Sowing Seeds Paul Sinclair, PhD, and ’12 MBA, is currently working on a research project with a Saskatchewan-based agriculture company called Terramax-SeedTec Ltd. To make his research possible under the supervision of Professor Barry Scholnick, he has teamed up with Mitacs, a not-for-profit granting agency that supports research collaborations between companies and grad students across all disciplines. The Mitacs Accelerate Program sees graduate students or PostDoctoral Fellows undertaking research on site with companies within Canada to develop new tools and techniques to address high-level industry issues. The intern gains valuable industrial experience and an opportunity to apply their research to address novel issues while the industry partner gains access to highly- trained individuals (the intern and their supervising professor). Paul’s Mitacs Accelerate study investigates the import market for flax fibre in China and the feasibility of Canadian companies providing feedstock for the linen industry. “In 2010, China imported more than $200 million dollars of semi-processed flax fibre,” Paul explains. “But despite persistent interest in sourcing product from Canada, the general consensus on the Canadian producer side has been that our labour and production costs are too high to ever be competitive. In reality, little information in English exists about the economic fundamentals of China’s chaotic flax market. Few Canadians have tried to imagine what the China import market for natural fibre might look like in five or ten years.” The project industry partner, Terramax in Saskatchewan, is a seed grower and exporter with 30 years’ experience developing new crops. Together Paul and his sponsor put together a trip to Shanghai, Harbin, and Beijing in mid-May to Points on Paul talk with textile industry representatives, trade associations, and government officials. In the process, Terramax established a thorough understanding of the Recently completed an Alberta MBA Chinese import market for flax. in International Business. Holds a PhD from the Osaka University of Foreign Studies (now Osaka University). Worked in university administration and a regional government in Taiwan. Joining the faculty at Paul Hill School of Business at the University of Regina in July 2012.
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What quality of flax fibre would the Chinese industry like to import from Canada and what would they pay for it? Do the Chinese really have the technology to make
use of flax crop residue left in Canadian fields after the flax harvest? “This kind of market intelligence,” Paul explains, “only comes into your hands if you go over there
and sit across the table from industry players. You have to ask a lot of people in a lot of different places the same question even if you think you know the answer.” Paul explains he brings Chinese language ability, research skills, and MBA training to the project.
“The University of Alberta possesses one of the best sets of business databases in North America. The ISI Emerging Markets allowed
me to search Chinese language trade journals for real-time information on the flax industry. On the other hand, my industry partner has crop development expertise, export experience, and hard business skills I lack. His processing facility can load containers and rail cars. He has experience with growing contracts, freight forwarders, and port facilities. We had a lot to learn from each other.”
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