Three separate federal ag funding programs will provide up to $6.4 million in total for market development and grower relations in Canada’s canola sector.
“Canadian farmers are leading the world in canola production and the Government of Canada is working with them to tap international markets and get more buyers bidding on their products,” federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Wednesday in Saskatoon.
The funds, which are conditional on the projects meeting all eligibility requirements and on the signing of contribution agreements, include:
- $2.95 million in Agri-Opportunities funding for the BioExx project, administered by BioExtraction Inc., to support “the world’s first canola extraction facility for protein fit for human consumption.” BioExx, based at Saskatoon, bills its business as extracting oil and high-value proteins from oilseeds for the global food market, using patented low-temperature extraction and its own protein separation technology.
- $1.7 million from the Agricultural Flexibility Fund to support Grow Canola 2.015, a project administered by the Canola Council of Canada for a communication system using web technology and social media to deliver “just in time” agronomic information, research results and agronomic updates to Canadian canola growers.
- $1.69 million from the AgriMarketing program for the Canola Council of Canada to “help the Canadian canola industry capture new international markets.”
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CORRECTION, Oct. 5: The online and social media project is called Grow Canola 2.015, not Growing Great 2015 as stated in a previous version of this article. Growing Great 2015 is the name of the Canola Council’s strategic plan to boost the Canadian canola industry to 15 million tonnes of sustained market demand and production by 2015. We regret the error.
