Quinoa is one of the trendiest health foods on the market right now and the only producer in the country is based in Saskatchewan.
Michael Dutcheshen has been growing quinoa in the Kamsack area for the past 20 years.
“We know it grows well, we just hadn't pushed too many acres because the market wasn't there at the time,” said the owner of Northern Quinoa Corporation.
But today, demand has skyrocketed — the pseudo-grain is gluten free and is an attractive option for vegetarians.
“It has a complete protein profile, so it has all eight essential amino acids and your body can absorb all of those,” Dutcheshen said.
Normally, non-meat eaters have to combine grains or take supplements in order to obtain all the amino acids that the body needs to complete the protein.
Quinoa is actually a seed from a spinach-like plant and is typically grown in South America.
Recent media reports have said that farmers in Peru and Bolivia are being forced to cut the nutritious ancient grain from their diets because of the massive demand coming from North America.
But Dutcheshen has visited these regions and disagrees.
He said farmers are making good money on their products and keep a lot to eat on a daily basis.
“Where you may see people having trouble affording the quinoa is outside of the growing areas in the cities,” but chances are people in large centres have never even tried it.
“Just like it's new to North America it's also new to South America, it was traditionally grown outside of major cities,” Dutcheshen said.
He added that in Bolivia there are government programs in place to keep 10 per cent of production for the local market.
Northern Quinoa Corporation is the only grower and producer in Canada, the company has spent 12 years developing a variety that is best suited for the Prairies.
But it's not as easy as planting and selling the crop, quinoa has a bitter coating on the outside of the seed that needs to be removed before it is sold.
“There's an extensive process of removing that and we have the technology to do that and we're actually the only plant with that technology in all of North America,” said Dutcheshen.
The locally grown superfood is mostly sold wholesale to manufacturers as ingredients, but can also be purchased online at quinoa.com.
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