Soy Canada has given its support to a group in western Manitoba working to bring a soybean processing facility to the area.

Westman Opportunities Leadership Group is spearheading the effort, with collaboration from Economic Development Brandon and Brandon University.

“Canada’s soybean sector is growing rapidly, thanks largely to the adoption of soybean production in Western Canada,” confirmed Dale Adolphe, Interim Executive Director of Soy Canada. “Growth is expected in all three Prairie Provinces as producers adopt optimum agronomic practices for soybean production and as science and technology provides new, higher yielding, better quality varieties adapted to Western Canadian production.”

Soy Canada is finalizing a strategic plan that targets a further doubling of soybean acres and production over the next decade.

Ray Redfern, Chair of the WOLG, confirmed that “Soy Canada’s value chain approach to developing the soybean industry in Western Canada in particular, aligns with our efforts to attract a major soybean processing facility, and we are pleased that they see opportunity to grow this industry by bringing additional processing capacity to Western Canada. For us, this means we will be working hard to make that investment happen in Manitoba.”

Nearly 3 million acres of soybeans were planted across Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan in 2017.

Soy Canada’s members include farm producer groups from across Canada, seed development companies, soybean exporters, processors and other industry affiliates along the full soybean value chain.