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Three Farmers sees 'golden opportunity' as Saskatchewan has record year for agricultural exports

"It’s (about) company growth, so largely expanding product lines and expanding products."

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Three Farmers Foods — a Saskatoon-based company with locally sourced natural food products — has welcomed another member to its dinner table.

The Golden Opportunities Fund, a local investment fund based in Saskatchewan and run by Westcap Management, recently made a new investment in the food innovation company, along with a partnership with Export Development Canada to help fund the company’s growth plan.

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“It’s really nice to have a partner that understands culture and where we come from and those good Saskatchewan values,” said Natasha Vandenhurk, chief executive officer and director of Three Farmers.

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“We’re very happy with the partnership with Golden Opportunities. They’re a local fund. They have deep-rooted relationships here in Saskatchewan to it, and that’s where we’re from.”

This partnership comes at a time when the Saskatchewan government is looking to increase its agriculture value-added revenue to $10 billion by 2030. That totalled $3.2 billion in 2020, led by canola oil, canola meal and processed oats.

Three Farmers delivers a variety of product lines, including Three Farmers Camelina Oil and the Three Farmers roasted snacks line consisting of roasted chickpeas, roasted peas and whole roasted lentils.

“It’s (about) company growth, so largely expanding product lines and expanding markets,” Vandenhurk said about its new partnership. “We’re very well distributed in Canada, coast to coast right now, so it’s about launching new products through the already opened distribution and then pushing distribution into the U.S.”

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Although the company’s products are locally sourced, Three Farmers’ healthy snacks are now sold by more than 4,000 retailers across North America, including all national grocery retail chains, and online through the Amazon platform.

“For right now, we’re staying quite focused on Canada and U.S. expansion,” said Vandenhurk, who founded the company more than a decade ago with her sister, Elysia Vandenhurk (who serves as chief revenue officer and Red Seal chef), along with three farmers, a group of second- and third-generation local farmers.

“The other piece of that is just building on the momentum we have started in Canada. A lot of effort is being put into brand awareness and we just launched a refresh of our brand, so all new packaging to market. It’s really just promoting the product, product brand and what we stand for.”

Three Farmers provides its customers with the ability to trace their food from ‘farm to fork’ through a simple product code that connects the consumer, openly sharing how the company’s products are grown and made.

“We always have fairly aggressive sales growth projections, so they’re north of 50 per cent year over year,” said Vandenhurk. “It’s through the combination of new revenue streams and new markets and then of course increased velocity in existing markets.”

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Three Farmers Foods sources local products from Saskatchewan family farms, adding value through its proprietary roasting technology that is completed local as well, to deliver homegrown healthy snack products to the world.

Grant Kook, president and CEO of Golden Opportunities Fund, said the fund is pleased to “lead this next round of growth funding for this local company in our innovation sector — a key and flourishing sector in our province that the fund continues to champion.”

Three Farmers also is committed to sustainable growing practices.

“Our company’s strength is its local supply chain — from the purchase of raw products to the roasting, it’s all done locally,” noted  Vandenhurk. “This reflects our core values of sustainability, traceability, innovation, promoting the land we farm on, and connecting farmers to consumers.”

SASK. AG EXPORTS UP

This week, the Saskatchewan government released figures showing that the province had increased agricultural exports by 31 per cent in 2020 to $16.9 billion.

Top exports were canola seed, non-durum wheat, lentils, canola oil and durum wheat.

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dzary@postmedia.com

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