A dry mustard milling firm in southwestern Saskatchewan will get a $655,000 federal government loan for a “new and innovative” milling facility.
Mustard Capital Inc. (MCI), based at Gravelbourg, Sask., plans to boost its production through a new facility at nearby Vanguard, creating nine new jobs and taking up over 5,400 tonnes of mustard per year within five years.
“This funding will allow us to buy equipment that will develop new and novel uses for mustard, and help create jobs in rural Saskatchewan,” MCI CEO Tom Halpenny said in the government’s release Wednesday.
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The repayable funding will flow through Agri-Opportunities, a five-year, $134 million federal program scheduled to wrap up in March 2011. The program aims for a funding target of 33 per cent of total project costs.
Specifically, Halpenny said in an interview, the loan will go toward capital items for processing of “new and novel” products, mainly a new “de-oiled and de-heated” yellow mustard.
Using proprietary technology, the company plans to supply the product to food processors for use as an emulsifier and thickening agent, and for use in products such as salad dressings and baked goods.
The company can make commercial amounts of the new product at its current facility, but plans to take advantage of economies of scale through the new plant, Halpenny said.
MCI is also developing other markets for the new product, which contains just 15 per cent mustard oil, down from 30 in other products. It’s already been accepted by processors for use in various applications, he said.
“We’re in the centre of mustard production here, so it’s great that it can also be processed locally into higher value products,” MCI chairman Gaetan Piche, a mustard grower at Gravelbourg, about 115 km southwest of Moose Jaw, said in the same release.
MCI’s current dry mustard milling facility makes yellow, oriental and brown mustard ingredients, mainly for use in prepared mustards, flavour enhancers, binders and extenders.
The company, which sources crops from about 250 Saskatchewan mustard growers, in February announced it would put up $1 million for the Vanguard milling facility.
The federal government at the time also pledged a separate $300,000 through its Community Adjustment Fund for MCI to buy and install milling equipment at the site.
