Limagrain has cleared another hurdle en route to establishing a plant breeding program on the Prairies.
The French seed company has acquired a minority ownership stake in Canterra Seeds, a Canadian seed distribution company whose shareholders include 175 pedigreed seed growers in Western Canada.
Limagrain paid $7 million for what is believed to be a 30 percent stake in the Winnipeg company.
The acquisition was one of the conditions that Limagrain agreed to meet before establishing Lima-grain Cereals Research Canada (LCRC), a plant breeding program that will develop new cereal grain varieties for Canadian producers.
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Limagrain representatives Cecile Cozened, Patrick Spadin and Thomas Jolliffe have also been appointed to Canterra’s board of directors.
“We’re already deep into our search for a senior breeder, which will be the first hire into the breeding program,said Erin Armstrong, LCRC’s chief executive officer.
LCRC will function as a joint venture partnership involving Canterra and Limagrain and will share the costs of setting up the program.
“The size and scope of this investment, in terms of people and resources, is substantial,” said Canterra chief executive officer Dave Hansen.
Canterra will become the exclusive distributor of LCRC varieties in Canada once the first varieties have been registered.
The breeding program will focus initially on developing and registering new wheat varieties but will eventually expand into other cereal crops.
A base for LCRC operations will be identified in the near future, Armstrong said. LCRC facilities, including labs, offices and field operations, are expected to be located in the Saskatoon area.
“Definitely before the end of the year, we hope to be able to an-nounce who the senior breeder will be,” Armstrong said.
The breeding program is planned to start next spring.
Canterra has been field testing Limagrain wheat lines in Western Canada for the past three years in hopes of to identifying genetic resources to serve as the basis for Limagrain’s newest made-in-Canada wheat varieties, expected to be available to commercial growers in five to 10 years.
This summer, Canterra also signed an agreement with Agriculture Canada and the Alberta Wheat Commission.
It will see Canterra and the wheat commission contribute cash and resources to Agriculture Canada’s Canada Prairie Spring Red wheat breeding program at Lethbridge.
