product sector's innovation and business capacity to maintain existing markets and capture emerging market opportunities. The program will provide financial assistance to eligible recipients for market development activities that enhance the export capacity of individual businesses and improve overall domestic and international access for the sector.


Intake information:

The intake for this program is now closed. Please ensure that you are checking back for information regarding program updates and future intake dates. For the most up-to-date information on upcoming programming, subscribe to the Growing Manitoba Ag newsletter (click here) and follow us on X (formerly Twitter) (@MBGovAg).

Eligible Applicants

  • primary producers
  • agri-food processors
  • agri-product processors
  • abattoirs
  • brand owners
  • Indigenous Government/Indigenous individuals, businesses, communities, and organizations, other Indigenous groups undertaking agricultural initiatives

Eligible Expenses

Eligible expenses include primary and secondary market information and research, market development and export training, professional fees for consulting, agencies and firms to create long-term market development and export plans, product development, commercialization and enhancement and participate in domestic and international market development activities that build brand awareness and support products in market. The program will support the following actions:

  • Market Information and Research
  • Market Development, Planning and Training
  • Product Commercialization
  • Domestic and International Development Activities

Market Information and Research

Funding to assist businesses or organizations to conduct market research and gather market intelligence to determine the viability of successfully entering a new market. This includes projects that conduct primary market research and development of a market research report, information or study and the purchase of secondary market research reports.

Market Development, Planning, and Training

Funding to assist businesses or organizations to participate in market development and export training, create long-term marketing and export plans, marketing materials and participate in retail marketing programs. This includes projects that provide market development and export training, creation of a long-term marketing and export plan, marketing materials and website and social media strategy and participating in retail marketing programs in-store.

Product Commercialization

Funding to assist businesses or organizations with pre-commercialization, commercialization and enhancement of new and existing innovative products to market. This includes projects that support product enhancement, production scale-up, professional shelf-life testing, product analysis, label design and compliance.

Domestic and International Development Activities

Funding to assist businesses or organizations with business-to-business (B2B) market expansion in new and existing domestic and international markets. This includes B2Bmarket development events such as trade shows, missions and meetings as well as in-store demonstrations.

Project Timeline

A project has 12 months to be completed

Cost Share Funding

A cost share ratio of 50 per cent government and 50 per cent applicant to a maximum contribution of $30,000 per applicant per project.

Additional Information and Documents

Viewing Forms: left click on the file name below and the form will open in your web browser.

Completing Forms: to complete the Applicant Information Form and the Application Worksheet, right click on the file name below, select "Save link as" and save document to your desktop. Open document by selecting file name from desktop, ensuring that the document is being opened with Adobe. If there are any issues in opening the form(s), please ensure that you have installed the most up-to-date version of Adobe.

Terms and Conditions Program Guide