TABER, Alta. – The first of two giant potato processing plants has opened in southern Alberta.
Based in Taber, Lamb-Weston, a member of the ConAgra consortium, is already making french fries for food service and fast food outlets.
The $130 million investment adds to the company’s plants in the United States, Holland and India, said Rich Porter, chair of Lamb-Weston.
“We wanted to build a plant in Canada that would supply the world,” said Porter.
The Taber facility expects to produce a million pounds (454 tonnes) of fries annually. About 220 people work there.
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The company has contracted 30,000 tonnes of potatoes on 1,800 acres for this year and will increase to 8,000 acres next year.
The plant is 37,160 sq. metres and there are already plans to expand by 50 percent. The structure of the plant is such that walls can be moved to create more space without major renovations.
Earlier this summer the plant started processing fries from potatoes harvested last fall. It will shut down for two weeks later in the season for maintenance and to get ready for the 1999 crop this fall.
When the chair of ConAgra went to the Alberta government with plans to build a french fry plant, the company was told not to expect any government investment. It built anyway.
“They virtually started up without the kind of handouts that other governments are used to handing out,” said Alberta premier Ralph Klein during the plant’s opening July 20.
The government said a company of this size is the kind of payoff it wants in return for its multi-million contribution to irrigation rehabilitation in southern
Alberta.
“This is the kind of activity that really spreads out to attract other suppliers,” the premier said.
“Lamb-Weston was the beginning of a new kind of partnership to add value to agricultural products and it’s going to contribute immensely in the future.”
The company is expected to be responsible for spinoffs worth more than $200 million to the province.
The Taber plant will be an export plant selling about half its production offshore, adding to the company’s sales of $1 billion in 70 countries.
McCain Foods is building a 17,651 sq. metre plant near Coaldale, making it the fifth potato processor to locate in Alberta.
