Cargill Opens New Specialty Canola Research and Production Centre in Canada

The research farm supports Cargill’s specialized hybrid breeding and production trials located across Western Canada, with a focus on developing high-yielding agronomic traits and the next generation of output traits.

09/07/09 Cargill is expanding its capabilities in canola with the opening of a new specialty canola research and production centre in Aberdeen, Saskatchewan in Canada. The research and production centre opened in late 2008 and will allow Cargill to centralize its hybrid breeding program in the heart of the commercial production region, while giving growers and customers a state of the art facility for furthering knowledge in canola production.

The Cargill Specialty Canola Oils Research and Production Centre will be part of Cargill’s research farm, located about 50 kilometers from Cargill’s canola crush facility in Clavet, Saskatchewan. The research farm supports Cargill’s specialized hybrid breeding and production trials located across Western Canada, with a focus on developing high-yielding agronomic traits and the next generation of output traits.

“Cargill is committed to serving the entire supply chain, by providing high-yielding canola hybrids to farmers that ultimately result in oils with zero grams trans fats and lower saturated fat for our customers and the consumers they serve,” said Jenny Verner, president, Cargill Specialty Canola Oils. “The research and production centre will allow us to help our customers develop new products and formulations designed to improve functionality, and deliver nutritional value for their products using a proven identity preservation system that results in an assured supply of product.”

In June, Cargill announced it will launch Clear Valley low saturate canola oil, a high stability canola oil with 4 to 4.5 percent saturated fat– 25 percent less saturated fat than conventional canola oil and the lowest amount of saturated fat of any vegetable oil offered to food manufacturers to date.

Clear Valley low saturate canola oil is produced from Cargill’s VICTORY hybrid seeds specifically designed by Cargill scientists for maximum yield and performance to add value to farm businesses. Cargill’s VICTORY hybrids have superior agronomic performance, as well as the groundbreaking science, technology and ability to advance healthier oils with high stability and function.

The Cargill Specialty Canola Program is built on the strength of VICTORY and InVigor Health Hybrids. These offer growers a choice of hybrid cultivars that include top yielding VICTORY with the Roundup Ready herbicide trait and the Liberty Link InVigor Health Hybrids, developed by Bayer CropScience and marketed exclusively through Cargill. They also provide simple, effective, all-weather weed control as well as good standability and harvestability.

Meanwhile Cargill has launched a new oils and shortening knowledge center, www.cargill.com/food/oilsforhealthysolutions, within its food ingredient web site on Cargill.com. The knowledge center provides information to food manufacturers seeking to formulate healthier products. It not only gives an overview of oils and nutrition, it also showcases Cargill's knowledge and in-house technical expertise in the fats and oils arena.

"This new knowledge center is a great source of information about fats and oils and really serves as a portal to answering questions about current issues and options," said Lynne Morehart, technical services manager, Cargill Oils & Shortenings Team. "We believe it will be a helpful tool for food manufacturers looking for solutions to achieve their nutrition, performance and cost goals."