Saskatchewan government announces Lean manufacturing fund to help agricultural businesses

Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister has announced $10 million in funding as part of the Saskatchewan Lean Improvements in Manufacturing to help improve and strengthen the agricultural business sector.

Lyle Stewart made the announcement during a visit Friday to the Thunder Creek pork plant in Moose Jaw.

He said the Saskatchewan Lean Improvements in Manufacturing program is designed to help agribusiness adopt state of the art processes, add new technology to their businesses and improve productivity and efficiency.

The funding will come over five years and have two components.

Stewart says the first component is to provide up to $20,000 per applicant, or up to 50 per cent of eligible expenses, to cover a lean gap analysis in different processing or production plants.

The second component will provide up to $500,000 per applicant to help make the changes in the plants that have been identified by the lean gap analysis.

Stewart says the main message this funding is sending out to the world is that agriculture no longer ends at the farm gate.