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The year 1858 was a very important time in Canadian history given that the Crimean War had just ended, Queen Victoria had just named Ottawa as the seat of our government, and Casco Inc., the first corn refining operation in Canada, was founded.

Casco began with a small mill located in the Township of Edwardsburg, in the village now known as Cardinal, Ontario. This site was chosen for many reasons: it was located on the St. Lawrence River which could be used to bring in raw materials; it had an abundance of clean water, a consideration no corn refiner could overlook; it was midway between Toronto and Montreal, the two most populated areas in Canada; and, it was near the main line of the Grand Trunk Railway, which could be used to transport the finished product.

Although the agricultural areas in Cardinal grew very little corn, and not much more was grown anywhere on the Canadian side of the  Great Lakes, this was not a major concern to Casco. The corn could be shipped in from the US Lake regions where it was the major crop, and Canada and the United States had a treaty that made possible the duty-free entry of all natural products.

When the boats carrying the corn arrived in Cardinal, they were manually offloaded and the corn was taken by wheelbarrow to the storage tower. It was then elevated into the tower by horsepower -- literally.  Power to run the facility was generated by a water wheel, and coal fired boilers provided steam. The finished product was transported by horse and wagon to the Grand Trunk Railway -- two miles away -- where it was then manually loaded into the railcars and transported to customers.

For many years Casco manufactured only one product: prepared corn, or corn starch as it is now more commonly known. The primary market for this product was the booming textile industry that used the starch for finishing, dyeing, and printing of fabrics. Although corn has four main components:  starch; protein; fibre; and germ, only the starch was considered significant. All the remaining components were used as feed for livestock.

In the mid 1870’s, the manufacture of glucose was investigated as an additional market opportunity. It took 12 years for the process to become commercialized, with the primary market being candy manufacturing. With this new product, the industry grew at a steady pace during the years.

Unfortunately, in the Second World War corn supply became a problem. It started in 1943 and continued ominously for some years. Shortage was brought about by poor crops and also by having corn diverted to other uses. The real crisis occurred in 1945 and 1946, when serious crop failures affected Canadian corn, and imports from the United States were drastically curtailed. In 1946, the corn shortage was so severe that Casco could only operate at 35 percent of capacity, and, in fact, had to shutdown completely during the summer months. To avoid a situation like this from happening again, Casco encouraged the Canadian farmers to grow more corn.

With the advantages of a strong local supply of corn, Casco began to investigate additional value-added products to manufacture. In the late 1970’s, a corn sweetener, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), was introduced to Canada. This corn syrup, although widely used in the United States, had yet to be manufactured in Canada. Foreseeing the potential markets for this product, Casco expanded its operations with two new facilities in Ontario: London and Port Colborne.  

Today, Casco is Canada’s principal producer and supplier of corn-refined products, producing and supplying more than 70 corn-derived products that are categorized as starches, sweeteners, feed products and corn oil. These products are used by more than 60 different industries including food, beverage, pharmaceutical, corrugated, paper and animal feed markets. Casco is also Canada’s largest industrial corn user, and purchases 25 percent of the Ontario corn crop.