The Alberta Wheat Commission is one group that's happy with a major investment in the value added agri-food industry in Alberta.

The $10 million capital investment from the Alberta Government’s Agri-value Processing Business Incubator and the Food Processing Development Centre at Leduc, it says, is a great advancement for wheat producers and the agriculture industry as a whole.

“As farmers in this province we are growing high quality food ingredients for international markets, so it is great to see this type of investment to further advance value here at home,” said Kevin Auch, Chairman of AWC. “Alberta’s agricultural products are a $13 billion industry and seeing the crops we grow being used as ingredients to make new and innovative products is exciting to growers.”

He says Alberta’s agricultural products are a $13 billion industry and seeing the crops they grow turned into ingredients to make new and innovative products is exciting to growers.

“This expansion and investment in the Food Centre will help diversify our industry and promote economic growth, as well as provide consumers a perspective on the quality of Alberta-sourced grain as an important food ingredient,” added Auch.

Value-added processing provides farmers with local market alternatives and thus greater competition for the crops they grow.

This government investment is expected to help increase capacity in value added processing of cereal grains, including fractionation to produce high value ingredients such as proteins and fibre.