SEAFOOD BUSINESS ACCELERATOR
The Seafood Business Accelerator (SBA) is a BC-based program to help local small-scale fishers and farmers develop more sustainable, profitable seafood businesses.
The Seafood Business Accelerator Program
The goal of the Seafood Business Accelerator (SBA) is to support innovation, profitability, and sustainability for small scale seafood entrepreneurs - to help seafood enterprises go farther and grow faster than they would have gone alone. The SBA provides food industry training, coaching, business advice, and one-on-one support from food industry experts to help participants focus in on a specific project and start working on it. The SBA offers both in-person and online activities to facilitate learning, project implementation, and network development.
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The Program at a Glance
Program Value
SBA participants will receive approximately $6,500 in services (i.e., 12 hours of business coaching, with $3,000 in expert services from a food development chef, food scientist, seafood marketer, social expert, and others, etc.) All told, SBA sessions add up to 54 hours over 8-10 weeks, however you may want to invest more time to maximize the acceleration of your project!
The SBA was developed by the Centre for Seafood Innovation at Vancouver Island University in partnership with the BC Commercial Fishing Caucus. The program is funded by the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Island Coastal Economic Trust, the Food Processing Skills Canada's Student Work Placement Program, and T. Buck Suzuki Foundation. Generous in-kind contributions came from Vancouver Island University and the BC Commercial Fishing Caucus. The Native Fishing Association, BC Young Fishermen's Network, BC Shellfish Growers Association, and the Pacific Seaweed Industry Association provided letters of support for the SBA.​
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food
