Fourteen winners and 11 honourable mentions of the Ontario Excellence in Agriculture program were named this past weekend during an awards ceremony held in conjunction with the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair at Toronto, Ont. “I am very proud to present the 2023 Excellence in Agriculture Awards at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, where it is… Read More
Category: Food Processing
It’s the end of an era for a northern Ontario cheese plant, as Gay Lea Foods Co-operative closed the Thornloe Cheese doors on Monday, October 30. The cheese and milk skimming plant has been in operation in some form since the 1940s, and was taken over by the co-op in 2019. Mike Langdon, vice president… Read More
The federal and Saskatchewan governments have announced funding of $5 million for the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre in Saskatoon. The funding, delivered through the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership (SCAP), will support the Food Centre’s work to enable the continued growth of value-added revenue and agri-food exports in the province over the next five years…. Read More
The Government of Ontario is launching a new round of the Meat Processors Capacity Improvement Initiative, with support of the federal government’s Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (SCAP) program. The $10 million program will provide funding to eligible free-standing meat plants and abattoirs to make short-term investments in meat handling and processing equipment, technologies, and practices that… Read More
Fourteen of Ontario’s agriculture organizations are collectively asking the provincial government to pause forward momentum of the proposed Bill 97 and the Proposed Provincial Planning Statement. “We stand in strong opposition to the 3 lot severances per farm parcel proposed in prime agricultural areas as well as other measures that weaken local farmland protection. We… Read More
The federal budget announced earlier this week had a handful of agriculture-related commitments, including $333 million over 10 years for the establishment of the Dairy Innovation and Investment Fund. The fund, set to be administered by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, is for research and development of new products that use solids non-fat (SNF), market development for… Read More
Alberta Beef Producers (ABP), Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association (ACFA), and the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA) have completed a resiliency report for Alberta’s meat processing sector as Part A of the Alberta Beef Competitiveness Study. The competitiveness study, titled “Building Resiliency in Alberta’s Beef Processing Industry,” was inspired by growing interest in diversifying and building capacity… Read More
McCain Foods is making a substantial investment in its Coaldale, Alta. plant, doubling the size of its facility and output. Established in 2000, the potato plant currently employs 225 people. The announced $600 million investment will provide an economic boost for the region that will create 260 new jobs, the company says. Aligned with McCain’s… Read More
Merit Functional Foods has entered receivership while owing approximately $95 million to its two main creditors — Export Development Canada (EDC) and Farm Credit Canada (FCC), according to court documents. A judge on Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench appointed PwC as the receiver for the Winnipeg-based plant protein processing company on March 1. According to… Read More
Update: Merit Functional Foods was placed in receivership on March 1. Read more here. Creditors for Merit Functional Foods are asking the Court of King’s Bench in Manitoba to appoint a receiver for the plant protein processing company. Export Development Canada and Farm Credit Canada have filed an application for the appointment of a receiver,… Read More
Canada’s federal government has allocated more funding for plant protein development across the country, so what types of investments can we expect to see coming up in this sector? Bill Greuel, CEO of Protein Industries Canada (PIC), spoke with RealAg’s Shaun Haney on the direction PIC is going with this next round of funding. Greuel… Read More
The federal government has committed another $150 million to Protein Industries Canada over the next five years, as the original funding for the innovation cluster expired last year. The protein initiative is one of five clusters receiving funding as part of the $750 million Global Innovation Cluster program that was announced in the 2022 budget… Read More
For months since the North American Lamb Company (NALCO) announced it had gone into receivership, it’s been unclear as to who would take over the Alberta assets of the company, including a large feedlot and processing facility at Picture Butte. Finally public, the majority of the Alberta assets of NALCO have been acquired by Préval AG,… Read More
OPINION Travel with me to a time not long ago when the government in Ontario was of the red variety. The former premier, at one point, went so far as to also serve as agriculture minister, in an effort, one can only imagine, to show her commitment and respect for the portfolio. Kathleen Wynne’s government… Read More
Update, as of Nov. 9: Maple Leaf Foods says it is implementing workarounds to maintain operations at its plants while a team of cybersecurity experts continues to work on resolving the “comprehensive” outage caused by a cyberattack. CEO Michael McCain told investors in a quarterly earnings call on Nov. 8 that all the company’s plants… Read More