Boosting Canadian food exports will require close industry-government cooperation.Ottawa—While the agrifood sector and the federal government have embraced an ambitious export growth target, ensuring all the required steps are taken to achieve it remains a big challenge, speakers to the Canada 2020 Canada Brand conference said.By the end of the two-day gathering Nov. 7, David McInnes and his colleagues at Canada 2020 had a daunting collection of ideas to distill into a report with recommendations on how to make the Canada Brand a marketing advantage to present to the Trudeau government on Dec. 3.The government has set a goal of $75 billion in agriculture and food exports by 2025 while last year's Agri-Food Strategy Table called for that goal to be boosted to $85 billion.President Keith Currie of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said a big gap exists between consumers and farmers that needs to be closed. If it can't be accomplished at home, it won't be done with foreign shoppers either.“It's question of how we communicate with consumers, processors and retailers,” he said. “Primary agriculture has done a lousy job of talking with the public. The problem now is to adjust to the fast pace of change among consumers.” The question becomes whether agriculture is willing to keep pace.Another challenge for farmers will be explaining why and how they use crop protection products, he said. “We can't let government of the hook on this one either.” They can play “an important role in explaining the reasons we use them to the public.”Government economic development policies have to include sustainability for farms and rural communities, which play an important role in the value-added part of food production, he said. Environmental sustainability becomes economic sustainability for farms and rural communities. “That's the kind of communication we need.”Former Alberta Premier Aliso Redford said there needs to be a conversation in Canada about a national food strategy “to bring Canadians along with us on sustainability and that involves talking to them about we what we do and what they want.” The sector also needs to talk about the environmental impact of farming.Beena Goldenberg, CEO of Hain-Celestial Canada, which makes organic food products, said the regulatory burden in Canada discourages the food industry from expanding production in this country. “More plants have closed than have opened and the incentives available in the U.S. draw them there. We need to look at how we get this investment back here.”Claire Citeau, Executive Director of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, said trade growth can't be taken for granted. The negotiations on the new North American trade deal should have been a wake-up call to Ottawa. “We need government to help us expand. There are many opportunities out there for our exporters.”Diane Griffin, Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the committee's report earlier this year on growing the value-added food sector pointed out what needs to be done. “Only half the food grown in Canada is processed here. There is significant international potential for the value-added sector.”The report spelled out nine ways to boost Canada's competitiveness and that includes making the Canada Brand a global marketing program backed by a strong environmental sustainability program, she said. “We need a global perspective to capitalize on the Canada Brand.”Jean-Marc Ruest, Senior Vice-President of Corporate Affairs for Richardson International, said Canada also to be better at managing risk in international trade and that includes the barriers that countries are throwing up to stop imports under the guise of Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary and plant safety regulations. “Too many countries have gone this route.”Canada has been battling bogus SPS rules internationally for years and needs to keep pushing for proper science to be applied in these situations, he said. That applies domestically as well where there is a risk of parts of the agrifood sector becoming demonized by “allowing claims not supported by science to become of the decision-making process.”Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.