“Last year was a tough year for Canadian farmers for all crops, with quinoa no exception. This year is looking a lot more positive. We seem to have missed the hot season as seeding came at the right time,” he said, noting this fall’s yields are around 1,100 pounds per acre, which is about average.

He said the majority of the quinoa in Canada is grown in Saskatchewan, primarily north of Highway 16; some is also grown in southern Manitoba and northern Alberta, plus some in the latter province’s south under irrigation.

Prices for quinoa have held up, remaining about the same from 2021-22, Dutcheshen said, noting that quinoa prices in South America are currently high.

“That’s kind of working in our favour, so we are able to maintain last year’s price, which is a little higher than in previous years,” he added, but declined to cite Norquin’s contract price.

An ancient grain from South America, quinoa generally prefers a cooler climate but has a low tolerance for frost.

As more Canadian farmers try growing quinoa, companies such as NorQuin not only market it domestically but also export it to the U.S., Mexico, Europe, Australia, Korea, Japan, and South America.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg; includes files from Treena Hein of Glacier FarmMedia.

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“As well as everything else we had some areas that had a little bit of moisture and crops are looking OK. In areas where wheat and canola struggled, quinoa struggled a little bit,” O’Halloran said.

This year’s harvest is most likely to start in about seven to 10 days, he added, with only a handful of producers already in the fields.

“Visual inspections of fields [show] there are definitely some fields that struggled with the drought,” he said.

He estimated about 12,500 acres of quinoa were grown in Canada last year, which provided yields of 1,100 to 1,200 lbs. per acre.

Price-wise, he said NorQuin was presently drawing up contracts for the coming season and declined to cite any prices.

“We’re looking at the global price of quinoa and what the markets are doing,” he said, noting South American production is a big driver.

Globally, Peru grows the majority of the world’s quinoa, with its 2020 crop estimated to be around 98,000 tonnes, followed by Bolivia at about 73,000 tonnes, according to IndexBox.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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Quinta Quinoa was one of seven finalists, alongside participants from Germany, Switzerland, Israel and Russia, with Qunita Superfoods founder and chief executive officer Jamie Draves highlighting the potential of the sought-after crop in his three-minute presentation.

Why it matters: With varieties specific to Canadian growing conditions and global demand rising, quinoa is a promising crop opportunity for Canadian farmers.

The winner — Redefine Meat, an Israeli company working on a printed “meat” product — received the Global Food Summit People’s Choice Award.

Quinta Quinoa was part of a Canadian delegation that also included Innovation Guelph, City of Guelph and two other local agtech start-ups, Be Seen Be Safe and TRU-ID.

Be Seen Be Safe is an app that creates an automated virtual visitor log for farms to enable fast animal disease tracking and trace-back in case of an outbreak. TRU-ID is a DNA-based food certification program for ingredient authentication.

Although not a grain crop, quinoa is used like a cereal, is ideal for gluten-free diets and is full of healthy nutrients and antioxidants, accounting for its popularity with consumers.

Primarily grown in South America, it’s a crop Draves first came across more than a decade ago when he was experiencing some health problems and had to overhaul his diet.

Challenges with quality and supply led him to wonder whether the crop could be grown locally — and so began an interesting journey of crop and market development that today has made Quinta Quinoa the largest quinoa producer in North America.

The company now has growers in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec, with its Quinta-R variety ranking as its most successful so far. Work continues at the University of Guelph on development of other quinoa varieties suitable for various Canadian growing conditions.

“We are still working to develop more varieties that work for the different climates in Canada,” said project and media co-ordinator Sophia Lustgarten. “Quinta-R is still our main variety that has been most successful across all farms.”

Quinoa grows well in cool climates and marginal soils, has high tolerance for both drought and frost, and can take the place of a cereal crop in a typical Canadian rotation. According to Draves, grower returns vary widely depending on farm location, soil type, and other agronomic conditions, but out of the more traditional cash crops, returns from quinoa are most comparable to canola.

Diseases haven’t been quantified, but on the pest side, lygus bugs and chenopodium worm are most likely to cause damage, he added. There are no products registered in Canada to control these in quinoa.

Currently, retail packages of Quinta Quinoa are sold at Longo’s in Guelph, and in a select but expanding number of Metro, Food Basics and Sobeys grocery stores in Ontario, as well as on Amazon.ca.

In addition to continuing to expand its retail footprint, the company is also looking to grow into food service and food ingredient services and is investing into research and development of new quinoa products, such as using quinoa’s high protein content to develop protein isolates.

“We believe there is a good opportunity there for restaurants, for example, to use our products and be more locally conscious,” said Lustgarten.

Export markets are also a future target, but the short-term goal is to ensure Canadian market demand is met. Anyone interested in becoming a Quinta Quinoa grower can contact the company through its website, quinta.ca.

Draves made national headlines in 2015 when he came away from a successful Dragon’s Den pitch with a $200,000 deal with chef, author and restauranteur Vikram Vij. And there have been other awards since then too.

Among them are a Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence in 2016, a top 10 finish in the 2017 SIAL Innovation Canada contest, 2017 International Startup of the Year at the Global NutraIngredient Awards, and Best New Product in the 2018 Eat Better, Live Better DUX contest in Quebec.

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Dan Boulton of NorQuin at Saskatoon said there is a world shortage of quinoa, which will increase its price.

“We put our price up a few cents per pound. Right now we’re starting to see the same (price) to a slight increase,” he said, noting NorQuin has bids between 60 and 70 cents/lb. for quinoa.

Percy Phillips of Prairie Quinoa at Portage la Prairie, Man. sees it the other way around.

“I believe the pricing for the commodity generally will be decreasing slightly over the winter and into the spring season,” he said.

Boulton and Phillips agreed more quinoa will be grown in Canada, given rising consumption. According to Statistics Canada’s 2016 numbers, the most recent data, nearly 11,700 acres of quinoa were grown in the country that year, compared to about 320 acres in 2011.

Most of the 2016 quinoa crop was grown in Saskatchewan with about 9,500 acres; Alberta was second, with close to 1,050. Manitoba had a little more than 900 acres of quinoa; Ontario’s crop was roughly 350.

Quinoa originated in South America and is noted for its health benefits, such as being gluten-free and high in protein. However, it can be a difficult crop to grow.

“It’s a special crop that requires special attention,” Boulton said.

One issue has been that there are no registered chemicals available to use on quinoa.

“Most of our growers have adapted and figured out ways to keep the crop clean before and after,” he said, noting growers use integrated pest management practices.

Although quinoa has a reputation for growing well in poorer soils, staff at Prairie Quinoa have found it’s not a requirement, as found with crops grown successfully near Melita and Swan River in western Manitoba.

“Just like other crops, the better the quality of the soil, the better chance of a successful crop with a commercially acceptable yield,” Phillips said.

— Glen Hallick writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Follow CNS Canada at @CNSCanada on Twitter.

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The CCGA on Thursday announced it’s now accepting applications for the 2017-18 advance payments program (APP), which offers cash advances on 45 different crop and livestock commodities. The CCGA is the administrative agency for the federal program.

This year’s list of commodities includes quinoa for the first time, the CCGA said in a release.

The CCGA said Thursday it will now also accept Moose Jaw-based Global Ag Risk Solutions’ production cost insurance plan as a form of security on field crop advances, alongside crop insurance and AgriStability.

The CCGA also noted Thursday it has moved to a single common form for all applicants, replacing its previous “province-specific” application form. “Regardless of which province you farm in, you will use the same application.”

Producers can download the new form from the CCGA website or apply online. The forms are also available at “most” elevators and grain processing plants.

The APP provides eligible producers with cash advances of up to $400,000, with the first $100,000 being interest-free and an additional $300,000 interest-bearing at prime rate.

“The spring cash advance program provides farmers with access to cash flow on their unharvested crops and newly born livestock,” CCGA CEO Rick White said in Thursday’s release.

“We’ve already been getting calls from farmers, so we are pleased that in the first full week of March we are ready to launch our pre-application process.”

Though CCGA has kicked off its pre-application process now, to allow farmers to get the paperwork done before spring seeding, the association begins issuing advance funds on April 3, White noted. — AGCanada.com Network

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There is only one company, Northern Quinoa Corp., growing and producing quinoa in Canada. For over 20 years they’ve grown and produced small acreages, but the rising popularity of the so-called superfood is changing that.

“We have a total of 15,500 acres between (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba),” said Colin Dutcheshen of Northern Quinoa. “That’s increased threefold; last year we had only around 5,100 acres.”

Growers this year span from Peace River, Alta. to Fisher Branch, Man., and for the most part, quinoa crops are looking really good so far, Dutcheshen said.

Saskatchewan and Manitoba, he said, have been “getting a lot of wet weather right now… but it hasn’t been excessive for the most part and with that, quinoa is coming along nicely.

“It doesn’t particularly like overly wet, which it hasn’t been, and it’s not getting extra hot, which is a benefit right now because it’s going into its flowering stage.”

There are 103 producers growing quinoa this year, Dutcheshen said. Most crops are in the northern parts of the provinces and stick toward the east, as quinoa tends to do better on the eastern side.

Because it’s a fairly new crop on the Prairies, quinoa isn’t pressured by disease, he said.

“Disease won’t be a really big problem. If we get excessive rains that could be an issue, at the moment hail is our biggest concern,” he said. “We’re advising our growers to insure their crops for hail because that is something that can happen anytime.”

Northern Quinoa does its business under production contracts with farmers, but due to the increase in acreage, prices have seen an increase as well, Dutcheshen said.

“We offer 70 cents per pound on production, which is up from last year’s 60 cents per pound.”

— Erin DeBooy writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

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