The provinces that CK Foods will be focusing on are Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.
US firm BI Nutraceuticals supplies ingredients to the functional food and dietary supplement industries from its facilities in Long Beach, California, Long Island, New York, Boonton, New Jersey and Suzhou and Shanghai, China.
Expansion in Canada The firm hopes its new distribution partnership will help it to expand its reach to Canada's food, beverage and nutraceutical manufacturers.
According to George Pontiakos, president and CEO of BI Nutraceuticals, the partnership with CK Foods will provide added growth for the firm's expanding business in the region.
CK Foods will distribute BI's range of more than 700 ingredients, including beverage extracts such as acai and goji berry, functional food ingredients such as psyllium, and dietary supplement ingredients such as the company's branded rosemary extracts RoseOx and Rossentia.
CK Foods, together with its nutritional raw materials division CK Nutritional Ingredients, was set up in 1982 as a distributor of baking ingredients.
Since then, it has established itself as a supplier of functional and nutritional ingredients to companies across Canada.
The company said it provides customers with strong support in formulation, concept design and product development.
BI expands reach This new distribution agreement forms part of a general outreach by BI Nutraceuticals to expand its presence globally.
According to Pontiakos, "BI continues to experience tremendous success internationally as product manufacturers worldwide demand, and we deliver, ingredients that have been sourced from the highest-quality materials, tested to ensure proper species identity and steam sterilized to eliminate potential contaminants while preserving color, flavor and bioactive components."
In October last year, BI set up a distribution agreement with Mexican group Nutraseutica International, marking the firm's first big step in the Mexican market, where it previously had only a limited presence.
At the time, Pontiakos said that BI's business has been increasing in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
The deal with Nutraseutica in Mexico was designed to allow the firm to expand internationally, while at the same time not going much further than its own doorstep.
"We think it's a very strong nutraceutical market," said Pontiakos.