The journey doesn’t end at the soyfood processing plant. When you’re creating better quality soybean, it starts there too.

This is The Canadian Advantage, the result of our unique commitment to work hand-in-hand with soyfood processors to better understand their needs and to help them turn their opportunities into achievements.

We believe that soyfoods have specific, targetable quality requirements, and that by concentrating every step of our food quality soybean breeding and production system on meeting those needs, we can supply a truly better soybean.

Behind each Canadian Advantage is a world of information and insight. Please contact us to learn more.

- Superior Growing Environment

Canada is envied around the world for its clean air and sparkling waters. It is also a country with deep, fertile soils that produce healthy roots and strong, productive soybean crops.

Canadian soybeans are planted primarily in the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River basin. Here, our climate is moderated by the world’s largest fresh water system, providing the uniform temperatures and rainfall that are essential for year-in, year-out consistency and for dependably high soybean yields. Now, new production zones are being opened in Manitoba, further enhancing our ability to develop and produce soybeans for all soyfood.

Our natural resources and geography add up to an advantage that produces real results. Since 1980, Canadian soybean production has climbed 450%, exceeding 3.1 million tonnes on 2.9 million acres in 2005. Current forecasts suggest further steady, manageable growth, reaching 3.5 million acres within a decade.

- Sophisticated Farming Practices

Soybean growers in Canada have evolved their farms and their farming practices in order to become world leaders in food quality soybean production.

Supported by a world-class network of public and private agonomists, crop scientists and soybean breeders, Canada’s soybean growers make the growing of food quality soybeans a multi-year commitment. Growers manage their crop rotations, their tillage systems and their planting and harvesting schedules with the goal of consistently producing superior soybeans.

Growers also meet frequently during the growing season with elevators in order to adopt the newest practices and to ensure they grow, scout and manage their crops according to the detailed requirements of buying companies. Growers treat their soybeans as food crops. For example, all growers who apply agricultural pesticides in Ontario must first be licensed by the provincial government and can only use pesticides when and where required.

Canada’s soybean industry features growers who have also installed separate storage bins and who meticulously maintain their equipment (planters, harvesters, etc) in order to meet the most stringent identity-preserved standards.

As another sign of grower commitment to food quality soybean production, key grower organizations are active members of the Canadian Soybean Exporters Association.

- Elevators that Harness Quality

In order to produce superior food quality soybeans, a country must have top quality elevators. Canada’s soybean elevators are unsurpassed.

Grain elevators play many essential roles in delivering food quality soybeans. In the Canadian system, food quality soybeans are typically produced by growers under contract to the elevator. The elevator determines the exact production standards that are required for purity and quality. Then, the elevator’s soybean team maintains close contact with the growers, including field visits, so that the growers can dependably achieve these standards.

The elevator also controls the delivery of the soybeans, ensuring food quality soybeans are binned separately to prevent contamination. Elevators painstakingly test every farm delivery to ensure it meets all quality criteria before allowing the soybeans to be unloaded.

As well, Canadian soybean elevators are equipped with state of the art processing equipment. Many have added Harada sizers to their already excellent processing lines of clippers, gravity sorters, destoners and polishers.

As a result, Canada’s elevators not only maintain the quality of the soybeans they receive. They actually improve their quality. It is through this commitment that Canada has steadily increased its sales of food quality soybeans to the world.

- Identity Preservation

Created in consultation with global buyers, Canada offers the world’s most integrated system of identity preservation with an unmatched record of delivering specific soybeans to specific purchasers. Three quarters of our soybean exports to Asia are now classified as identity-preserved, shipped via containers or in bulk as required by the customer.

Operated under the leadership of the Canadian Grain Commission, the Canadian Identity Preserved Recognition System (CIPRS) is strengthened with independent third part audits and certification.

Standards protect purity at all points, including the seed producer, the soybean farm, and the elevator and shipping system. In addition, soybeans are sampled and analyzed at key steps along the way, and identity-preserved soybeans are stored in separate, rigorously managed bins.

Soybeans which cannot be traced to the purchase of Certified seed, and soybeans which fail purity and quality tests, are not allowed into the Canadian identity-preserved system.

Our global reputation rides with every shipment. For more information, check out http://www.grainscanada.gc.ca/prodser/ciprs/ciprs1-e.asp

- Third-Party Grading

The Canadian Grains Commission works closely with elevators, shippers and buyers to ensure full confidence that contract terms will be delivered. Often, these terms are above and beyond the already rigid standards of the Canada’s internationally respected grading system.

Food quality soybeans are of the highest quality, meeting strict tolerances for soundness, cleanliness, uniformity of size, colour, testweight and a long list of other criteria. In addition, shipments may also be analyzed for specific contract requirements, such as protein content or, in the case of identity-preserved shipments, the soybean variety.

Third-party grading is a key factor in the Canadian Advantage. For more information on Canada’s internationally acclaimed grading system, please visit  http://www.grainscanada.gc.ca/Pubs/GGG/2007/20-soybeans-2007-e.pdf

- Progressive Breeding Programs

At the core of our food quality soybean strategy, Canadian food scientists and soybean geneticists routinely participate in international trade missions and a range of other formal and informal contacts with soyfood processors.

Canada offers world-class expertise in soybean composition and its impact on utilization and product quality. Soybeans are tested and bred for specific soyfood products. For example, see http://res2.agr.ca/harrow/news-nouvelles/ccvol12_apr_avr2001_e.htm for a recent discussion of how our understanding of tofu processing led to the creation and release of three food quality varieties. With each of these varieties, researchers could provide specifics on a complete range of processing and product quality criteria, from protein and sugar content to water uptake, soymilk yield and tofu yield.

Food quality soybean breeding in Canada is continuously evolving. It is designed to keep the soyfood processor a step ahead, just as it keeps us as step ahead of other soybean suppliers. To learn more, please contact us.