Did you know Canada is a world leader in bean production, exporting our high-quality beans to more than 70 countries? That’s right, our high-quality beans are the talk of the town.

Who can we thank for ensuring nutritious and delicious beans are on dinner plates? Canadian bean farmers! It’s the farmers whose hands are in the ground making the magic happen, from preparing the soil and planting seeds to caring for the plants through maturity and harvest!

Meet the Farmers

Where Do Beans Grow?

Ontario

  • White Pea Beans
  • Black Beans
  • Dark Kidney Beans
  • Light Red Kidney Beans
  • White Kidney Beans
  • Cranberry Beans
  • Adzuki Beans
  • Pinto Beans

Manitoba

  • Pinto Beans
  • White Pea Beans
  • Black Beans
  • Dark Red Kidney Beans
  • Light Red Kidney Beans
  • White Kidney Beans
  • Cranberry Beans
  • Great Northern Beans

Saskatchewan

  • Pinto Beans
  • White Pea Beans
  • Black Beans

Alberta

  • Pinto Beans
  • Great Northern Beans
  • Black Beans

Growing

Beans are planted every year between early May to early June. The typical growing season for beans lasts 90-115 days, with harvest happening in mid-September. Farmers closely monitor their crop throughout the growing season to make sure the plants stay healthy; mitigating any risks that could cause the crop damage like pests, weeds, and disease.

Harvesting

Mid-September is harvest time! Beans are ready to harvest when the plant turns brown and the seeds are sufficiently dry and hard. Beans are harvested by combining or by direct harvest.

Processing

Once harvested, beans are delivered to an elevator where they are electronically sorted, cleaned, and polished. Beans that are too large, immature, damaged, or discoloured (along with any stones, sticks, or mud) are all discarded during sorting. All those perfect beans are then stored in silos, ready to be shipped.

Growing Beans Responsibly and Sustainably

Now more than ever, consumers are interested in where their food comes from and its impact on the environment. As nitrogen-fixers, beans have a positive impact on the environment, improving air, water, and earth.

Locally

grown

From black beans and pinto to adzuki and cranberry, Canada grows 9 types of beans across Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.

Less Water

& Energy

Beans need less water and energy than animal proteins, meaning they can feed more people using fewer resources.

Low

Emissions

100 grams of protein from beans results in less than 1 kilogram of emissions, compared to upwards of 28 kilograms from other sources!

Return

Nitrogen to the Soil

Nitrogen in the atmosphere contributes to climate change. Nitrogen in the soil makes plants grow. Beans take nitrogen out of the atmosphere and put it back into the soil through a process called nitrogen fixation.

Generational

Stewardship

Many Canadian bean farms are family-owned, passed down through generations. This creates a deep commitment to preserving and improving the land’s health for their children and grandchildren.

Innovating

for the Future

Bean farmers are always innovating, looking for ways to utilize new farming practices, technologies, and modern equipment.

Support

Your Local Community

Choosing Canadian beans means directly supporting our farmers, strengthening local economies, and keeping good jobs right here at home.

Farm Green,

Eat Clean

Buy Canadian Beans!

Sustainability is Top of Mind for Canadian Bean Farmers

Bryce Pallister

Portage la Prairie, Manitoba

Q: How are you incorporating sustainability practices into your farm?

A: We use cover crops on land that is more sensitive to wind erosion. We believe that tile drainage is an important sustainability practice to reduce/prevent salinity on our farm. Beans also play a big role in sustainability - their water use is low relative to other crops, and they also require less nitrogen fertilizer.

Dave Arand

Atwood, Ontario

Q: How are you incorporating sustainability practices into your farm?

A: Technology! Farm equipment isn’t what it used to be. Farm equipment is just like cars, SUV, and trucks—every year there is something new. And new tech is exciting to me. We can use technology to plant the beans with pension planting and spraying (when needed). Not only does it help with cost inputs, but it also improves our environmental footprint.

Blye Sissons

Portage la Prairie, Manitoba

Q: How are you incorporating sustainability practices into your farm?

A: We incorporate sustainable practices like water management infrastructure (tile drainage and irrigation) to use water efficiently and reduce runoff. We apply fungicides on beans using variable rate technology, so we only treat areas that need it, minimizing chemical use. We also use reduced tillage to protect soil health, prevent erosion, and build long-term resilience in our fields.

Randy Froese

Winkler, Manitoba

Q: How are you incorporating sustainability practices into your farm?

A: Sustainability is a focus. Every decision we make is guided by the idea that we want to leave the land better than we found it, for the next season, and the next generation. We’ve implemented a variety of practices over the years: optimized fertilizer applications, thoughtful crop rotations, and precision technology like GPS-based automation to reduce overlap and input waste during seeding and spraying. Every pass we make on the field is done with intention. With rising input costs, efficient use of resources is more important than ever. But sustainability isn’t just about economics—it’s about stewardship. We want to keep our soil, water, and land healthy so it can continue producing for decades to come.

John Kolk

Enchant, Alberta

Q: How are you incorporating sustainability practices into your farm?

A: Crop rotation; variable rate irrigation which reduces our water consumption, and it gives the plant more of what it wants; strip-tillage; timely use of fertilizer to give the beans a good start and to give them a boost in the season; cover crops with barley and rye after the bean crop to reduce soil erosion.

Will Müller

Bow Island, Alberta

Q: How are you incorporating sustainability practices into your farm?

A: We are always trying to stay on top of being a modern sustainable farm. We don’t necessarily look to fit the term sustainable, but it's simply what we do and have always done. We are always trying to keep our irrigation systems up to date with the most modern equipment making them less energy demanding and in some cases also adding solar sites to help alleviate the demand. Our equipment is being updated often helping us to be more efficient and have less and less waste, whether it be seeding, spraying, or harvesting.

Adam Ireland

Teeswater, Ontario

Q: How are you incorporating sustainability practices into your farm?

A: We strip-till / no-till the bulk of our acres, as well as try to reduce fertilizer needs by using manure and cover crops. We practice integrated pest management and don’t use any more pesticide products than we feel we need to.

Eat More Beans, Reduce Your Impact

Beans are the future, and we aren’t afraid to shout it from the rooftops! Whether you include beans in your homemade meals or look for new and exciting sustainable food products that include beans (looking at you bean burgers), one thing is for sure, incorporating beans as an ingredient can reduce the carbon footprint of the final product. We think that’s a yummy win!

Nutritious and affordable, Canadian beans offer tremendous culinary possibilities! Get cooking with beans tonight!

Try one of these recipes

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