The Western Pasta Growers are hoping a telemarketing drive will help them get closer to their 2,000-membership goal.

Western Pasta Growers are a group of local farmers, business people and city representatives pursuing a durum mill and pasta plant for Weyburn.

They plan to form a new generation co-operative that would see shareholders deliver durum to their own plant to be processed into pasta.

They are selling memberships for $25 a piece. The memberships guarantee investment opportunity once the co-op is established. Members are also provided information on the progress of Western Pasta.

Chairman Orlin Hector says the membership drive is two-thirds complete, but has been slow going since spring seeding began.

With farmers busy in the fields, meeting attendance is expected to be low, said Hector. Telemarketing seemed like the logical next step to keeping interest alive without interfering with field work.

The group sent out 1,000 letters to producers in south central and southeast Saskatchewan, and are now following them up with phone calls, as well as making random calls outside of the selected farms.

"We'll keep building membership that way. I'm expecting we're going to have really good luck," said Hector.

After the membership drive is complete, Western Pasta will work on getting an exemption from the Canadian Wheat Board - a plan that has been attempted before by other pasta groups and failed.

Hector says former Agriculture Minister Dwain Lingenfelter planned to throw his support Western Pasta's way when it came to dealing with the Wheat Board, but that support was gone when Lingenfelter resigned in early July.

Other future plans for Western Pasta include work on a business plan and opening an office. Hector says the group's directors will move cautiously, making sure the market will allow them to move forward before they charge ahead.

Hector also said Western Pasta is wary of teaming up with other pasta groups such as the Prairie Pasta Producers or the Al Dente group, originally out of Swift Current. He says negotiations between those groups include plans to allow for non-farmer investors to take a significant profit from the value-added venture.

"If all we want to see is a pasta plant, that's half of it. If we want money to be turned back to the farmer and local community, that's the other half," said Hector. "Our goal is to put everything in one package and keep the money in this area. From we've seen from the other groups, it will be hard to make that happen if we join them."