Among the believers in P.E.I.'s canola oil potential are from left, Kosaku Morita, Raymond Loo and Gerard Mol. Among the believers in P.E.I.'s canola oil potential are from left, Kosaku Morita, Raymond Loo and Gerard Mol. (Maggie Brown/CBC)

P.E.I. is growing more canola than ever before, fulfilling a demand for oilseed that is not contaminated with genetically modified crops.

There is so much interest in the product in Japan, a Japanese buyer now calls P.E.I. home for part of the year.

It's difficult to find places in the world where buyers can be confident the seed is free from contamination from genetically modified crops. Genetically modified canola is not grown on P.E.I., and this attracted Kosaku Morita of the Japanese company Marumo to the Island, where he has been living for several months.

"Japanese consumers started worrying about not having enough non-GMO canola for using [for] their cooking oil," Morita told CBC News last week.

"That is why Japanese buyers, they started looking at the other opportunities to secure the non-GMO canola."

This year 15, Island farmers grew 1,200 hectares of non-genetically modified canola. Farmer Raymond Loo hopes the Island will continue to be able to market itself as a place that grows only non-GMO canola.

"Certainly we're hoping to expand this marketplace," Loo said.

Marketing P.E.I., as well as canola

Loo said the Island oil is being marketed in Japan with a strong focus on P.E.I.

"They're selling the oil with a picture of the farmers on the bottle," he said.

"On the label it shows where P.E.I. is in Canada. We're trying to expand, the people in Japan, their knowledge of Prince Edward Island."

Farmer Gerard Mol said the market has grown to a point where a value-added product could be shipped to Japan, instead of just seed.

"They're kind of willing to start pressing oil here on P.E.I., and come here and ship oil instead of raw seeds," Mol said. "That's also an opportunity that is coming down the road hopefully."

Mol and other farmers are looking at more oilseed crops that might interest the Japanese market. This year they grew trial plots of crops such as buckwheat and adzuki beans.