Protein Industries Canada Announces Fourth Supercluster Initiative

Mar 02, 2020

Protein Industries Canada, in partnership with an industry consortium, has announced an investment of $9.25 million into a project that will help improve on-farm logistics and food traceability through an integrated data platform.

This project will utilize data from the farm gate, through the entire supply chain, to make on-farm practices more efficient, increasing consumer traceability while reducing input costs and the overall environmental impact of the sector.

“The Protein Industries Supercluster project is showing the way for increased collaboration between SMEs by bringing together partners from across the agriculture value chain. Both Canadian consumers and farmers will benefit from reliable farm-level data that can support Canada’s reputation as a supplier of traceable food ingredients, and a champion of sustainable farming practices,” said Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

The consortium, consisting of Provision Analytics from Calgary, AB; Verge Technologies from Calgary, AB; Skymatics from Calgary, AB; and Coutts Agro from Kindersley, SK will invest, $4.6 million or half of the total project budget, with Protein Industries Canada’s co-investment making up the other half.

This project brings together Coutts Agro, a large-scale farming operation, with Verge and Skymatics, which uses digital mapping and optimization technologies to help farmers improve in-field operations by capturing information around input application, fuel use and more. The technology results in fewer passes required to maintain a field, leading to reduced fuel costs and mitigating a producer’s environmental impact. This dataset will be used by Provision Analytics to create linkages to support food traceability, transparency and key metrics associated with energy efficiency.

“This project is truly ground-breaking for the Canadian agriculture and food sector,” CEO of Protein Industries Canada Bill Greuel said. “The collaboration and scope of this project, from on-farm through to processing captures the spirit of the Supercluster. By bringing together partners from across the value chain, the project will improve the traceability of our agri-food products across the chain of custody and provide metrics for sustainability initiatives, ensuring that Canada’s reputation as a safe and reliable supplier of healthy, sustainably produced food is protected.”

This will be the first project to attempt to correlate farm level practices through the value chain from production to processing.

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