Saskcan Pulse Expands Operations

REGINA - Jul 7/04 - SNS -- Saskcan Pulse Trading Inc. has doubled its processing capacity in a series of agreements involving the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (SWP) and CrownAg International Inc..

Earlier this year, the company bought the SWP specialty crop processing facility in Rosetown, Saskatchewan. More recently, it entered a multi-year agreement to assume control of the Regina processing operations and crop production contracts of CrownAg International Inc.

The Regina plant will operate as Saskcan Processors and Rosetown as Saskcan Rosetown. Both new ventures are wholly owned operating divisions of Saskcan Pulse Trading Inc. Saskcan Pulse already owns a red lentil splitting plant in Regina and the Saskcan West primary processing plant near Grand Coulee.

"These moves complete our expansion plans for the upcoming crop year," explained Murad Al-Katib, President of Saskcan Pulse Trading Inc. "It has, in essence, doubled the size of our company and solidified our position globally as a processor able to supply the full range of value-added pulse food and ingredient items."

Al-Katib added that the "Crown Ag agreement gives us an ability to expand our marketing efforts in the quality conscious markets of the world and gives us a plant that can offer identity preservation to our customers world-wide. And Rosetown area is a key drawing area for our lentil program. We need to be there with a strong local presence. We are extremely optimistic about the upcoming crop year."