A Saskatoon export company has given up building a food processing plant in a small Alberta town after what it thought was a million dollar promise from a development group dried up like a garden in a drought.
“We’re still hanging in there,” said John Postnikoff, president of Laura Foods. “Unfortunately we can’t do anything unless we have a good commitment.”
The company was lured to the central Alberta town of Killam two years ago by the enthusiastic Killam and District Business Development Association. Postnikoff said the association promised it would come up with enough investors for a $1 million bond to be used to build the plant and would find a steady supply of farms willing to supply the food processing plant.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
But the association was also trying to entice a strawboard plant, an indoor fish farm, an ethanol plant and a lettuce plant to the town.
“After the strawboard plant was announced we decided to pull out. We felt they were working against us and not for us by getting too much business on their plate,” he said.
“They’re a good group of guys, but they’re working on too many things.”
In an earlier interview with The Western Producer, Postnikoff said the company was trying to set up a plant in Saskatchewan with help of the provincial government. But the process was moving too slowly and at the same time it was being enticed to greener pastures in Alberta.
Doug Munro, a member of the Killam business association, said there was a communication problem. They were under the impression most of the money for the food processing facility would be organized by Postnikoff, while he thought the money would be raised by the local group.
Munro said the town group is now concentrating on raising money for a strawboard plant in Killam.
Postnikoff said he has found overseas markets for dried onions, garlic and carrots. Now that it doesn’t look like the food processing facility is a go, he’ll concentrate on setting up food storage depots across the Prairies.
