Camrose close to major rail lines | Plant will be able to crush 850,000 tonnes a year
Cargill’s belief in the Canadian canola industry is so strong it’s “voting with its wallet” by building a multimillion dollar canola crushing facility in central Alberta, said its president.
Len Penner said the investment required to build the facility large enough to crush 850,000 tonnes of canola each year demonstrates that Cargill believes in a strong future for canola.
“This is a commitment for many, many years,” said Penner, during the announcement of the plant just outside Camrose Oct. 1.
The plant must pass local bylaws and regulatory hurdles, but it is expected to be finished for the 2014-15 harvest. The facility is designed to crush generic and specialty canola oil.
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For farmer Todd Hames, the announcement of the crushing plant is good news for canola producers across the Prairies, especially with its ability to crush specialty canola oil.
“With a specialty oil line, it’s going to help expand that opportunity. That’s one of the great opportunities canola has, an advantage over our competition is specialty oils,” said Hames, president of the Canadian Canola Growers Association.
“It’s fantastic to get a new crusher built anywhere on the Prairies and being that it’s in the canola belt is great news,” said Hames of Marwayne, Alta., who grew all specialty canola on his eastern Alberta farm this year.
“This here will open up opportunities for Alberta producers for the specialty oil.”
Dan Bentley, who sold the quarter of land to Cargill, said the new facility will provide another outlet for his canola and a strong future for the crop.
“Do you think Cargill would spend hundreds of millions to build this facility if they aren’t confident in the industry?”
Mark Stonacek, president of Cargill’s Grain and Oilseed Supply Chain, North America, said the company is optimistic about the growth and competitiveness of canola in Canada. In addition to its Camrose plans, the company also recently announced plans to expand its Clavet, Sask., facility.
Stonacek said farmers have continued to increase the amount of canola grown on the Prairies, but the company has also seen continued demand for the oil in North American and overseas.
“We have a belief that canola will continue to be a competitive crop for Canada and we thought there was an opportunity for more value-added processing here in Canada,” he said.
“We started looking at where is the next best place for an additional canola processing plant in Canada. We really like the quantity of seed grown here in the area relative to the amount of processing capacity here,” said Stonacek, of Minnesota.
The crushed canola will be shipped to its Clavet facility for further processing, or shipped to other markets focused on North America.
Ken Stone, Cargill’s manager of Oilseed Processing and Merchandising said Camrose was also selected because both CN and CP lines run through the east-central Alberta community.
“This happens to be a piece of land between two major railways. It gives us good rail and road access,” said Stone, of Winnipeg.
Patti Miller, president of the Canola Council of Canada, welcomed the increased activity in the industry that the new facility is bound to bring.
“It means there will be more product processed here and more employment, more jobs and more opportunities for people who grow canola,” said Miller.
Don Gregorwich, reeve of Camrose County, said the long-term benefits for rural Alberta are extensive.
“Economically it will have a tremendous benefit, not only for canola growers, but it will also have spin-off benefits in all those industries associated with growing and transporting canola.”
