The hands of the biodiesel industry are about to reach out and grab prairie canola.
North Dakota farmers expect to see the biodiesel plant attached to the Archer Daniel Midland canola crushing plant at Velva go into production within the next few weeks.
That should attract much of the remaining 2006 crop and firm up the local market.
“It’ll probably keep a stronger basis for us,” said Northern Canola Growers Association president Kevin Waslaski.
“We shouldn’t see the same bounces in the market that we normally see.”
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The Velva plant, expected to produce 322 million litres of biodiesel annually, will also have a direct impact on the Canadian prairie canola market. Much of North Dakota’s canola makes its way into Canada for crushing, but expanded crushing capacity in Velva will keep most at home.
Waslaski, for instance, often delivers canola to Altona, Man., but he thinks Velva will start taking a larger share of his production.
The North Dakota plant will also likely attract canola from nearby parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, strengthening local markets there.
The Velva plant is the only canola biodiesel facility expected to go into production this summer on the Prairies and U.S. Great Plains, but a string of other plants are in early stages of construction. A Minnesota plant is scheduled to open in early 2008, relying for its first production on 2007 canola.
Meanwhile two canola crushing plants planned for Yorkton, Sask., still appear to be proceeding. Each is expected to crush close to 850,000 tonnes of canola per year
Louis Dreyfus Canada president Brant Randles said company work crews have been back on the site for about three weeks doing preliminary work such as drainage and preparing the rail bed.
“It’s been a little slow because of the precipitation, but we’ve got a crew out there getting the site ready for foundations work,” said Randles.
Louis Dreyfus expects to open its crushing plant in the last quarter of 2008.
The James Richardson International plant is also at an early stage of construction. JRI could not be reached to confirm that it still plans to build a plant in Yorkton.
Some canola industry players have suggested that one of the projects would have to back out because there isn’t enough canola in the Yorkton area, but both companies have denied that and the Canola Council of Canada has said it believes farmers could produce enough to fill both plants’ needs.
