(Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Plant Protein

Growth expected for plant protein

Apr 22, 2019 | 5:13 PM

Protein Industries Canada (PIC) is allocating $40 million in federal funds to expand value-added food production and processing on the prairies.

PIC is a not-for-profit organization created to help position Canada as a global source of high-quality plant protein and plant-based products. PIC CEO Bill Greuel said they will work with private sector partners.

“We’ve been entrusted with a $153 million grant over five years to co-invest in research projects to grow the value added processing sector in Western Canada,” Greuel said. “Our first call for proposals is issued to private sector companies that want to increase their investment in research and development to take advantage of the opportunity that we have in front of us in the global demand for plant protein.”

There are four key areas; create, grow, make and sell.

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“Create is around plant breeding, grow is around production agriculture, make is our biggest section of investment around the development of new processing technologies and new products. Sell is around developing new markets and ensuring that we can service those new markets with enhanced traceability and logistics and building on the strong brand that we have internationally.”

Greuel said there is great potential for growth.

“I think about it by the numbers. We have 70 million acres of land, we produce 60 million acres of crop and those crops are high protein crops. About 12 million metric tonnes of protein is produced either through the production of canola, pulses and cereal grain. The vast majority of those crops are mass exported as whole seed,” Gruel said. “Our objective is to do more of that processing here in Western Canada to ensure that we are extracting the most value that we can.”

Greuel said Canada is one of the few jurisdictions globally that is a net exporter of food.

“We really want to be able to capture the vast majority of that value here at home. I think there is an upside of a $19 billion opportunity if we get this right,” Greuel said.

The deadline to submit an expression of interest is June 28, 2019. A second call for proposals will open Sept. 1, 2019.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF