Winnipeg — Western Canadian’s only quinoa processor has increased its contracted acreage this spring, but competition from South America has stopped the company from expanding as much as it had hoped.
Michael Dutcheshen, general manager at Northern Quinoa Corp. (NorQuin) said the company contracted an additional 430 acres this season, which brought the total to 5,500.
NorQuin said in June last year he hoped to double operations for this summer after jumping from 1,600 acres to 5,070 in 2014.
“South America has been planting a lot of quinoa and that has driven down prices as a result, which also affects things on this end,” Dutcheshen said.
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Dutcheshen says quinoa can be a difficult crop to grow.
“It’s a special crop, and you’ve got to treat it like a special crop,” he said.
“It’s a downside to getting more acreage, because you can’t just get any farmer to do it. They need to be a little more committed, a little more experimental.”
Dutcheshen said farmers still have time to sign up to grow this season, but he doesn’t expect to get more than another 500 acres.
NorQuin operates in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta. Most of its growers have planted already, and their crops are starting to emerge.
Quinoa, which is native to South America, is often mistakenly called a grain, but it is classified as a pseudo-cereal.
Some have dubbed it a high protein superfood.
One of quinoa’s other benefits is its resilience in cooler temperatures.
“One of our farmers lost about 60,000 acres (of other crops) to a frost, but the quinoa that he planted survived,” Dutcheshen said.
Dutcheshen said NorQuin wants to show consumers that quinoa can be versatile. He said most people are familiar with eating it like rice, but it can be ground into flour or turned into protein bars or crisps.
“Quinoa is becoming more popular, but the demand has got to be built up a bit first.”
