A federal fund to encourage diversification in Quebec communities tied to the forestry sector will put up loans for an Asbestos-area cheesemaker and a Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes berry processor.
Fromagerie l’Oiseau Bleu, based at Asbestos, will get $500,000 in repayable funding from the Temporary Initiative for the Strengthening of Quebec’s Forest Economies (TISQFE).
The startup company plans to use the funds “to acquire equipment and carry out important development work,” the federal government said in a release.
Fromagerie l’Oiseau Bleu plans to produce “specialty cheeses” using cow’s and goat’s milk, among other products, the government said.
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Fruit d’Or, operating at Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, about 90 km east of Trois-Rivieres, since 1999, processes and markets cranberries and conventional and organic blueberries.
The company will get $300,000 in repayable TISQFE funding toward the purchase and installation of labelling equipment, including software, as well as energy recovery machinery such as tanks, coolers, variable-speed drives.
The new equipment is expected to help the company “reduce its operating costs, improve production control and enhance the quality of its products,” federal Industry Minister Christian Paradis said in a release announcing the funding.
About 85 per cent of Fruit d’Or’s sales are destined to export markets including over 30 countries on four continents, the government noted.
Funding for TISQFE, set up in June 2010, flows through the federal Canada Economic Development agency in Quebec.
The initiative is meant to help “communities affected by the forestry crisis (to) diversify their economies in order to ensure their growth and create and maintain employment” and to support “small and medium-sized businesses in these communities in their efforts to secure their viability and sustainable development.”
