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By Alice McFarlane

Food Development Centre

FCL investment brings local food to the table

Oct 5, 2019 | 10:01 AM

Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) is providing financial support for the food manufacturing industry in the province.

Kicking off Agriculture Month in Saskatoon this morning, FCL announced $500,000 for the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre’s expansion project, which will increase value-added processing.

FCL Vice-President Ag and Consumer Business Ron Healey said that means more locally grown food can be processed at the Food Centre and then sold by local co-ops across Western Canada.

“We really believe we are in a unique space where we’re partnering with producers in primary production, processing, distribution and ultimately, to get product on the grocery shelves,” Healey said. “Our goal is to get as many local, nutritious products as we can through our grocery stores.”

“We saw this as a great opportunity to partner with the Food Development Centre here to expand canning and condiment production to allow new products to come forward. Initially it will be pickles,” he added.

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The $7.5 million project will include a new bottling line and pasteurization system for canning low-acid foods and construction of more processing space.

“When you think back in 2018, Canada imported almost $87 million worth of pickles and in contrast there was less than three million produced here in Canada. This expansion is going to allow us to move forward with a canning line that will allow us to bring forward Canadian made, locally grown pickles and you’ll see those in the grocery stores at Co-ops in the coming weeks.” Healey said.

This line will also be used to diversify products including relishes, mustards and salsas. Healey said FCL also has great relationships with other sectors including pulses and livestock.

FCL has been working with vegetable growers in Saskatchewan where last year local co-ops across western Canada purchased over 36 million pounds of produce and vegetables from local growers.

“And again, what’s exciting about the announcement today is we’re going to be able to take that business and actually take it to the next level with value added processing to make products like pickles so we’re excited about this,” Healey said. We’re seeing it in terms of market research and also in terms of our sales. We see an increasing demand of consumers to want to support local, to try and get the best quality product, the freshest quality product available and certainly that comes from local.”

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF