Reuters — Canadian meat packing company Maple Leaf Foods is hunting for acquisitions in the U.S., after years spent upgrading old factories and shedding business lines, its CEO said on Wednesday. Maple Leaf, which reported on Wednesday its profits doubled in the fourth quarter, sees growth opportunities from meat produced humanely and without antibiotics, and […] Read more
Cash-rich Maple Leaf sees abundant U.S. opportunities
Root vegetables are hot and pulses continue to find favour
If vegetarian cuisine isn’t your thing, there’s another trend you will like — chocolate for breakfast
Reading Time: 2 minutes Grain bowls for breakfast; vegetables as restaurant entrees; and lots more pasta and pulses are among the predicted food trends for the coming year. “CBC food writer Julie Van Rosendaal believes that grain bowls for breakfast are returning,” said Rosalie Cunningham, a researcher with Alberta Agriculture. “Recent years have seen an increase in one-bowl meals […] Read more
Blair Roth wins pulse innovator award
Reading Time: < 1 minute Blair Roth is the winner of the third annual Alberta Pulse Industry Innovator Award. While working at Alberta Agriculture in the 1980s, Roth ran field-scale demonstrations for early soybean, lupin, fababean, chickpea, bean, pea and lentil crops. He helped establish the Alberta Pulse Growers Association and its transition to the Alberta Pulse Growers Commission in […] Read more
Producers could score big in pulse industry
Murad Al-Katib says Alberta has it all — good growing conditions, port access, and containers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Alberta has a huge opportunity in the pulse sector — and that’s just to meet demand already out there. That was only part of the good-news message that Murad Al-Katib brought to this year’s FarmTech. The future looks even brighter, said the president and CEO of AGT Foods in Regina. “Meeting the demand and supply […] Read more
Lack of buyer interest leaves lentil market without pulse
CNS Canada — Lentil buyers are keeping to the sidelines as mixed weather reports from India bring an element of turbulence into the market. Crop conditions in India are generally favourable, keeping Canada’s old- and new-crop lentil markets quiet, said Bobby Leavins of Rayglen Commodities in Saskatoon. New-crop buyers are showing little interest until India’s […] Read more
Pulse Canada sets ambitious target to expand markets
The goal is to find new uses for 25 per cent of the industry’s production by the year 2025
Reading Time: 2 minutes Pulse Canada is aiming to find new uses for up to 25 per cent of the industry’s production by the year 2025. The recently approved “25 by 2025” target was set as part of the organization’s long-term planning process and will give the whole industry a target to strive for. The industry will marshal its […] Read more
Pulse crop strategy aims to broaden pulse demand
A new market development goal for Canada’s pulse crop industry hopes to create demand in use categories where pulses aren’t yet a major player. Pulse Canada’s board on Wednesday released a new target dubbed “25 by 2025,” under which the Canadian pulse crop grower/processor industry “will marshal its resources to create new demand in new […] Read more
StatsCan lentil numbers confirm trade suspicions
CNS Canada — New Statistics Canada data has confirmed what traders already assumed: Lentil supplies aren’t lacking, despite excess moisture this year. Prices for the pulse had been trending lower with those suspicions, and buyers are looking to India for indications on where to move in the New Year. StatsCan estimates released Tuesday say farmers […] Read more
Lentils, chickpeas can help reverse soil erosion trend, U.N. says
Rome | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Planting more lentils, chickpeas and other pulses will improve the health of the world’s soils that have reached critical levels, threatening to worsen hunger and poverty levels, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday. About a third of the world’s soils are degraded because of soil […] Read more
Cool, wet weather continues to slow harvest
Alberta crop conditions as of November 1
Reading Time: 2 minutes Although the province did not receive much precipitation over the last week, continued cool, wet weather conditions were enough to slow down harvest progress. Provincially, about 76 per cent of crops are in the bin, 14 per cent swathed and 10 per cent still standing. Producers in the Southern, Central and North East Regions were […] Read more
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