French food giant and Toronto company team up to harness the new promise of Canadian oats

Oat Canada, a Toronto-based maker of oat milk, will get its crops from Alberta. However the oats don’t come east, not less than not instantly. They’re shipped to america or Europe to a facility that processes them right into a concentrated protein powder. The powder then goes to a manufacturing plant in Ontario, the place it’s combined with water, minerals and nutritional vitamins, sealed into crimson tetra packs, and despatched to shops in Canada.

It could be simpler to do all of it at dwelling. However because it began in 2020, Oat Canada hasn’t been capable of finding a facility in Canada that may do the surprisingly advanced work of turning oats into elements for dairy substitutes.

“It’s costly,” mentioned Oat Canada co-founder and CEO Eloise Bucais Ambursley. “Our lead instances are for much longer.”

That’s the Canadian approach. Canada grows more money crops than nearly anyplace on this planet, and but a lot of it’s exported as uncooked commodities, slightly than as processed items, equivalent to oat-protein powder.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s authorities sees the increase in plant-based merchandise as an opportunity to alter that outdated story, and has arrange an “innovation supercluster” in Saskatchewan to assist develop the food-processing sector into a worldwide powerhouse that would provide a rising marketplace for meat and dairy substitutes with elements made with Canadian peas, beans, lentils and grains.

The four-year-old federal supercluster, Protein Industries Canada (PIC), this week introduced a small victory in that pursuit. PIC brokered a $4.1 million deal between Oat Canada and Roquette Frères SA, a French meals processor, to develop new elements utilizing Canadian oats. The deal might set up extra oat processing capability in Canada, serving to faucet into what is anticipated to be US$62-billion marketplace for plant-based dairy options by 2030, PIC mentioned.

The supercluster is funding half the price of the undertaking, with Roquette and Oat Canada splitting the remaining. Below the settlement, Roquette will develop oat protein elements and Oat Canada will take a look at them. The hope is that Roquette will begin supplying Oat Canada with a home supply of elements after the analysis and growth stage, PIC chief govt Invoice Greuel mentioned.

“Whether or not or not that processing will ultimately occur in Canada, that’s a enterprise choice that organizations should make,” Greuel mentioned. “However step one is creating a novel processing know-how to extract and create excessive protein elements right here in Canada.”

A serious advantage of the deal is increasing Roquette’s curiosity in Canada past yellow peas. The French processor opened a $600-million facility in Portage La Prairie, Man. final 12 months to course of Canadian yellow peas into inputs for plant-based meals producers. The corporate payments the ability as “the biggest pea protein plant on Earth.”

Shifting Roquette into oats might assist shut a niche in Canada. The nation has fallen behind in processing know-how for the crop, in accordance with one producer. Silk — the highest various milk model in Canada, and owned by Paris-based yoghurt big Danone S.A. — mentioned final 12 months that it was struggling to acquire sufficient processed oat elements in Canada to make its oat milk for this market.

“I don’t assume Canada had seen the wave coming so that they’re type of making an attempt to shut the hole,” Geneviève Bolduc, advertising and marketing director of Danone’s plant-based meals and drinks division in Canada, mentioned final spring.

For Oat Canada, the deal might imply that it’s going to now not should ship oats forwards and backwards throughout the border, decreasing their carbon footprint and freight prices. However the undertaking additionally guarantees to enhance the oat milk itself, mentioned Jamari Ambursley, chief working officer, who based Oat Canada along with his spouse.

In 2020,  the pair fielded provides from every of the six dragons on CBC’s Dragon’s Den present, and ended up selecting Manjit Minhas’ supply of $100,000 for 10 per cent of the enterprise, although the deal was by no means finalized. Oat Canada is presently producing roughly 60,000 litres a month, with a presence in seven CostCo areas in Ontario and 800 Loblaw shops, the corporate mentioned.

With the brand new technique, Ambursley mentioned he’s anticipating an oat base with the next protein content material that can rival cow’s milk, at about eight grams per serving — six grams greater than Oat Canada’s present formulation. The corporate may also use the brand new oat elements to experiment with different dairy options.

“This whole undertaking is increasing the utility of oats in Canada,” he mentioned.

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