Ontario quinoa industry optimization

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Quinoa is a highly nutritious pseudocereal originating from South America. The large majority of quinoa is grown by subsistence farmers, but interest in quinoa as a high quality nutritious food source is increasing, and in turn the need for fully-developed commercial scale production systems is high. The quinoa market in Ontario and Canada has grown significantly over the past five years, to an expected 19 M lbs. imported into Canada by the end of 2016 (Stats Canada, 2016). Concerns with purity, quality and access to quinoa from South America, in combination with the increasingly high demand in North America for quinoa as a seed and functional food ingredient, has triggered researchers to further pursue the agronomic conditions required to achieve commercial production of this alternative pseudo-cereal crop across Canada.**Katan Kitchens, an Ontario based company, has spent the past six years researching quinoa production in Ontario. Having developed agronomic practices for Canadian production, as well as having developed a unique quinoa variety through natural breeding techniques, the company has now brought their new, highly nutritious quinoa seed to preliminary markets in 2016. In partnerships with University of Guelph researchers, their main focus is to develop the value chain for the quinoa industry in Ontario in order to continue to substantiate the economic model to value chain stakeholders, and produce new, high quality products from the development of this new crop. **To continue development of the quinoa industry in Canada, further research on breeding and agronomic best practices is required in order to provide stable, consistent yields within Ontario, with a focus on a highly nutritious quinoa seed end product. In addition, there is an opportunity to develop saponins, a by product of quinoa processing, as a separate end product. Purity, traceability, monitoring and tracking models are also being substantiated for future use. The success of this project will be a model for future new, high value crops and products in enhancing Canada's economic diversity and high quality foods leadership position.**************