Business for Peace Foundation

The Story of 2017 Honouree Murad Al-Katib

Al-Katib’s childhood was a merging between rural Saskatchewan and the wider world. After graduating from the University

of Saskatchewan’s commerce program in 1994 with Honours, Al-Katib talked his way into the Thunderbird School of Global

Management in Glendale, Arizona. Less than a year after he graduated, he returned to Saskatchewan and took a job with the

newly established Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership, promoting trade from Saskatchewan to the broader world.

It gave him extensive travel opportunities and ample time to consider the provincial economy in international terms.

Al-Katib remembers seeing fields sowed with wheat, the traditional crop in the area near Davidson where he grew up and

began to see a new crop, pulses, emerging in the familiar fields and wondered what opportunities they could provide. In

1981, Saskatchewan farmers grew roughly 85,000 acres of lentils. A decade later, that figure had grown to about 450,000

acres. Al-Katib recognised that lentils were becoming an increasingly viable option for Saskatchewan producers, the

opportunity was there, and Al-Katib seized it. In 2001, he quit his job for an uncertain future in an emerging industry. The

decision would transform his life and eventually make him one of Canada’s most respected agricultural experts.

His company, AGT Foods and Ingredients, buys lentils and other pulses from producers and sells them around the world. It

began production in 2003, went public in 2007 and eventually grew into one of the world’s largest lentil companies, handling

about a quarter of the global supply. Murad Al-Katib is today the President, CEO and board member of AGT Food and

Ingredients Inc. He has been the recipient of a number of prestigious awards including the 2016 Ernst and Young “Canadian

Entrepreneur of the Year” Award, the United Nations Association of Canada “Global Citizen Laureate Award” as well as

being recognized as one of the “44 Innovators Who Shaped Prairie Agriculture in Canada» by the Western Producer,

Canada’s leading agriculture newspaper.

AGT’s success is in part a product of its CEO’s experience, ambition and vision. Al-Katib’s formative experiences allowed

him to connect domestic production with global demand. AGT’s philosophy — “From Producer to the World” — only

partially explains the company’s growth. Timing was also important: Al-Katib was able to transform his basement musings

into a global, profitable company because his vision coincided with an agricultural revolution.

Under Murad’s leadership, AGT is a major partner with United Nations World Food Programme through its operations in

Canada and Turkey. AGT estimates that its supplies to the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) and the

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to feed over 4 million refugee families per year through the family ration

distribution program for Syrian refugees. Murad is committed to children advocacy through a multi-year commitment to the

Canadian Red Cross as the patron sponsor in Saskatchewan to benefit the Red Cross disaster response programme, as well as

the “Imagine No Bullying” educational program that reaches 33,000 school age children in Saskatchewan annually.

 

 Business for Peace Foundation

Short version

Murad Al-Katib is today the President, CEO and board member of AGT Food and Ingredients Inc., which buys lentils and

other pulses from producers, selling them around the world. It has grown into one of the world’s largest lentil companies,

handling about a quarter of the global supply. By extending and diversifying crop rotation, the nitrogen return of arable land

is uniquely and sustainably enhanced for local producers and farmers, helping change the face of agriculture and producing a

key protein source that aids in providing nutritious food for large numbers of the world’s population. AGT’s success is in

many ways a product of its CEO’s experience, ambition and vision, and under his leadership, AGT has been a major partner

with United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). AGT

estimates that their supplies to the UNWFP and ICRC feed more than 4 million refugee families per year through the family

ration distribution programme for Syrian refugees.