no one talked about this NEW JV Merit also received an additional co-investment from Protein Industries Canada during the third quarter for a new project where Merit is partnering with Winecrush Technology, Wamame Foods, and Wismettac Asian Foods for the development and distribution throughout Europe, Asia, and North America of a line of plant-based meat alternatives to pork and Wagyu beef.
The total project cost is budgeted at $7.6 million with Protein Industries Canada having committed to fund one half of that amount. This project is another excellent opportunity for Merit to showcase the versatility and functional capabilities of high purity pea and canola proteins in meat alternative applications.
With Merit having now completed commissioning process, transitioning to full production and aggressively pursuing its sales pipeline and the sell-in process, Merit is now more than ever well-positioned as a premier plant-based protein ingredients solution provider, giving Burcon the luxury of being able to turn our focus, to exploiting the other technologies in our intellectual property portfolio, and to pursue the additional commercialization opportunities we have been nurturing through our management team and the team at Burcon's Winnipeg Technical Center.