Murad Al-Katib says he never considered becoming a farmer, but his efforts on their behalf have not gone unnoticed.
The president of Saskcan Pulse Trading Inc. has received another award, this time Business Development Bank of Canada’s Young Entrepreneur Award for Saskatchewan.
He’s already been honoured as one of the country’s Top 40 Under 40 – he just turned 33 – and named by Ernst and Young as an emerging entrepreneur on the Prairies. Regina-based Saskcan has been named Saskatchewan Business of the Year and Exporter of the Year.
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“This young entrepreneurs award should actually go to about 78 people who work in this company,” Al-Katib said. “We’re all entrepreneurial.”
He figures people are going to get tired of hearing about the success of the company he founded with Arbel Pulse and Grain Co. in Turkey.
But since the first load of red split lentils was shipped out of the plant on Jan. 30, 2003, the company has enjoyed amazing success and is the second largest pulse trading company in the world behind its partner Arbel.
“We do such a large volume of shipping now that we have our own supply of containers rolling through our system,” he said.
The company is in the process of completing a $1.25 million investment to improve its infrastructure, including adding a second splitting line.
“All we’re trying to do is make our little company a success,” said Al-Katib. “We’ve kind of found our place in the world market.”
Al-Katib grew up in Davidson, Sask. His parents had emigrated from Turkey and his father practised medicine in the small town.
When Al-Katib was about six, his father began purchasing farmland, thinking that surely one of his two sons would choose to become a farmer.
That didn’t happen.
Al-Katib obtained a commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan and immediately left to pursue a masters degree in the United States. But he couldn’t stay away and returned to put his expertise in international trade to work for the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership, or STEP.
“I have a passion for this province,” he said.
It was through his work with STEP that Al-Katib recognized the opportunities for farmers to market pulses around the world. Saskcan was founded in 2001.
Last year the company, which has since acquired two other plants, exported to 62 countries. This summer, it supplied thousands of tonnes of food aid to 18 African countries.
Not content to simply export processed pulses, Al-Katib said the company continues to look at opportunities in the neutraceutical market and new uses for the proteins, starches and fibres in pulses.
“We’re young as a company but we’re not just happy with the markets Arbel has opened to us in the world.”
He expects production will soon require additional processing. Saskcan plans to introduce a splitting line at its Rosetown facility next year. Al-Katib also welcomes competition.
But the industry has to overcome a shortage of skilled labour and a transportation system that he said is in crisis because it can’t address the shift from moving bulk commodity to consumer-ready product.
Other Prairie Young Entrepreneur Award winners were Lo-Pel Manufacturing, a Manitoba company that manufactures earth scrapers used in construction, strip mining and agricultural applications, and Noise Solutions of Calgary, a company that offers sound-reducing mufflers and silencers.
