Canola Council of Canada (CCC) president JoAnne Buth thanked the Government of Canada for investing up to $3.39 million in two new canola industry projects that will play a critical role in achieving the industry’s shared vision of 15 million tonnes of sustained canola production and demand by 2015.
“On behalf of the Canola Council of Canada, I want to thank Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and the Government of Canada for your tremendous support of our industry,” said Buth during the Saskatoon announcement.
Funding under the Agri-Marketing Program (AMP) will help Canada’s canola industry build international market demand, while funding under the Agri-Flexibility Program “will bring agricultural extension to a whole new level in this country,” said Buth.
She pointed out that AMP is particularly important, because the Canola industry is highly export reliant. Approximately 80% of Canadian canola is exported and in recent years, Canadian canola has been responsible for 65 percent of all world trade in canola.
“Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s support has been central to our promotion efforts worldwide. For example, CCC has worked in partnership with AMP on a strategic promotion program in the U.S. for the past 5 years. The U.S. market for Canadian canola oil is now $1 billion more valuable than it was 5 years ago.
“As canola acreage continues to grow and industry invests in new processing facilities in Canada, we will need to further expand our markets. AMP will help us do that.”
Grow Canola 2.015 is the new project under the Agri-Flexibility Program.
“Grow Canola 2.015 is all about farmers,” said Buth. “It is about making sure that canola growers have the information they need – agronomic information and research information — to sustainably produce 15 million tonnes of canola by 2015.”
Grow Canola 2.015 will use social media platforms to establish a new relationship between the CCC’s Crop Production team and canola farmers. That means farmers will be able to access exactly the information they need, when they need it. In practical terms, a canola grower will be able to interact with website content – with a sort of virtual agronomist — by sending pictures and texts which can then be used to localize the information they get back.
Buth said the project will play a critical role in achieving the canola industry’s shared vision of 15 million tonnes of sustained canola production and demand by 2015.
The canola industry in 2008 added $14.1 billion in economic activity to the Canadian economy. It generates more than 216,000 Canadian jobs. “Achieving our 2015 targets would generate even more exports, more economic activity, and more jobs,” said Buth.
