Driving global reach: How Export Navigator helps businesses access new markets
| Client | Community Futures British Columbia |
| Project | Export Navigator |
| Location | B.C. |
| Program | Regional Innovation Ecosystem (RIE) |
| Sector | Small business |
The Export Navigator program offers expert guidance to B.C.-based businesses looking to export to global markets by providing export education, e-courses and seminars, advisory services, and a resource directory.
Export Navigator’s network consists of community-based export advisors providing one-on-one advice that can help small business owners tap into new international markets.
Export Navigator also provides inclusive support for underrepresented groups in business, including specialized services for Indigenous-owned businesses.
How does PacifiCan support Export Navigator?
PacifiCan (and our predecessor Western Economic Diversification Canada) has been a proud supporter of Export Navigator since 2019, investing $4.8 million to help companies across B.C. become export ready and take advantage of international market opportunities.
With our support, Export Navigator expanded to the Lower Mainland, Greater Victoria, and the Sea-to-Sky Region, so more entrepreneurs across the province can access the program. PacifiCan’s investment also enhanced support for Indigenous entrepreneurs.
As of July 2025, more than 1,200 B.C. businesses have benefited from the program, including many owned by Indigenous, women and youth entrepreneurs.
In July 2025, PacifiCan announced a further investment of $1.2 M for Community Futures British Columbia to continue operating Export Navigator and $900,000 to deliver the CUSMA Compliance Advisory Services Initiative (CCASI).
This funding will provide supports to B.C. businesses to help them meet the requirements of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
How Okanagan Crush Pad leveraged 400 acres and expanded its reach to the UK and Scandinavia
“The Export Navigator Program helped us really identify the markets we were trying to focus on and why those markets were suitable for us.”
- Christine Coletta, CEO Okanagan Crush Pad
Okanagan Crush Pad opened in September 2011, and today all their vineyards, along with Haywire Winery, are certified organic.
Their wine-making and viticultural philosophy aims to completely redefine the Okanagan organic wine experience.
In addition to practicing organic viticulture, they are passionate about regenerative, mindful farming practices and biodiversity which allows their wines to show the evolving health and vitality of the vineyards in which they are from.
Learn more about this winery’s international growth through the PacifiCan-funded Export Navigator Program.
Learn more about Okanagan Crush Pad.
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