Canada has become the world’s dominant supplier to the global market by building a competitive edge. Excellence in the area of plant breeding and agronomy, continued work in the area of health and sustainability to expand opportunities for Canadian pulses around the world and a focus on transportation to ensure timely delivery of pulses from farm gate to end users have all contributed to building a solid industry recognized globally as a preferred supplier.  The pulse processing sector in Canada is expanding its selection of ingredients such as flours, pea protein, fibre and starch products for human food, feed and bio-industrial applications.  And with significant industry investment in R&D, coupled with world class research facilities,

Canada’s pulse sector has established itself as the world leader in production, processing and utilization.
 

Pulse Canada is the national industry association whose members include provincial grower associations in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario as well as the Canadian Special Crops Association (CSCA) that represents the processors and traders of pulses in Canada.   Members of the CSCA supply the entire range of pulses including pea (yellow and green), lentil (green and red), bean (navy, pinto, kidney, black, cranberry, pink, small red, Great Northern and more) and chickpea (kabuli and desi) in whole, split and processed forms to the global market.  In addition, the CSCA has several member companies that produce pulse flours and fractions, including pea protein, starch and fibre.   These companies include Best Cooking Pulses (pea flour, chickpea flour, pea fibre), Parrheim Foods (pea protein, pea starch, pea fibre) and Diefenbaker Seeds (pea flour, chickpea flour).  Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) is also a partner of Pulse Canada/CSCA providing important support each year for market development activities.

Canada’s pulse industry, in collaboration with the Canadian government, invests millions of dollars each year in research focused on breeding, processing and utilization as well as in demand driver areas such as nutrition, health and sustainability.   Together these investments have paid off with an efficient production system, new innovative processing technologies and research that demonstrate the health benefits of pulses and their role in sustainable production systems.   In the future, agriculture’s role in environmental and health care innovation can become exceedingly important and the pulse industry is in the sweet spot to deliver results in a unique, yet largely untapped way.  Success will depend on the ability of the sector to foster a continuum of innovation from the seeds of science to marketing and through to consumers.  

Roquette is a private family business. Fortified by more than 75 years of experience, Roquette is the world’s leading polyol manufacturer and one of the top starch processors (No 2 in Europe and No 4 worldwide). The Roquette Group, present throughout the whole world through 30 establishments including 18 production sites, employs over 6000 staff of which 3600 in FranceIn 2008 it achieved a turnover of over 2.5 billion euros and processes every year 6 million tonnes of renewable raw materials (maize, wheat, potatoes, peas and tomorrow micro-algae) in a range of over 650 products derived from starch for the human and animal nutrition, paper-board, pharmacy-cosmetology and biochemistry industries.Keen to assert its independence and confirm its position of leader while at the same time innovating and diversifying, the Roquette Group has chosen to develop along two strategic axes: vegetal-based chemistry and nutrition-health. To this end, it invests over 40 million euros a year in R&D and more than 10% of its turnover in production facilities and equipment. Roquette’s sustainable innovation strategy involves engineering and developing ingredients, products and applications that concurrently address ecological, economic and societal challenges.