Downtown Winnipeg a hub for research, baking and milling at Cereals Canada

High above on the tenth floor of a downtown Winnipeg office space, baking bread is a normal routine.

“Most people in Winnipeg have no idea that this type of facility exists in downtown, and people drive past this space and not understand what’s happening in here,” said Dean Dias, CEO of Cereals Canada.

Located at 1000-303 Main Street, Cereals Canada is an organization that ensures the quality of Canadian wheat.

Much of their work is research-based, with a fully functional pilot bakery and flour mill used on a daily basis.

Marketing Canadian grain to the world through research and an understanding of how things are grown in Canada are key to their success.

“When a customer is knowledgeable about what’s happening in Canada, the production practices, the storage practices, our modern agricultural practices in Canada, our production for the year, the market outlook of what we have to supply and the quality, customers will always choose Canadian,” Dias said.

Inside the flour mill, millers assess the quality of Canadian wheat and other competitors. During their harvest assessment period, the team notes changes in flour from one crop year to the next and relays it to interested customers.

“Customers at home using their bag of flour won’t notice any differences from one crop year to another,” said Elaine Sopiwnyk, VP of Technical Services for Cereals Canada.

“That’s because millers and others that are buying the wheat have already done all the hard work. We have customers around the world and domestically that will reach out when they might have a quality-related question and need some technical support. When you think about a 1-800 number to get your tech support, that's us.”

A closer look at the equipment inside the pilot flour mill at Cereals Canada seen here on Wednesday Dec. 18, 2024. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg)

Gerald Kanife, a technical specialist in milling for Cereals Canada, remembers when he was first introduced to the organization in 2021 while working as a commercial miller in Nigeria.

Kanife was asked to represent his company at a Cereals Canada outreach event in Kenya that year. He spent years working with Canadian Western Red Spring (CWRS), a type of grain in Nigerian milling practices.

It’s a full-circle moment for Kanife, now working for Cereals Canada when he thinks about the past three years.

“The CWRS that we bought from Canada was very useful in enriching the flour that we then produced back in Nigeria,” Kanife said.

“I found myself here as soon as I got out. They made it possible to bring my family and (me) to this country. Just about seven months or so ago, we came, and it's been a very enriching experience, a very eye-opening one.”

The organization works with farmers to generate global interest and promote the benefits of buying made-in-Canada products.

Korey Peters, a third-generation wheat farmer near Steinbach, said he joined Cereals Canada on a crop mission to Southeast Asia last year.

He said seeing how international trade works was astonishing.

“In Beijing, when I was there, one of the companies was really interested in having a new product.” Peters said.

Following a meeting over Zoom, Peters said grain buyers discussed a few ideas that the baking facility at Cereals Canada would create.

“They were going to bring that group of buyers to Winnipeg to work on those five products and choose one that would work for their consumers," Peters said.

"They would bring it back to Beijing to hopefully create a new market and a growing market for more Canadian wheat products.”

A look at many of the Asian food products that are made using research conducted in the Cereals Canada lab facilities. Many can be seen here in a display case on Wednesday Dec. 18, 2024. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg)

Peters originally took part in the Cereals Canada Combine to Customer program, where he got a chance to tour their bakery and facilities and get a better understanding of the research they work on.

During the crop mission, grain buyers were very interested to hear his background working as a Manitoba farmer.

'We can grow exceptional wheat in Canada'

“I talk about what I do on the farm, how I grow it, how I start with it, how I choose what I'm going to grow, how I get to make all those decisions myself, which is something the buyers out there really are interested in what I do,” Peters said.

Canadian wheat is exported to 80 different countries around the world. From the farmer's perspective, Peters said we are fortunate to live in a favourable climate for the soil types needed for good growth.

“We can grow exceptional wheat in Canada,” Peters said.

“We have great genetics that are always changing, and they're always coming up with new genetics too. Whether it's increase yield, reduce the amount of pesticides we need to use, (or) to reduce the amount of fertilizer needed to adapt to changing weather.”

He said high protein content in our wheat, kernel size, and colour are aspects that make the grain grown in Canada stand out amongst the competition.

“I also noticed that the buyers spoke very highly of Canadian wheat, to the point where they use our wheat as the highest-level wheat,” Peters said.

“Our wheat, really in Canada, is world renowned.”

A look at Korey Peters' wheat fields. Peters, a third-generation wheat farmer near Steinbach joined Cereals Canada as a spokesperson on a crop mission to southeast Asia in 2023. (Supplied Photo: Korey Peters)

After 50 years in their space, Cereals Canada has launched a capital campaign towards the funding of a new facility with the aim to remain in downtown Winnipeg.

Dubbed the Global Agriculture Technology Exchange (GATE), Dias is hopeful the new building will be a beacon of innovation for Canada’s agriculture sector.

“Now it’s time to look at the next 50 years,” Dias said.

“This bold vision includes the current expertise and facility that we have and building on it.”