Canola continues to play an important part in Alberta’s economy.
(Photo/Alberta Agriculture & Forestry)
Dan Doll farms canola in the Fairview area, and also sits as the Region One Director for the Alberta Canola Producers Commission (ACP).
He told the AM 610 Newsroom that it’s a fact he knows all too well.
“All you have to do is look out the window when you drive,” said Doll. “You can see that probably in the Peace Country, about 50 percent of the crop is now canola.
“You see all the yellow flowers in July, and it’s not just the flowers, but it’s a pretty big part of the economy now too,” he continued. “And it’s all over western Canada, not only Alberta.”
According to an ACP news release, Canola brought in a record $7.1-billion annually to the provincial economy between 2012 and 2015.
Doll says the impact is even greater on the national scale.
Dan Doll, Region 1 Director for the Alberta Canola Producers Commission. (Photo/grainswest.com)
“You’re taking a $16-billion product from the farmer, and you turn it into a $26.7-billion ripple effect through the economy, and that’s huge,” he said. “And the reason is that the value-additive has increased so much in the last 10 years, we’ve got some big pressures on side, and we’ve increased its domestic use. As a result, more money now staying in the economy means more money that’s now getting spent.”
He says he’s also amazed with how many jobs rely on canola production, even today.
“I knew that there were about 40-thousand farmers and farm-workers employed in the canola industry,” said Doll. “But I saw the ripple effect of 72,500 in the industry as a whole, and I realized that we’re now a big part of Alberta’s stability now as canola producers.”
He says Canadian producers are very proud of the product they’ve come up with over the past 50 years, adding that they had no idea at the time how big it would be today.
“In some businesses, canola oil has now surpassed olive oil as the healthy choice for oil,” said Doll. “And olive oils have always been the queen of oils.”
He says it’s due to the ACP and the Canadian Canola Council (CCC) has in getting the message out about how health canola oil is.
The analysis was developed for the CCC by LMC International. A full report can be found by clicking the link here.
– Posted by BET
