Cargill plans to centralize its hybrid canola breeding program in a new specialty canola research and production centre in central Saskatchewan.
The Winnipeg-based Canadian arm of the U.S. agrifood firm leased land in 2007 at Aberdeen, Sask., about 100 km west of Humboldt, for the new centre.
The centre, which the company opened late last year, operates as part of Cargill’s research farm, about 50 km from the company’s canola crushing plant at Clavet, Sask.
The farm focuses on development of higher-yielding agronomic traits and the next generation of output traits, the company said.
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“The research and production centre will allow us to help our customers develop new products and formulations designed to improve functionality, and deliver nutritional value for their products using a proven identity-preservation system that results in an assured supply of product,” Jenny Verner, president of Cargill Specialty Canola Oils, said in a release Wednesday.
The company said in its release that the centre “will allow Cargill to centralize its hybrid breeding program in the heart of the commercial production region, while giving growers and customers a state-of-the-art facility for furthering knowledge in canola production.”
For example, Cargill last month announced it would launch Clear Valley low saturate canola oil, which comes from the company’s Victory hybrids and is billed as a high-stability canola oil with 25 per cent less saturated fat than conventional canola oil and the lowest amount of saturated fat of any vegetable oil currently offered to food manufacturers.
Victory hybrids have previously been developed at Cargill research and plant breeding sites including Aberdeen as well as Camrose, Alta. and Elm Creek, Man.
