“This merger brings together two strong organizations with a common vision to serve our members and build value for the Canadian cereals industry,” said Cereals Canada board chair Jean-Marc Ruest. “Cereals Canada and Cigi have already established a close working relationship supporting the promotion of Canadian wheat and this merger will strengthen the benefits of this relationship.”

Cereals Canada was formed in 2013 and represents members of the cereal value chain while Cigi was created in 1972 to support domestic and international processors with independent technical services such as end-use quality evaluations, milling and end-use support.

The consolidated organization will operate under the Cereals Canada name, and Cigi will maintain its brand as a division within the organization.

“The next major step will be the appointment of a CEO for the amalgamated organization,” said Cigi chair Trent Rude.

The post Merger of Cereals Canada and Cigi approved appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The organization (which provides market development and technical support for Canadian wheat and other crops) is at a critical juncture as it works on details for a proposed merger with Cereals Canada.

Gary Stanford, who succeeded Bender as chair of Alberta Wheat, is also on the Cigi board while Trent Rude of Viterra replaces Bender as chair of the board, which has a near even mix of farm group reps and grain company officials.

The post Alberta reps to help chart Cigi course appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Dias, who will take over from JoAnne Buth, joined Cigi in 2009 and in his current position liaises with the Canadian value chain and international customers.

“In his progressive roles at Cigi, Dias has gained the knowledge and developed the leadership skills that will serve Cigi well,” said Bender, who farms near Bentley.

Cigi is an independent market agency that provides milling, quality and end-use functionality expertise for millers and other buyers of Canadian wheat and pulses.

The post New interim CEO for Cigi appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“Cigi’s relationships with millers and end-users around the world and the technical knowledge of Cigi staff with respect to the processes and needs of customers are critical to supporting the Canadian value chain and responding to technical issues that may impact purchasing decisions,” said CEO JoAnne Buth.

The post Cigi given $6.2 million in new funding appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

That was a key takeaway for two Prairie farmers who participated in New Crops Missions prior to Christmas.

“I was surprised in Ghana that two of the millers were using 100 per cent Canadian wheat,” said Kevin Bender, outgoing Alberta Wheat chair and a Cereals Canada rep on the trade missions organized by Cereals Canada, Cigi (Canadian International Grains Institute), and the Canadian Grain Commission.

“They don’t blend it with anything. That’s a market we definitely want to hang on to and preserve.”

Bender said many countries are pleased with the quality and consistency of Canadian wheat.

“When I’d been to Nigeria before, one of the men, I think he was a miller said, ‘With Canadian wheat, I can just start the mill and go to sleep,’” he said.

The durum market has been anything but sleepy, particularly in Italy where a country-of-origin labelling law and sensationalized ‘contamination’ claims have battered Canadian durum exports.

But there, too, millers love the quality of our grain, said Scott Hepworth, vice-chair of Saskatchewan Wheat, who travelled to Italy and North Africa on his crop mission.

“Italy was better than expected,” said Hepworth, who farms near Assiniboia, southwest of Moose Jaw. “There’s no replacement for the quality of Canadian durum. That’s been a waiting game that we’ve been watching.

“They need and want Canadian durum and right now, it’s selling at a discount. There’s hope for the future with Italy for sure.”

Canadian durum was locked out of the Italian market for much of the past year with the country’s activist farmers’ union claiming — falsely — that Canada’s durum contained high levels of glyphosate and vomitoxin. The campaign against Canadian durum was widely viewed as an effort to limit imports and drive up prices for Italian wheat farmers.

But following a lower-than-expected durum crop in Italy this year, things are changing.

“I think there’s still a need for Canadian high-quality durum there,” said Hepworth. “We’re hopeful. Durum sales have picked up into Italy over the past few months. I believe we’ll see an increase, (although) obviously not to normal levels. There’s still a lot more work to be done.”

There’s also been a bit of a rebound in sales to the Philippines, although the situation is much different there.

The country, which hasn’t been a consistent customer, had reduced the amount of wheat it had bought from Canada, but that’s changing, said Bender.

“Some of that they claimed was on (low) gluten strength in the past, but they’re coming back to the market,” said the Sylvan Lake producer.

Bender, who travelled with millers, bakers, and pasta makers as well as industry officials, also made stops in the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria as well as Ghana and the Philippines.

“One thing that surprised me a little bit in the hotter climates was concern about the moisture levels for wheat,” he said. “Here, 14.5 (per cent moisture) is what the grain commission sets for safe storage for CWRS wheat, which is fine with our climate.”

But that doesn’t cut it in countries where the temperature can top 45 C with very high humidity.

“Storage can be an issue when you get into those high temperatures and over 13 (per cent moisture),” he said. “They can’t store it for long periods without moving it, which costs money. That was something that was a concern to them.”

Getting to know which millers use wheat right away and which ones store it for a month or more is the sort of granular detail that members of the New Crops Missions bring back home.

While quality is a given, price is always a concern for overseas buyers, Bender noted.

“That goes without saying. If you are using large quantities, you want the best quality for the best price. They don’t want to pay more than they have to.”

The knowledge exchange goes both ways.

For example, some of the Filipino buyers who Bender talked to expressed interest in Canadian Prairie Spring.

“There were some inquiries about hard white winter wheat, which we grow little of,” said Bender, adding that he replied Canadian farmers would be open to growing more if they see a suitable profit.

He described the Ghanaian market as very stable, and the Nigerian market as growing.

“Lagos is the most populated city in Africa,” he said. “It’s a large market, still with potential to grow. There’s always the risk of instability there. That’s true of a lot of African nations. It’s a market that is valuable and we need to keep that one.”

The team Hepworth travelled with talked regularly about sustainable growing practices in Western Canada and how that leads to high-quality durum.

“There’s no replacement, in my opinion, for the quality of durum that western Canadian farmers produce,” said Hepworth.

There was never a shortage of questions about production practices and about quality.

“Morocco and Algeria are big buyers of quality durum for their couscous market,” he said.

It was Hepworth’s first New Crops Mission and he was impressed by the relationships that can be established with buyers.

“On the durum side of things, it was an easy message,” he said. “We’ve got the best-quality durum that we’ve ever grown. Typically, in the past, in 2016, they were worried about our DON levels.

“This year, there were no negatives in the crop. We just produced really good durum this year.”

However, durum prices are low because of less than robust demand, a situation partly due to Italy’s actions.

“On the flip side, there’s a good demand for Canadian spring wheat right now,” said Hepw

orth. “That’s why we’re seeing the price differential between the two. It isn’t common, but the supply and demand for wheat and durum are almost opposite right now.”

The post In the end, the conversation always turns to quality appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Members of the recent New Crop Mission to Asia didn’t say those exact words. But the fallout from the belligerent U.S. president’s trade war with China is definitely one of the pluses that members of the mission encountered.

“The big difference this year is the trade environment,” Cereals Canada president Cam Dahl said in an early-morning phone call from Shenzhen, China on Nov. 22.

The crop missions are a joint effort by Cereals Canada and the Canadian International Grains Institute (with support from the Canadian Grain Commission) that sees industry reps, including farmers, visit a host of countries in November and December.

One of them was Terry Young, a Lacombe-area producer and Alberta Wheat director.

Although his team travelled to Japan and Indonesia, China’s shunning of U.S. grain was very much top of mind. Young was struck by comments from a senior Canadian grain merchandising official from a major grain company, who was also on that mission. He estimated China’s wheat purchases will top 600,000 tonnes by the end of the year, a 50 per cent jump over 2017.

The trade war between China and the United States is huge, added Dahl.

“That’s changing the name of the game in Asia.”

Another difference this year is the new Trans-Pacific trade deal, particularly the lowering of tariffs on wheat from Canada and Australia, two of the 11 member nations in the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership.

However, the U.S. is not a member and — again — it goes back to Trump. One of his first acts after taking office was to withdraw from the deal.

“As of Dec. 30, that markup for Canada or Australia begins to decline by 16 per cent,” said Dahl. “It comes down by that amount. It doesn’t for the U.S. because it’s not part of the (agreement).

“We will have a major advantage going into Japan.”

Yet another factor is supply. While Mother Nature gave Prairie farmers a rough ride this year, she hammered Australia.

Severe drought has cut overall crop production in Australia by a quarter, with wheat production in the key wheat-growing area of New South Wales falling 65 per cent below the 20-year average.

“This year, the trade was somewhat on edge because Australia doesn’t have much of a crop to export,” said Young. “The only good-quality milling wheat is actually in North America this year. The Black Sea region doesn’t have great quality. So the only good crop is in North America.”

During the meetings Young attended, Japanese buyers were quite concerned that Canada would not have enough No. 1-quality wheat for them. They were also concerned about the price and the grade.

“They were never concerned about anything else, other than those three items,” he said. “Normally you get questions around deoxynivalenol (the mycotoxin caused by fusarium) in wheat.”

Japan bought 1.6 million tonnes last crop year, and is probably going to take well over two million this year, said Young.

Indonesia is very stable in its requirements, purchasing 1.7 million tonnes annually, mostly No. 2 wheat, he added.

“They like the Canadian characteristics of CWRS, they blend it with inferior wheats,” said Young. “They see value in that because CWRS has a lot of blending capacity. That’s why they use a lot of it.”

Getting to know us

Helping global wheat buyers fully understand what Canada can offer is at the heart of the missions, he added.

Young pointed to seminars for millers, bakers, and importers in both Japan and Indonesia, along with individual meetings with some of Japan’s bigger millers.

“When you’re in an individual meeting, there’s a lot more dialogue and there are no trade secrets,” he said. “It’s just a big group of millers and bakers. We do accommodate the millers and bakers in a separate meeting one on one so we can get their true evaluation. When you’re bringing over one million tonnes and are milling it, that’s huge.

“That’s one person taking an excessive amount of product. You’ve got to satisfy their needs.”

In Asia, establishing a relationship is critical to most trade deals, said Dahl. And the team approach is uniquely Canadian.

“Farmers come on all the missions and that sets the Canadians apart,” he said. “Other countries do things similarly, but Canada is the only country that takes the whole value chain.”

Various teams will travel to 17 countries in Latin America, West Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

“This is a significant undertaking,” said Dahl. “These are all the major customers that buy Canadian wheat. It is part of our customer service package.

“It’s to help our very good customers understand the quality of this year’s crop, and that the Canadian industry and the Canadian value chain is there to support them.”

Farmers from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba will all be involved.

“We have the chairs of all three provincial commissions,” he said. “We have the chair of the Western Grains Research Foundation, so we’ve got good representation from farmers.”

Young said some producers have asked him why these missions are important.

“First of all, it’s information from us to them about our crop — the millers and bakers don’t want to spend a whole lot of time trying to find the best way to mill or bake our crop this year,” he said. “Secondly, there are more of these countries that buy our product and they trust in the product.

“That’s why the farmers go. We grow the product and they want to know how we grow it, they want to know our sustainability, they want to know how we store it, and that we store it in a safe manner.

“We are the start of the value chain for them.”

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“We were surprised when it was announced that these varieties were coming out of the class. We were trying to look at all the farmers’ needs,” said Alberta Wheat Commission vice-chair Gary Stanford.

AC Muchmore, AAC Redwater, AC Domain, Vesper, and 5605 HR CL will all be moving to the Canada Northern Hard Red class effective Aug. 1, 2021.

AC Muchmore and AAC Redwater are very popular in Alberta. The former is a very short semi-dwarf with a reputation for exceptional yield and standability, while Redwater is a particularly early-maturing variety, which makes it attractive for later seeding.

“That’s a variety that growers would like to have that maybe isn’t going to be worth growing,” said Kevin Bender, Alberta Wheat chair. “They say that you can still market it, but it will be a discount in the CNHR class.”

• Read more: Wheat growers, plan this fall for next year’s wheat class changes

While Stettler and CDC Go are the reigning CWRS champions in Alberta, both Muchmore and Redwater have been literally gaining ground. Muchmore has gone from 271,000 insured acres in Alberta in 2015 to more than 398,000 acres last year, moving from the fourth most popular CWRS variety to the No. 3 spot.

Redwater was way back in the pack in 2015 with just over 22,000 insured acres in Alberta. But it has doubled and then doubled again to more than 123,000 acres last year (making it one of the Top 10 varieties).

Neither varieties are very popular in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Both are being taken out of the CWRS class over concerns about gluten strength, which has been a source of complaints from some buyers in recent years.

CNHR varieties are expected to have a lower price than CWRS.

“We don’t know how much yet,” said Bender, who farms near Sylvan Lake and Bentley. “We’ve talked to exporters and they said it kind of depends on how they can get exported and how much they can get for it. They aren’t even sure what price they can offer for it.”

But the price will definitely go down, added Stanford.

“I know that the Canadian Grain Commission is worried about the gluten strength for export markets, but we feel that there should be more process than just worrying about gluten strength,” said the Magrath-area farmer. “We think the gluten strength is very good and we need to look after all aspects of grain production for farmers.

“From a farmer’s point of view, now they’ve got to find other varieties to replace them that will work well for their area and that’s a major concern for the commission.

“It’s mainly to do with the gluten strength. It’s not to do with the agronomics or the yield potential or the overall protein that the farmers need to make a living.”

However, it’s important to “address customer concerns about inconsistent gluten strength,” the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) says on its website. It also said it is giving grain growers lots of notice.

“Throughout the wheat class modernization process, the CGC has communicated extensively with the sector about the reassignment of varieties to the CNHR class and the creation of new classes. For each reassignment, the CGC provided over two years’ public notice before changes came into effect, giving producers time to clear their existing stocks and the opportunity to market these varieties while they were still assigned to the CWRS and CPSR classes.”

But there should have been an economic analysis done on the whole value chain before these changes were announced, said Bender, who is chair of the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi) and has participated in ‘Team Canada’ trade missions.

“I know that farmers are one part of it, but what does this look like for exporters and for our customers? We hadn’t heard any complaints from our customers on these varieties so we were wondering if it was really necessary to move these varieties out.

“We were concerned too about seed growers who have switched from the 29 varieties that have been moved out earlier.”

Bender cited the example of a seed grower he knows who has propagated Redwater.

“Now that’s on the list and so growers are not going to be as prone to grow that because it’s going to be moved,” he said. “He could end up being stuck with a bunch of certified seed.

“We grew Redwater last year for the first time and we were going to grow it again this year, but now we’re having second thoughts, so we’re going back to an older variety that is still in the CWRS class.”

The post Alberta Wheat decries pending loss of two popular wheat varieties appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“We had a very successful mission,” the Mundare-area farmer said of his travels to Indonesia, Dubai, Nigeria, and Ghana last month.

“These are growth markets, and that’s a really good-news story for Canadian wheat producers.”

Porozni joined a cohort of farmers and reps from Cereals Canada, Cigi (Canadian International Grains Institute), and the Canadian Grain Commission on the two-week trip to these markets. And in those regions, sustainability was “the big theme — clean air, clean water, clean land.”

“In Canada, we have all that, but when you land in these cities and see nothing but smog and polluted rivers and people everywhere, it starts to resonate that we take it for granted,” said Porozni, who sits on the Alberta Wheat Commission and Cereals Canada boards.

Across the globe in another emerging wheat market, Kevin Auch had a similar experience.

“Sustainability is not just a North American thing — it’s something that’s becoming important around the world,” said Auch, who visited Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico City in mid-November.

“People want to make sure we’re taking care of the planet as we produce food in our production systems. There’s a real desire for sustainability in the world right now and for farmers and agriculture to consider the environment when we’re producing our food.”

And that was the message the Alberta Wheat chair stressed when talking with South American millers and bakers.

“I was sitting beside guys who are buying a quarter of a million tonnes of Canadian wheat at a time,” said Auch, who also sits on Cereals Canada’s board.

“I wanted to tell them our good-news story about how we are sustainable and how we’re producing a very nutritious and healthy crop in a very sustainable manner.

“I think we got that point across.”

Keen interest

Auch was “amazed” that 80 to 90 per cent of the buyers in those countries attended the information seminars hosted by the Canadian mission.

“We weren’t just talking to a couple of people. We were talking to the vast majority of buyers and mills and processors in those countries,” he said. “It’s a little bit intimidating in a way. Here I am as a farmer from Carmangay, Alberta, and I’m an ambassador for something that’s a lot bigger than me.”

In fact, one man drove eight hours to attend a seminar in Ecuador, which started at 8 a.m.

“He wanted to get to that meeting so much that he sacrificed a night’s sleep to get there,” said Auch. “I was quite impressed with the dedication that these buyers have — they want to come and hear about Canadian wheat and they’re interested in it.

“It’s their livelihood, and they want to make sure that they understand where their wheat is coming from and how it’s being produced.”

It’s no surprise that Canadian wheat — and wheat producers — are a hot commodity in these emerging markets. Buyers want Canada’s high-quality, high-protein wheat, and they want to hear about this year’s crop directly from the source.

“That’s why I think it’s so important for farmers to go on these trips, especially into Third World countries that don’t know what we do as producers in Western Canada,” said Porozni.

He shared an example of an ongoing concern in countries close to the equator — moisture content of wheat.

“I just showed them where I farm and explained that we struggle with moisture year after year,” said Porozni. “I explained that we would love to give them 13 per cent moisture consistently, but we just can’t.

“When you talk about it and give examples about how you struggle on your farm, instead of a scientist saying we have different climacticzones, it resonates a bit better. They’re talking about theory. I’m talking about practice.”

Black Sea threat

Consistent quality kept coming up with the millers and bakers they talked to.

“We’re known as a provider of consistent quality, and that’s quite important,” said Auch. “Bakers want to be able to have the same thing on the shelf for their customers every day. And they know that when they buy Canadian quality, what we’re telling them is actually what we’re selling them.”

By and large, Canadian hard red spring wheat is the best seller.

“In every country, there is a demand for our high-quality CWRS,” said Auch. “We’re starting to see some CPS and durum sales into these areas as well, but by far, the vast majority of what we sell into those countries is CWRS.”

In one country he visited, they actually labelled their high-quality bin as CWRS.

But for developing countries like the ones Porozni visited, Canadian wheat serves a different purpose — it’s blended with cheap wheat from the Black Sea region, which sells for about $50 a tonne less.

“If you’re… importing a million tonnes, that’s $50 million,” said Porozni. “Yeah, we’d like to sell 100 per cent wheat to these countries, but these are developing countries. They’re quite poor. Frankly, they can’t afford it.

“I’d rather send a 50 per cent blend to them than nothing.”

Every country he visited was importing Black Sea wheat and that makes building relationships more important that ever, he added.

“We need to get out there to our customers because everybody else is beating down the doors and talking about their wheat.”

Auch agrees that having the best quality isn’t, by itself, enough.

“We’re not the only country in the world that sells wheat. If we’re not there, our competitors will be. And they’ll gladly eat our lunch for us. I don’t want to see that happen.”

The post Being the best is no longer good enough appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“The end of the western Canadian deduction is happening at the end of July — that was the checkoff money that was going to fund Cigi,” said Kevin Bender, who farms nears Sylvan Lake and has served on numerous ag boards.

“So that has been in the works for a while, like how are they going to transition out of that. And so this has been part of it where the commissions stepped up and said they were going to commit.

“I think initially it was 15 cents a tonne, but that isn’t a hard number. It’s going to be whatever the needs are. If it’s a little bit less than that or if it’s more, that’s to be discussed — but we’ve committed to 15 cents a tonne. It’s a matter of getting the grain handlers on side. They’ve come on board now, too.”

The three Prairie wheat commissions and seven grain firms have committed to providing $7.7 million over the next two years. (The grain companies are Richardson International, Paterson Grain, Parrish and Heimbecker, Viterra, Cargill, G3 Canada, and the Inland Terminal Association of Canada, which is composed of five farmer-owned grain terminal companies in Alberta and Saskatchewan.) The crop commissions and grain companies will each have five seats on the board.

“We are extremely pleased that the provincial wheat commissions and the grain companies and handlers developed a consensus on a sustainable funding and governance model for Cigi,” said JoAnne Buth, the organization’s CEO.

While Cigi is highly regarded, both in Canada and abroad, its long-term funding has been up in the air since the demise of the Canadian Wheat Board, which had supported the organization. Former federal ag minister Gerry Ritz created the Western Canadian Deduction in 2012 as an interim measure.

Although the new funding is only for two years, it’s expected that that joint farmer-grain company support will continue, said Bender.

“I can’t speak for them (the grain companies) but it’s maybe something that they’re saying, ‘OK, we see good value (and) then we’ll renew going ahead.’”

The new board will meet in the fall and undertake strategic planning, he said.

The other four farmer representatives are Gary Stanford, representing the Alberta Wheat Commission; Bill Gehl and Harvey Brooks of the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission; and Drew Baker of the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association.

The grain company board members are vice-chair Brent Watchorn (Richardson International), Jim Smolik (Cargill Canada), Trent Rude (Viterra), Jean-Marc Ruest (Richardson International) and Ward Weisensel (G3 Canada).

Cigi provides applied research, training, and technical support services to drive development and use of Canadian crops — including wheat, durum, barley, canola and other oilseeds, pulses and other special crops such as canary seed and mustard — for domestic and export markets.

The post Prairie wheat commissions, grain firms to fund Cigi appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Cigi, the Canadian International Grains Institute, on Tuesday announced the new funding model, plus a new governance model setting up a new 10-member board of directors representing its sponsor organizations.

Winnipeg-based Cigi said the new funding formula will see the three wheat commissions and seven grain firms provide $7.7 million over the next two years, representing the institute’s “core funding.”

The seven grain firms supporting Cigi will include:

• privately-held Winnipeg grain companies Richardson International, Paterson Grain and Parrish and Heimbecker;
• Viterra, the Canadian grain arm of commodity firm Glencore;
• the Canadian arm of U.S. agrifood firm Cargill;
• G3 Canada, the privatized former Canadian Wheat Board (CWB); and
• five farmer-owned grain terminal companies in Saskatchewan and Alberta, represented by the Inland Terminal Association of Canada.

The Alberta Wheat Commission, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission and the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association will provide their shares of Cigi funding through their respective wheat checkoffs.

According to the wheat commissions in a separate statement, Cigi has asked the three commissions for funding that matches grain industry contributions over the next two crop years.

The commissions’ funding for Cigi replaces farmer checkoff funding the institute received through the Western Canadian Deduction. That checkoff, set up in 2012 by then-federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz following the deregulation of the CWB, sunsets on July 31, Cigi noted Tuesday.

“Today’s announcement represents the culmination of months of consultations involving the value chain,” JoAnne Buth, Cigi’s CEO since 2014, said in a release Tuesday. “We are extremely pleased that the provincial wheat commissions and the grain companies and handlers developed a consensus on a sustainable funding and governance model for Cigi.”

Where Cigi’s board had previously reflected its founding organizations, with members from the federal government, CWB and Canadian Grain Commission, the institute in 2013 reworked its governance to include representation from farmers as well as exporters, processors and others in the industry.

Under the latest funding and governance model, however, the first board will include five representatives from the wheat commissions and five representatives from the grain handler/exporter sector, elected June 29 at Cigi’s annual meeting.

Kevin Bender, a Sylvan Lake, Alta. farmer and the Alberta Wheat Commission’s vice-chair, will chair Cigi’s new board. Brent Watchorn, Richardson International’s executive vice-president for marketing, will be the new board’s vice-chair, while Jim Smolik, head of corporate affairs for Cargill Canada, will be board secretary.

New board members also include Drew Baker of the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association; Bill Gehl and Harvey Brooks of the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission;  Gary Stanford of the Alberta Wheat Commission; Trent Rude of Viterra; Jean-Marc Ruest of Richardson International; and (unavailable for the photo above) Ward Weisensel of G3 Canada.

Three previous Cigi board members, including chair Murdoch MacKay and directors Henry Van Ankum and Lawrence Yakielashek, will remain with the board as observers “to provide continuity during the transition,” Cigi said.

Randy Johner and Jim Wilson, farmer members of Cigi’s previous board, will retire as directors.

Bender, in Tuesday’s release, hailed the outgoing board members’ “foresight and determination… in guiding Cigi through a period of significant industry change.”

The new board, he said, comes to an organization with “a long and distinguished history of working on behalf of farmers and industry to promote and demonstrate the quality and functionality of Canadian grain in international markets.”

Cigi, set up as a not-for-profit body in 1972 with federal government and farmer funding via the CWB, is now billed as an independent organization working with field crop value chains in Canada and internationally.

The institute today provides applied research, training and technical support services to drive development and use of Canadian crops — including wheat, durum, barley, canola and other oilseeds, pulses and other special crops such as canaryseed and mustard — for domestic and export markets.

Cigi, which still also gets federal funding via the AgriMarketing and AgriInnovation programs, broadened its activities in recent years to include pulse crop product and market development.

That pulse crop work, Cigi said, is now backed by the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program, Pulse Canada, Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, Manitoba’s Agri-Food Research and Development Initiative (Manitoba Agriculture) and Warburtons. — AGCanada.com Network

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