The federal government has made a three-year commitment to continue funding the Canadian International Grains Institute.“Our number one rule is farmers first, so if there’s an agency that’s serving farmers well, we’re going to backstop it, as CIGI is doing,” federal agriculture Gerry Ritz said May 14 at the funding announcement.CIGI executive director and former Canadian Wheat Board official Earl Geddes was effusive in his praise for the $11.5 million federal commitment.“Having this kind of very significant commitment from the federal government for the work we do with our partners is really, really thrilling for me, thrilling for our staff,” Geddes said.CIGI, which helps foreign buyers use Canadian grain, receives funding from the federal government, the wheat board, Pulse Canada and other organizations.The institute is located in an office tower near Portage and Main in downtown Winnipeg, but unlike most office buildings in the city core, it often brews beer, mills flour, bakes bread and extrudes pasta.It is an office tower redolent with the scents of the world food processing industry.Over the years, 31,000 mostly-foreign users of Canadian grain have come to the institute to be shown Canadian crops and how to best use them, with 2,000 participants coming through in the last year.Ritz praised CIGI for its work.“I can tell you this is a world class operation that is known around the world, whether in Saudi Arabia or South America, (and) when the name CIGI comes up, a lot of respect goes along with it.”Geddes said in an interview that some people might be surprised that the wheat board and the government can so easily co-operate when they are divided by issues such as the monopoly.“All the pieces fit together.”Geddes said he, Ritz, and CWB chief executive officer Ian White worked closely together during a trip to China this year.“Ultimately, the government of Canada’s goal is to increase market access and to improve market entry ability with better products,” he said.“The Canadian Wheat Board’s focused on the same thing. CIGI is the technical institution that builds the strategy around that.”
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