Alliance Grain Traders Inc., a Regina- based international pulse export company, has announced plans to build a $50 million durum and pulse processing facility and pasta plant just west of the city.
The facilities will be located at the Global Transportation Hub, which houses a food distribution company, trucking and logistics experts. It is expected to open in 2013.
The pasta will be marketed under the Arbella brand used by AGT and its partners in Turkey. The company’s plant there sells pasta to more than 60 countries.
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Alliance president Murad Al-Katib said the facility would not have gone ahead had the federal government not moved on its promise to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly.
“Without the elimination of the single desk we would not build a pasta plant in Regina,” he told reporters.
Although the wheat board’s buyback program doesn’t prevent pasta plants from operating, Al-Katib said his company relies on origin-based processing.
“We need to be able to buy raw material directly from our farmers, control our contracting programs, control the quality and the varieties that are going to be going into our mix,” he said. “We’re selling a branded pasta product. It has to be the same every time we sell it.”
Grower relationships are critical, he said.
Gerrid Gust, chair of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, said durum growers are looking forward to establishing those with AGT.
“This is fantastic news for Canadian farmers,” he said. “Having a durum mill and pasta plant in our own backyard will give us another great marketing option. Murad will still have to earn my business, but he’s here.”
That will mean reduced transportation costs for farmers, he said.
Al-Katib said the plant will be a good fit with other businesses at the hub. AGT is the largest container intermodal shipper inWestern Canada in all sectors, he said.
“There’s equipment coming in full. We’re the empty solution,” he said.
The facility will create 150 construction jobs and 60 full-time jobs once it opens.
AGT plans to mill wheat and pulses there, and produce pulse flours, proteins, starches and fibres, as well as pasta. It will offer packaging lines and retail distribution.
Prime minister Stephen Harper, on hand for the announcement along with Saskatchewan Conservative caucus members, noted there is no government money involved.
“What we are seeing here really is a new horizon, a new field of opportunity not just for western grain farmers but for workers and businesses in Western Canada generally,” he said.
AGT has 480 employees at 27 plants and offices in eight countries. It has 12 facilities in Canada.
Al-Katib said the world is ready for Saskatchewan grown and processed pasta. Other proposed plants didn’t go ahead for reasons including lack of capital and markets.
“We have markets, we have containers, we have financing and we have growers’ support,” he said. “That’s a recipe for success.”
