A Saskatchewan-based, Indigenous owned and operated company is harvesting organic wild rice along with cultivating a sense of community pride, profit, and support.
NWC Wild Rice Company is comprised of three different Indigenous groups: Metis, Dene and Cree, and was created in 2019 to establish a voice for the harvesters, opposed to having the product —and profit — leave their community.
“We noticed that wild rice harvesters, they would sell their wild rice to wild rice buyers in northwest Saskatchewan and a lot of the product would leave the community and the profits with the community and buyers would leave the community as well. So we had wanted to have our own company and have more say,” says Wehkwas Durocher, marketing and social media manager for NWC.
Currently, the company has roughly a dozen harvesters and the profits from their product is funnelled back to them and their community.
At Canada’s Farm Show 2022, the first day of the event was deemed Innovation Day and National Indigenous Peoples Day, of which Durocher says recognizing the efforts of all Indigenous companies is important. She was thankful to have a spot at the show to shine the spotlight on their product and the importance of supporting local.
NWC’s 100 per cent certified organic wild rice comes in three different varieties: premium long grain, medium grain, and large broken wild rice. All their products can be found online and through select retailers in Saskatoon, Sask.
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