Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council

VCMI activities continue to focus on project development with less emphasis on tradeshows and events as we head into the summer months. VCMI attended the 2010 Manitoba Food Processors Association’s AGM, the Great Manitoba Food Fight and made presentations to the Rural Team and Steinbach Secondary School.

Here are a few projects we are currently working on:

• Facilitating meetings with the only certified organic sunflower producer in Manitoba, if not Canada, to establish more efficient production methods and costs, establish processing costs and engage a processor and bakers in a pilot project to offer a local source of organic sunflowers. Currently, organic sunflowers in the baking industry are being sourced from China and South America.
• Facilitating meetings between independent retailers, abattoirs and lamb producers to increase the consistent supply of fresh lamb on the retail shelf. One goal is to match supply and demand to justify a full day of processing, weekly. This is an exciting project, as we have found much interest from retailers who want more fresh local lamb in their stores, which indicates there is increasing demand from a growing ethnic market as well as global influences on the mainstream consumer’s diet.
• Facilitating the collaboration of a local restaurant group and a local farmer/processor to develop proprietary breakfast sausage recipes for the restaurant.
• Connecting an entrepreneur with a nutrition bar made from healthy Northern natural ingredients with a retailer who is interested in guiding the recipe development of the bar and tailoring it to a specific consumer.
• Facilitating collaborations between a group of like-minded beef producers with different food service operations – a high-end chef and university food services, to efficiently use all cuts of beef.
• Investigating developing a local source of “queso fresco” cheese for the Central/South American community. Currently there is no Canadian source of this style of fresh cheese, just imported. There may be opportunities to develop local, high-quality fresh ethnic cheeses like paneer. Ontario has had success developing collaborations between retailers, distributors and dairy farmers interested in on-farm processing to develop niche and artisanal cheeses.
• Encouraging and assisting a local millet producer who is developing a gluten-free millet beer to explore the value chain model during his scale up and launch. This may include collaborating with a local brewery for custom brewing and local pubs to host demos and gather consumer feedback as well as working with the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre during the pilot stage.

On a personal note, I would like to take this opportunity to announce that I am leaving my position as value chain coordinator at MRAC and VCMI. I have been accepted to Law School at the University of Manitoba and will begin classes in September. My last day at MRAC is July 30. I thank the great staff at MRAC for a wonderful experience. I enjoyed working with you!

I would also like to thank my teammates, past and present, on the Value Chain Manitoba Initiative. I appreciate all of your hard work on the many events and workshops we organized as well as the many interesting conversations and projects we worked on together!

As VCMI proceeds to its March, 2011 end date, MRAC program coordinator Kristin Yaworski-Lowdon will be assisting the team on a part-time basis, monitoring funded projects and helping proponents with their reporting.

I feel the value chain business model has many valuable aspects that can assist every facet of the agriculture and food industry. If you’re looking for tools to increase the profitability of your operation, I would encourage you to learn as much as you can about the value chain model. Please contact VCMI through the information on our website: www.valuechainmb.ca.  

~ Eugene Warwaruk, MRAC Value Chain Coordinator