The province is over halfway to meeting the investment and employment goals within its Protein Advantage Strategy, said Ag Minister Derek Johnson.
“This is outstanding,” said Johnson as he opened the virtual Manitoba Protein Summit on February 22.
Manitoba attracted around $73 million in new investment in 2021 for a total of $753 million in new protein sector investments since the strategy rolled out in fall of 2019, according to provincial reports. In 2019 and 2020, the province attracted over $680 million, a provincial report says.
The strategy’s goal is $1.5 billion in new protein investments by 2025.
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A highlight report for 2021 says 840 jobs have been created in the protein industry since the strategy launched, up from 600 total in 2019-20. This is over halfway to the goal of 1,550 jobs created by 2025.
The province has also put around $6 million towards protein-related research since 2019, said Deputy Ag Minister Dori Gingera-Beauchemin during a panel discussion on the first day of the protein summit. This is 58 per cent of its research and innovation funding, exceeding its goal of 33 per cent of that funding towards protein, she said.
It’s not clear which investments are part of the $73-million investment figure. The 2021 report highlights the $182-million Maple Leaf Foods investment in expanding its Winnipeg processing operations and a $1.9-million provincial investment to train 350 new and existing employees.
In October, Maple Leaf Foods said the finished expansion, once production hit full swing, would require 350 new employees.
Tech firm Farmer’s Edge announced a $17-million pilot that will work on traceability and benchmarking grain grown in Manitoba, the report says.
Altona-based Buffalo Creek Mills is setting up a kiln for processing oats into food ingredients, which the report says will grow its staff from three to 42 jobs.
In December, Buffalo Creek Mills CEO Ryan Penner told the Co-operator the expansion would add nearly 20 jobs, and that it was made possible through a $5.1-million federal loan.
The Co-operator asked the province to explain which investments made up the job and investment totals for 2021. It responded but did not provide an itemized explanation.
In an emailed statement, a provincial spokesperson attributed the $753-million total to investments like the Maple Leaf expansion, Avena Foods’ $3-million investment in 2020 to expand its pulse flour-processing facility, Patterson Global Foods’ announced $94-million oat-processing facility in 2019, and the $150-million Merit Functional Foods pea-and canola-processing facility announced in 2019.
The Merit facility was announced in July 2019 while the protein strategy was under consultation but had not been officially released.
The statement also referenced the Roquette pea-processing plant near Portage la Prairie, which opened in late 2021 but was announced in 2017, a $400-million investment.
The protein strategy also contains sustainability goals such as a 15 per cent reduction in carbon intensity per kilogram of animal protein produced.
To measure this, the Manitoba Protein Consortium must first develop metrics to quantify these gains — work that’s already underway.
Manitoba is part of a coalition that is developing “Canada’s first agri-food sustainability index,” the province’s website says.
“No quantification of progress towards the 15 per cent decrease in carbon intensity… is available at this point in time until the metrics are completed,” a provincial spokesperson said.
Consortium members were bullish on the opportunities this index would provide once in place.
Consortium chair Dickson Gould is also president of the Progressive Group, which includes pork production. Gould said they get a “ton of questions” about farming practices and their sustainability practices. Recently even banks have started asking about this, he said during a panel discussion with other consortium leaders.
Sustainability is becoming a must-have with potential to limit market opportunities if not in place, said Gould.
Research from the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Crops (CRSC) has shown demonstrable sustainability gives an advantage — one that is growing and will continue to grow, said Susie Miller. She is executive director of the CRSC.
The metric ties into a plan the province unveiled, which shows how it will implement its sprawling sustainable protein action framework.
On February 18, just prior to the conference, Johnson announced Project ASPIRE: Accelerating Sustainable Protein Impact and Results.
“Project ASPIRE is a comprehensive plan focused on realizing the province’s potential to produce protein that is diverse, high quality, healthy and increasingly sustainable,” said Gould in a news release.
The project pulls together leaders from the industry and producer groups into roundtables on topics like policy, infrastructure, sustainability, working together, finance — some of which have already been established, like its research strategy steering committee and workforce roundtable.
Participants include Maple Leaf Foods, Dairy Farmers of Manitoba, the University of Manitoba, Pulse Canada, the Manitoba Food Development Centre, and Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association.
