canola


Saskatchewan is moving up the ranks as the top agri-food exporting province in Canada.

Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud said the province’s producers have a lot to be proud of:

“Productivity has improved greatly and that's due to farmers and ranchers out there, of course our prices have improved on the livestock side, on the grain side our prices aren't too bad.  When you add it all together even though we had about 10 million acres unseeded last year to flooding and another 8 million this year, even in spite of that our farmers have produced so much product and of course we export so much here we're leading the country in exports”

Bjornerud said Saskatchewan has come a long way in 2011 agri-food exports exceeded $10 billion dollars compared to the $6 billion dollars reported in 2007.

“Hard red spring and of course winter wheat and stuff has always led the way here, but now canola has passed them and that's I think no surprise to most producers out there. Canola has been a very good crop for us, been a real good cash crop, even where we've seen in the last couple days here where prices are still improving and that's really positive for the ag sector and they really need it.”

The province's top exported agri-food products included canola, canola oil and non-durum wheat.