The Rural Voice, 2001-02, Page 23With Southern Ontario's high land costs and farmers' and
processors' experience with segregating crops, identity preserved
crops could be winning the edge in a global market
By Keith Roulston
Value-added, identity -
preserved (IP) crops are the
way of the future for southern
Ontario farmers, Marty Huzevka
believes.
Huzevka, formerly general
manager with the Ontario Bean
Producers Marketing Board and now
managing and marketing identity
preserved crops for Hensall District
Co-op, says Ontario growers with
their high land values can't compete
with western Canadian farmers'
cheap input prices on traditional
crops like white beans and with
South American farmers for
soybeans. They also can't compete
with high U.S. farm subsidies on
ordinary commodities like corn and
soybeans. So, he says, producers and
processors must play to their
strengths, and that means value
added crops like food -grade soybeans
and new identity preserved corn
varieties coming down the line.
Ontario producers have experience in
handling food -grade crops like white
beans, he says and our processors
have the facilities needed to
segregate food -grade products.
Certainly Hensall Co-op has
staked its future on the trend.
Huzevka says the Co-op spent $4-5
million on a new state-of-the-art
facility to handle food grade
soybeans for the Japanese market.
"IP hasn't made our job any easier
but it has allowed us to stay in
business," he said.
Huzevka told a joint meeting of
Huron County's soybean, corn and
wheat producers, January 17, that he
was leaving for Japan in late January
to talk to customers and bring them
up to date on Hensall Co-op's IP
facilities. His presentation will show
buyers the lengths to which the Co-
op goes to ensure there will be no
cross -contamination of the product.
Backing up his contention that IP
is the way of the future, Huzevka
showed tables of the current state of
traditional Ontario crops like corn,
soybeans and white beans. Already,
he said, Manitoba has reached a level
of white bean production that
matches Ontario's at the height of the
white bean boom here. While
Ontario's crop has been reduced by
40 per cent, Manitoba has increased
by more than the Ontario reduction.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are just
starting to experiment with white
bean production but as an example of
potential for immense market shifts,
Huzevka pointed to the switch of
acres from wheato pulse crops like
peas, chick p4as and lentils.
Saskatchewan is now the biggest
influence on world prices in these
commodities because they have so
many acres and the market is so
small, he said.
A similar shift in production is
happening in soybeans, Huzevka
said, with Brazil and Argentina
increasing production last year by
four per cent and growth apparently
not being affected by lower prices
that are hurting producers elsewhere.
"They will not go away," said
Huzevka, comparing South America
in soybeans to Manitoba in white
beans.
Meanwhile the American
subsidies seem to favour
land being switched from
corn to soybeans this year, he
predicted.
Food grade soybeans offer
potential for growth, Huzevka said.
Soybeans contain isoflavones which
research is showing can reduce heart
disease and cancers of the colon,
prostate and breast as well as
menopausal symptoms and
FEBRUARY 2001 19