Protein Industries Canada announced a new co-investment into advancing the Canadian faba bean ecosystem. Building on the success of past projects, partners Prairie Fava, DL Seeds and Three Farmers are coming together to test the functionality of new fava bean varieties for use in consumer-facing products, particularly snack foods.
As a crop growing in both acreage and use in plant-based products, fava is an ideal option for innovative work in the ingredient and finished goods market. Prairie Fava is building on this by growing DL Seeds’ faba varieties and then utilizing them in their patented processing methods, testing them for functionality and feeding information back to DL Seeds in order to inform new variety development. They’ll then supply Three Farmers with faba ingredients for further functionality testing in Three Farmers’ line of snack foods.
“Prairie Fava, DL Seeds and Three Farmers have taken a full value chain approach to strengthening the faba bean supply chain and market in Canada — an approach that’s needed if we’re going to make Canada truly competitive in the global plant protein space,” Protein Industries Canada CEO Bill Greuel said. “By working together across the ecosystem, crop breeders, ingredient manufacturers and food processors can capture the growing global protein opportunity, while providing consumers with a variety of healthy, high-protein snack options.”
The development of each the new varieties, ingredients and finished products will strengthen the supply of faba beans in the Canadian market, helping meet the rising demand for new sources of sustainable protein. The project will also enable each company to scale its product offerings and operations, including at Three Farmers’ recently opened facility in Saskatoon. Together, the partners will create new jobs and new opportunities for Canadians.
A total of $13.2 million has been committed to the project, with Protein Industries Canada investing $5.4 million and the partners investing the remainder.
“Faba represents a tremendous opportunity for Canada’s food and agriculture sector. DL Seeds is proud to be part of this project to focus on improving faba in ways that benefit consumers as well as producers. Prairie Faba and Three Farmers are tremendous partners and share our vision for the future of faba. We are thrilled to be partnered with these dynamic organizations to innovate and grow the faba value chain,” DL Seeds General Manager Chris Anderson said.
Protein Industries Canada is one of Canada’s five Global Innovation Clusters. Protein Industries Canada and our members are working to embrace the $25 billion opportunity presented by Canada’s ingredient manufacturing, food processing and bio-product sector. Projects such as these add value to, and create new markets for, Canadian crops, generating local jobs and supporting new economic development in locations across Canada. More information can be found at theroadto25billion.ca.
