The federal government is providing $5.3 million to Canada’s pulse industry to support a range of research and development initiatives from field to fork.
The funding is through the federal Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Program (ABIP) and will support the activities of PUREnet (Pulse Research Network), a network developed over the past two years to link expertise of scientists, researchers and industry experts for creating new pulse foods plus other value-added feed and industrial bioproducts.
ABIP is a multi-year federal program for strengthening Canadian research capacity in agricultural bioproducts and bioprocesses.
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“INDUSTRY STRATEGY”
This funding will help the pulse sector move forward with its five-point strategy, rolled out earlier this year, for creating new markets and pursuing other initiatives that build on industry strengths, said Pulse Canada CEO Gordon Bacon.
“The focus of PUREnet is really the same focus that we have in our industry strategy,” he said.
Unlike the now-completed Pulse Innovation Project, PUREnet’s activities will not include pursue nor funding of human clinical trials. This cash is targeted at research initiatives in field crop production, new food product development and further studies into the health and nutrition of pulse-based foods.
Pulse Canada’s strategy document, endorsed by supporting grower groups and industry partners, has a goal of making Canada the world’s most respected pulse producer and food ingredient nation by 2013.
