Saskatchewan’s food processing industry hopes a multimillion-dollar investment in a food processing and development facility will result in new food products made with home-grown ingredients.
Federal government officials announced Feb. 20 that Western Economic Diversification will invest $4.35 million in the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre in Saskatoon.
The investment will allow the food centre to expand its capacity and add new facilities, including food development and analysis laboratories and suites for testing new food development technologies.
The expansion will also include space that allows small- and medium-sized enterprises to develop, test and commercialize new food products for domestic and export markets.
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“We are pleased to invest in a modern, one-stop facility to help Saskatchewan’s food industry increase its productivity and competitiveness in domestic and international markets,” said minister of state for foreign affairs Lynne Yelich, the Saskatoon area MP who made the funding announcement.
Value-added products made in the province will create new jobs and new markets for Saskatchewan farm products, she added.
The Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre is a non-profit organization that helps food processors develop value-added food products.
The centre has assisted in the development of more than 600 food product since it was opened more than 15 years ago. Roughly 300 of those have already reached the marketplace.
The food centre is based at the University of Saskatchewan.
The $4.35 million investment is being billed as capital for “agri-food innovation.”
Centre president Dan Prefontaine said the investment will benefit farmers and value-added processors.
“Saskatchewan’s agriculture sector will achieve long-term benefits directly from this investment by increasing our ability to expand global market opportunities in value-added processing,” he said.
“The … new agri-food innovation centre will support innovation and technology through enhanced expertise, training and commercialization resources to assist our industry in accessing new markets with new products and services.”
The centre operates on a fee-for-service basis. Fees are used to pay for programming.
Additional operating funds come from the interest generated by an $8.5 million Agri-Food Innovation Fund endowment.
The food centre’s existing facilities contain specialized processing equipment and federally inspected processing capacity that can be used to develop dairy goods, meat, processed food and organic products.
