Sask. food businesses receive federal funding to scale up

Saskatoon – The Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre Inc and Protein Powered Farms Inc. are among projects receiving funding as part of $10.2 million in funding being provided through PrairiesCan for agri-food and advanced manufacturing innovation, and community revitalization.

Minister of Rural Economic Development Gudie Hutchings, on behalf of Minister for PrairiesCan Dan Vandal, announced federal funding of $7.9 million to help high-growth Saskatchewan businesses access the resources they need to scale up and bring their innovative products and services to new markets. The investment supports key sectors of Saskatchewan’s economy, including agriculture, agri-food and advanced manufacturing.

Through the Business Scale-up and Productivity program, the federal government is providing funding to high-growth businesses seeking to improve productivity, scale up and commercialize technology. It offers interest-free, repayable funding to incorporated businesses that have been operating in the Prairie Provinces for a minimum of two years. Three Saskatchewan BSP recipients are receiving funding through PrairiesCan:

Protein Powered Farms Inc. will receive $3,000,000 to install new plant-based fibre and extrusion equipment to increase its ingredient processing capacity and develop new products. Protein Powered Farms is a protein extraction plant, located in Perdue that extracts protein from peas, lentils and fava beans.

TC Nutrition Inc. will receive $2,797,500 to install advanced manufacturing processing and packaging equipment at its new manufacturing facility in Saskatoon. TC Nutrition manufactures and packages nutritional supplements.

SeedMaster Manufacturing Ltd. will receive $602,500 to integrate new advanced manufacturing technologies that will expand its production and export packaging capacities in order to increase global sales. Located in Emerald Park, SeedMaster designs, builds and distributes precision seeding equipment.

Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre Inc. is receiving funding of $1,000,000 through PrairiesCan’s Regional Innovation Ecosystems to enhance co-packaging capacity for the agri-food sector in Saskatchewan. RIE is open to not-for-profit organizations that support businesses, innovators and entrepreneurs, for start-up, growth, productivity, technology commercialization, technology adoption, and export and investment attraction.

“The Food Centre has been supporting companies in launching new products and providing them interim processing solutions,” said Mehmet Tulbek, president of the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre Inc. “This project will build on our current capacity to expand our capabilities in specific areas such as packaging, food processing, milling, modified ingredient scale-up, and ingredient isolation in the plant-based food sector.”