Released on June 6, 2000
Agri-Food Equity Fund partnerships with rural business are driving economicgrowth in Western Saskatchewan.
In 1996, Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food's Agri-Food Equity Fund (AFEF)
partnered with more than 60 Eston-area investors to help a community-based
business expand into specialty crop processing. That company - Canadian Select
Grains Limited or CSG - used the fund's $324,000 investment to help purchase,
import and install specialized equipment for processing chickpeas into a
product called "dahl" for the North American Pakistani and Indian food markets.
"Initiatives like Canadian Select Grains are what we need in Saskatchewan,"
Deputy Premier and Agriculture and Food Minister Dwain Lingenfelter said.
"They provide new markets for our farm products, create jobs and put money back
into rural Saskatchewan."
In the four years since Agri-Food Equity Fund invested in the company, CSG has
grown and prospered. Today, Canadian Select Grains boasts an expanded product
line, a seed cleaning plant, a high-tech colour sorter and lots of storage.
Its operations inject hundreds of thousands of dollars into the region's
economy every year. In fact, Canadian Select Grains has already bought back
the bulk of the shares Agri-Food Equity Fund initially purchased from the
company.
"The Government of Saskatchewan wants to encourage that kind of growth,"
Lingenfelter said. "That's why we established the Agri-Food Equity Fund six
years ago and that's why we extended its mandate and increased its funding in
this year's Provincial Budget."
AFEF's capital base expanded from $20 million to $35 million this year as a
result of budget measures. Its mandate has been extended for another three
years.
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For more information, contact:
Ron Witherspoon
Agri-Food Equity Fund
Regina
Phone: (306) 787-0816