As much as 19 hours of sunshine per day have helped a farm family in northern Alberta create an agrifood company that aims to provide gluten-free organic oats to health-conscious consumers around the world.
“We’re the furthest northern farm community in Canada, and that’s why the oats grow so well,” said David Friesen, director of operations at Mackenzie Oat Millers in La Crete, Alta. The hamlet is about 670 kilometres north of Edmonton.
Much of the organic oats grown in Canada are raised in Mackenzie County, which borders the Northwest Territories in northeastern Alberta. As the province’s largest rural municipality, it contains about 19.2 million acres of land, making it bigger than New Brunswick.
Read Also
Trade war may create Canadian economic opportunities
Canada’s current tariff woes could open chances for long-term economic growth and a stronger Canadian economy, consultant says — It’s happened before.
Besides well-drained soil, sunlight is crucial to growing oats, said Friesen. It gives the county a significant advantage in terms of gluten-free oat production, which is further heightened by the fact the area contains a high concentration of small organic farmers, he said.
Although pure oats are naturally gluten free, crops can be contaminated by grains such as barley or wheat, he said.
“We’re very conscious that farmers, especially on the organic side, they’re really watching what they’re doing when they’re harvesting and cleaning combines and stuff.”
It also helps that the county has a small population, said Friesen.
“We know the producers really well. Most of them just go to our church or they’re in our town, so we really have a good connection with them.”
However, Mackenzie Oat Growers also has a colour sorter that was designed and supplied by North Valley Ag and Equipment of Prince Edward Island. The machinery uses infrared technology to detect and remove non-oat kernels of grain, said Friesen.
Barley is particularly difficult to sort from oats because it has a similar weight and length, he said.
“And you can set your sensitivities to ensure that nothing passes, and I didn’t believe it the first time they said it was possible, but it’s incredible.”
About 40 percent of the organic oats grown in Western Canada are raised in Alberta, said the Mackenzie Agriculture website. There were 262 farms reporting 52,983 acres of oats in the county in 2016, up from 187 farms totaling 38,396 acres in 2011, it said.
Producers previously had to take their oats to companies such as Richardson Milling Ltd. near Manola in Barrhead County, which is about 600 km south of La Crete.
“It’s quite a bit more shipping that they have to do to get it to these mills, so that increases costs, and that’s where the idea came from of doing it locally.”
Most farmers only need to travel about 20 to 30 km to deliver their harvests to Mackenzie Oat Millers, said Friesen. Transportation costs are further reduced because the milling process lowers the shipping weight of the company’s outgoing products by about 25 percent, said Friesen.
The company’s location also means producers can use the byproducts from the milling process such as straw for feed, adding value to local cattle operations, he said. The longer distance to locations such as Manola made this arrangement too costly to be feasible, he added.
Friesen said Mackenzie Oat Millers made a point of becoming organic certified.
“We’re specialized in gluten-free products, we do gluten testing on every bag that we send out, and it’s been working really good.”
He spoke during a telephone interview March 9 at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California.
“I’m at the one of the biggest conventions of natural foods in the world right now, and the feedback I’m getting from future clients and companies is phenomenal.”
Consumers around the world are becoming increasingly conscious about their health, leading them to select food such as oats, which are regarded as superfoods, he said. As a natural whole grain that is gluten free, oats contain fibre as well as healthy carbohydrates, along with nutrients such as minerals, antioxidants and vitamins.
Health benefits include lower cholesterol and blood sugars as well as weight loss, along with the prevention of coronary disease and some types of cancers, said the Mackenzie Oat Growers’ website. “Good food is an investment in our health and future.”
It said there is also an increasing demand for food that is grown using sustainable farming practices.
The idea behind Mackenzie Oat Growers began with Friesen and his father-in-law, George Teichroeb, who are both organic farmers.
“We ran with it for three years, and then recruited the rest of the guys in the family to join us.”
About 60 percent of all Canadian oats is sent to the United States. The company currently reflects that trend by exporting products such as gluten-free organic rolled oats and oat groats to the American market, where they are used to create oat milk and oat flour, said Friesen.
Although he expected to further expand sales in the U.S., he is also working on entering new markets such as South Korea, China and Europe. The Chinese breakfast cereal market alone is worth an estimated US $1.1 billion, with the demand for ready-to-eat oatmeal increasing among all age demographics, said the Mackenzie Agriculture website.
