Page 6 - Salute to Agriculture

B6 WESTMAN THIS WEEK THE BRANDON SUN n THURSDAY MARCH 25 2021
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»In-house flax, hemp products set to hit shelves

Continued from Page B4

In many cases, value is added
outside of Canada and exported
back to the country by way of
whatever end product it’s been
used in the creation of.
In addition to flax, the com-
pany has expanded to accom-
modate hemp and is in the pro-
cess of incorporating sunflowers
seeds into its operations.
“All of those would have very
similar properties to what we’re
doing here, and all would be
human-consumption ready,”
Snidal said, adding all three un-
dertake the same exact process
using the same equipment.
Along the way, Shape Foods
has also recently expanded to
include their own in-house flax
and hemp products, which they
are currently in the process of
marketing and distributing for
sale in Canadian grocery stores.
While many businesses have
been negatively impacted by
the COVID-19 pandemic, Snidal
said theirs has pushed through.
“As COVID came on, there was
definitely an increase in busi-
ness for us we’d typically not
see at that time of year,” he said,
adding he’s uncertain as to the
source of this demand within a
global marketplace, but that it
was followed by a lull.
Operationally, he said they
overcompensated to the pan-
demic at first and slowly eased
back on certain overly cautious
self-imposed restrictions as in-
formation came forward.
Ultimately, their existing sani-
tary operations were of benefit,
as not much had to change aside
from wearing masks and signing
people in with a health-related
questionnaire upon their arrival.
There’s great potential for flax
moving forward, Snidal said, as
plant-based proteins carry lon-
gevity in a marketplace looking
for environmentally minded al-
ternatives.
“There’s definitely a move-
ment for healthy food, for sure,
and flax would be in that catego-
ry regardless of the pandemic,”
he said, adding everything they
strive toward builds upon this
brand of “healthy items for peo-
ple to eat.”
» tclarke@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB Shape Foods shipper/receiver Rob Dufresne is seen hard at work recently. (Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun)