REGINA -- After receiving backlash for their Beyond-Meat Burger ad, A&W has now launched a prairie-raised Bison Burger in Saskatchewan.

“We’re super excited to bring a 100 per cent prairie-raised Bison Burger here to Saskatchewan,” said Tyler Pronyk, A&W’s Regional Director of Operations for Western Canada. “We’ve had this in the works for months. We ran this promotion – quite successfully – in the spring in Manitoba and thought the obvious next place to bring this prairie-raised bison to was Saskatchewan.”

Earlier this month, A&W ran an advertisement that featured Saskatchewan Roughrider fans sharing their thoughts on the Beyond Meat Burger, a plant based product, outside Mosaic Stadium.

The ad led to an uproar from Saskatchewan cattle producers and even led to the Roughriders issuing an apology to the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association.

“We’re a proud partner of the Roughriders and we had this opportunity to bring a great tasting plant-based burger for Rider fans to taste, many of them tried it for the very first time and they all seemed to like it,” said Pronyk.

“We’re also excited to bring all types of burgers, whether it’s bison or beef, you look at our menu and the majority of our burger recipes are beef, we buy millions of pounds of Canadian beef, much of it raised on ranches here in Saskatchewan.”

Saskatchewan is home to 250 bison producers and the Canadian Bison Association is pleased to see the burger being offered in the province.

“It’s great to see that there’s an interest in bison and it’s great to see that an organization like A&W has taken the opportunity to introduce the product,” CBA Executive Director Terry Kremeniuk said.

Kremeniuk hopes a fast food chain having a bison burger will raise interest in their product.

“We certainly hope everyone will take the opportunity and taste the bison burger at A&W and we’re very excited about it,” Kremeniuk said.

The Bison Burger will be available in Saskatchewan for the next five weeks, or will supplies last, while the Beyond Meat Burger also remains available at all locations.