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Federal funds matched by Protein Industries Supercluster

Nov 14, 2018 | 1:32 PM

Canada is a world leader in the growing market for plant-based proteins.

A new funding arrangement will help to support that industry and create jobs.

Federal funds of $153 million over 10 years will be matched by the Protein Industries Supercluster, a group of businesses and post-secondary institutions.

In making the announcement, public safety minister Ralph Goodale said it’s a quantum leap forward.

“It’s estimated this will create some 4,500 jobs across the country all from a base here in Saskatchewan and on the prairies, and will add something like $4.5 billion to the Canadian G.D.P.”

Protein Industries Canada CEO, Bill Greuel, said the project is important for the agriculture and food processing industries.

“In Western Canada we’ve got about 70 million acres of agricultural land. We produce about 60 million metric tonnes of raw commodities and that’s worth about $21 billion annually. This investment and the focus on value added processing is going to allow us to increase that value.”

Gruel said it helps producers, small and medium sized enterprises and some large multinational companies. He added it’s important work to meet demand for food around the world. 

“And of course, everybody knows the statistics around growing global population and the amount of people worldwide that are moving up into the middle class that have more disposable income to spend on food,” Greuel said.

“And that means there’s a big protein requirement that we can provide for in Western Canada.”