The County of St. Paul received a $200,000 ACP grant to hire a consultant to perform a Regional Agricultural Opportunity Assessment. The County seeks innovative proposals from interested parties for this STEP Regional Agricultural Opportunity Assessment. With agriculture being recognized as a one of the primary economic drivers of the region, the municipal members of the St. Paul/Elk Point Economic Development Alliance (STEP) desire the completion of an Agricultural Opportunities Assessment. This assessment will help to further the members’ understanding of the current status and recent trends in local and regional agriculture industries and how these aspects are tied into upstream and downstream businesses. Member municipalities consist of the County of St. Paul, the Town of St. Paul, and the Town of Elk Point. Utilizing the final report, elected officials, boards and committees, municipal staff, and economic development professionals should be able to identify marketing and communications strategies around: 1. Attracting and retaining supporting businesses – processors, ag innovation, support services (e.g. vets, agronomists) 2. Fostering diversity in agriculture – agritourism, small scale agriculture, controlled environment agriculture 3. Promoting access to local products, regionally and beyond – farm-to-plate marketing, famers markets, supply to niche markets The project will follow 9 Priority Areas, with the Project Objectives being: 1. Create an inventory of agricultural assets in the STEP region. 2. Undertake an opportunity assessment. 3. Develop marketing and communications materials to support the identified opportunities. The 9 Priority Areas for the regional agricultural sector are: 1. Feedstock 2. Value Add 3. Local Food 4. Retail/Service Sector 5. Agricultural Tourism 6. Logistics 7. Land and Building 8. Communication/Marketing 9. Stakeholder Identification (including roles and responsibilities) Methodology PHASE 1: AGRICULTURAL INVENTORY Research Document Review and Compilation The consultant will complete a document review of all (but not limited to) documents provided by: STEP; economic development stakeholders such as Alberta HUB, Invest Alberta, and Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation; and any other recommended sources, to establish an inventory within each of the 9 Priority Areas. Stakeholder Consultations The goal of regional stakeholder engagement in the project is three-fold: 1. To identify regional agricultural assets in the 9 Priority Areas. 2. To identify linkages between current businesses/producers and potential agricultural opportunities. 3. To identify potential barriers in capitalizing on these opportunities (for analysis in Phase 2). Deliverable: Interim Research Report: Asset Inventory Compile, analyze, and summarize initial findings and overarching themes from the research and stakeholder consultations conducted. The inventory will be broken into the 9 Priority Areas. The interim report also will provide summary reporting and a preliminary analysis of the results to be used in Phase 2. PHASE 2: AGRICULTURAL OPPORTUNITY ASSESSMENT Research Gap Analysis The consultant will collect, review, organize, and examine all data from the document review, compilation, and consultations. The analysis will focus on identifying supply chain gaps, supply chain opportunities, potential barriers, investment opportunities, and matchmaking opportunities. Deliverable Agricultural Opportunity Assessment The Agricultural Opportunity Assessment will merge the result of the Asset Inventory and the Gap Analysis. This assessment will outline the regional agricultural opportunities in the 9 Priority Areas and develop a set of Go Forward Recommendations, including development strategies and business connections in the 9 Priority Areas, as well as direct content for the Phase 3 marketing material and communications plan. PHASE 3: MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Deliverable Communications Plan: The Communications Plan will provide a framework of key messaging to assist each of the member municipalities and identified stakeholders to further understand where they fit in the future of agriculture and agribusiness promotion and its economic importance to the region. More specifically, the communications plan will: Improve regional agricultural brand awareness, in target markets and within the partner organizations. Obtain creative “building blocks” that can be used to produce future collateral and agricultural marketing campaigns. Improve and expand on communication and engagement with public and internal audiences through improved tactics, messaging, and processes regarding agricultural assets and opportunities within each of the 9 Priority Areas Proponents will provide a proposed project timeline in their proposal. Proponents will provide details on their strategy to manage stakeholder consultations.
