North Prairie Gold

Virtex Grain Exchange started as a small group of 12 farmers who sold their grain as a group. This allowed them to take advantage of the price premiums only available to large scale farms. 

In 2013, an expanded group of 40 farmers took advantage of an opportunity to purchase a property built exclusively for high-end food processing. This high-grade 45,000-square-foot facility included some very high tech equipment, and a small canola crush facility that had been used in processing non-GMO products. 

With the newly acquired food processing plant in hand, the Virtex Grain Exchange group formed North Prairie Family Farms. Since then, they have grown from three employees to 13, and now have more than 110 farmers in their group. In 2015, North Prairie Family Farms launched its first product, North Prairie Gold Extra Virgin Canola Oil.

As farmers, we have always been at the lowest end of the food chain, producing commodities to sell to large multi-national corporations who sway significant influence about what kind of food is available to the consumer. It was the only world we knew, and the only world our forefathers knew. Under this scenario it has become deeply entrenched to simply produce as much as we possibly can without giving much thought to the final product or the needs of the consumer.

At North Prairie Family Farms we realized that farmers do not produce food any more than iron ore mines produce cars. As farmers, we were producing commodities without much connection to the consumers who truly care about their food. As a group of farmers who are becoming more sensitive to the needs of the consumer, we now produce a high quality finished product—safe and nutritious canola oil—for our consumers, with ambitious plans to do much more.

Our focus at North Prairie Family Farms, is to listen to our consumer colleagues and produce for them what they want—in the quantities they need and with the qualities they desire. Our individual farmers work as a group to connect as directly as possible to the consumers who we consider to be our neighbors. Our consumers want safe, healthy food with the least amount of processing and additives. We are happy to let you know exactly where this food comes from, how it is produced and how it is processed.

Our consumers tell us they will support and buy from us if we meet their needs. We are raising the scale from a single farm serving consumers, to a small group of farmers serving a large population of many consumers.

North Prairie Family Farms is the face of just over 100 farm families in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. Together, our farmers work hard to provide the high-quality, artisan cooking oil for a reasonable price. We are very proud of our product and would be honored to have North Prairie Gold Extra Virgin Canola oil be part of healthy diets across North America.

For more information: www.northprairiefamilyfarms.com