The pulse crop industry in Saskatchewan has grown substantially in the past few decades. This year, a record 5.3 million lentil acres were planted in the province. The Regina Leader-Post is taking an in-depth look into this industry, with a four-part series entitled The Power of Pulses.
Wednesday: The origins of pulse crops in Saskatchewan.
Thursday: Soil and health benefits of pulses.
Today: Pulse processing in the province.
Saturday: Taking the current pulse of pulses.
Murad Al-Katib knew that change was coming to the pulse industry in Saskatchewan and he wanted to be part of it.
“I saw the transformation coming but I also believed that we needed a value-added processing infrastructure to support it,” said Al-Katib, who is president and CEO of AGT Foods and Ingredients.
In 2001, he founded SaskCan Pulse Trading out of his basement in Regina — which has now became one of the largest pulse-processing companies in the world.
The pulse industry in Saskatchewan is not just the producers who grow the crops; it’s also the companies that buy and process the crops.
“You have to have the kind of innovative and marketing-savvy producers in Saskatchewan, and processors and exporters who also recognize the opportunity and apply their agricultural and business acumen to grow that industry,” said Chris Dekker, president and CEO of Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP).
AGT is one of the best known success stories of the Saskatchewan pulse processing industry. In fact, Al-Katib had been working with STEP when he met the Arslan family in Turkey which owned the Arbel Group.
“Arbel had a problem with Canadian quality. The lentil industry was very much in its infancy stage then and the grading standards and the quality of the product that was being received by Turkey (reflected that). When they went to split the lentils they were actually having a lot of waste and a lot of loss,” Al-Katib said.
Source : Leaderpost